May...you weather the storm

As we enter another month of COVID lockdown, countries and cities around the world are beginning to ponder relaxing the rules on social distancing, in an effort to balance the continued health risk against the urgent need for economic recovery.

Here on our quiet rural property, life goes on, without the usual hustle and bustle of art shows that normally permeate the Spring....but leaving more time for homebound endeavors and emerging yardwork and maintenance.

We've been only doing one grocery run a month, thanks in part to a well-stocked freezer, and otherwise we have pretty much stayed home. We also did one large beer run to a nearby brewery in a small village - we called ahead with order and payment, and backed in and watched as they loaded the car. Sure, we got four cases....but we figured better to go once and get a lot, than to make multiple trips.

Lots of puzzles, Jane has been baking and taking grammar lessons, and I have been doing more reading, dusting off the mandolin and brushing up on my French. Jane has also focused more on getting her studio up and running, now that she is well on the mend from knee surgery.

Here's hoping the return to a "new normal" is just around the corner!

Penny guards the tomato seedlings

Stashing the vehicles during a hail and tornado warning

Contactless beer run to Bayside Brewing!

Hobbit Puzzle!

Once-a-month grocery runs require The Van!

Some things are still normal....like Spring Daffodils!

Dubrovnik Puzzle

Piazza in Pisa!

The seedlings continue to progress

Finished taking down to mulberry in the front hedge

Partway through the first cut of the year

Cherry blossoms!

Perhaps this is the year for dandelion wine?

Puzzling Prague!

Regrowing some lettuce

Backroad Bounty

So we're watching TV during COVID lockdown on some random channel with some Saturday afternoon shows about antiques and home renovation and the like....and suddenly my mother is on the television!

We knew she had been on a show called Backroad Bounty, where two guys come to your house in a van and try to haggle with you for things. The show is from a few years back, before my mother moved, and she had a fair collection of antiques and nostalgia for them to paw through in the house and around the yard.

Of course, they generally don't want to pay the full value of things, since they still have to make a profit too, selling it later at their store. Often time they rely on people not knowing the value of what they have, or people that are just tired or desperate (moving, etc.) and just want it gone.

Well that is not my mother. It was entertaining to watch all the same, especially out of the blue. The boys were unable to pry anything away from her, at least not for the prices they were offering.

The last line of the episode as they drive away in their empty van...."Well, she was a good talker, that's for sure!"

Bam Bam and Marty arrive to have a look around

Checking out the basement....

....and the back yard

"She was a good talker, that's for sure"

Crappy Cats

So Jane found this online artist in the U.S. looking to make a few dollars - literally - for a good cause during the pandemic lockdown. For $1, they would sketch a "crappy drawing" of your pet from a photograph.....so to support the endeavor, we sent them a bunch!

They turned out wonderful, and not so crappy at all....what a great keepsake of our furry family!

Lockdown

We are now several weeks into the COVID-19 pandemic, and most sane jurisdictions are on lockdown, with stay-at-home orders for all non-essential pursuits.

As of this writing on April 5th, Canada has over 15,000 "positives" and has suffered nearly 300 deaths. South of the border things are considerably more grim - over 300,000 positives and 8400 deaths....so far. Michigan alone exceeds all of Canada on both counts. This week is anticipated to be even worse, as we wait to see if social distancing measures have had significant impact.

We haven't left the property in weeks, as I continue to work from home - luckier than those who must venture out and continue to provide essential services like healthcare, trucking, producing food and stocking grocery shelves, and processing rampant EI claims. Just about all group events, including art shows, are cancelled or at best postponed.

With more time on our hands (no OT or travel and far less frantic art making), we are finding other ways to pass the time in lockdown. Good thing we get along!

Sure, there's lots of Netflix....but we are also reading more, re-discovering puzzles, and Jane is baking more. The onset of Spring for once will be met with ample time to keep up on maintenance, yardwork and gardening.

Meanwhile, the planet is taking a giant gasp of fresh air - one upside to this whole crisis is the drastic reduction in air pollution as factories idle and millions of cars and planes sit parked.

Crutchy keeping up with recovery in isolation

Thanks for all the back porch deliveries!

Homemade Pizza!

Spring in Bloom

iNASCAR - the only live sport still on TV!

Racers compete on actual NASCAR training simulators

Thinning out the hedgerow

Some "help" working from home

Getting the garden ready

Green onions outside the back door

Starting some tomato seeds

Homemade bread!

Jane's first attempt at chocolate chip cookies

Re-growing lettuce, from lettuce!

Vernazza in Cinque Terre, Italy - piece by piece!

COVID-19

Jane's recovery from her second knee surgery continued, amid some rather troubling news out of China.....and soon afterwards Europe....

So began the gradual response to the growing threat of COVID-19, soon declared a global pandemic. In light of sudden and grim outcomes in Italy, Spain and Iran, the rest of the world scrambled to "flatten the curve" with little time to spare before sharing their fate.

At the time of this post on St. Patrick's Day, Ontario is under an official state of emergency. Canada has closed its borders. Restaurants closed, all major sports leagues suspended, stock markets crashed.

Things look even more dire south of the border, given their much greater population, questionable leadership and some perceived reluctance to embrace science.

We were lucky on so many fronts.

We were lucky that's Jane's surgery was moved up a month, and her recovery was so much further along when the worst of this hit then it was supposed to be.....at least in terms of needing to visit hospitals and clinics. Physio even released her early based on progress and her work ethic at home.

We were lucky that I hadn't been travelling for work nearly as often, largely to due with assisting Jane in her recovery. Accordingly, I had been exposed to far fewer people than my normal routine.

We were lucky that our rural lifestyle literally defines "social distancing" - finally, an upside to being introverts!

We were lucky that we are both able to work from home. We had no upcoming trips or travel planned, at least nothing which could not be painlessly altered or postponed.

We were lucky that a checkup with the surgeon in Windsor afforded the opportunity for a Costco run, a few weeks before things truly got real. No panic over TP or cat food.

We were lucky that Jane had been using Click and Collect for some time now, given two years on crutches, and did a large grocery pick up mere hours before Ontario announced the school closures. Again, just missed the mass panic and run on the grocery stores.

We're lucky that we're both healthy - not even a standard cold or flu this winter, which would be concerning enough in these times - and that friends and family are healthy as well.


Coupled with Jane's improved ability to walk, we thought it was the perfect time to renew our park pass for Point Pelee - a pretty quiet place for a stroll in March - we even managed to get one good visit in for a cool but sunny weekend walk before they closed all national parks.

Now we're hunkered as Spring arrives - no need to go anywhere for a while, and lots of yardwork and artwork (and reading, boardgames and Netflix) to catch up on, as we ride it out and embrace the "new normal".

 Someone's driving again!

 March sunrise

 Drifts linger along the Lake Erie shoreline

 National Parks!

 New observation tower is going to be great!

 A nice albeit muddy stroll to The Point

 The Tip of mainland Canada - the only snow we have left!

 Lake Erie ramble

 Golden Ale and Wee Piper in Banded Goose crowlers

 Spring and hope emerges

Burning some brush on a Sunny Sunday