Another week

Ok, so its 7 weeks we've been in lockdown now - but there's an end in sight - two more weeks and things will start to ease up a bit here in Canberra. We'll even be able to get haircuts yay!

And there's even a few little bonuses from midnight tonight: we'll be able to have two visitors at our homes and spend 4 hours in outdoor recreation. We can even give our local parks a break as our national parks and reserves are opening up too.

But for the past week or so of school holidays we've just been doing more of the same, same same - hours spent in our local parks with the girls and picnic lunches to break up the routine. Lots of fun actually - we're lucky to have seen so much of the girls.

We've spent hours and hours at Fadden Pines Park - its got the best equipment (and great BMX tracks).

Ella amazes all onlookers when she makes it up to the top of this flagpole (it takes a lot of strength and technique!)

This tree on Gowrie Oval is a real attraction too - a grand old eucalypt; how many years has it seen?

Abi's learning how high she can climb ....

There are spring bulbs popping up everywhere too - another lockdown joy. Abi liked the way these tulips matched her new mask.

Last week's picnic lunch together was in Weston Park. We found a sheltered spot down near the lake edge, a bit protected from that day's fierce winds

Abi's new slime package was a bit of a distraction for her ....

This weeks' lunch spot was in our Hassett Park - along with all the local children, pet dogs and other picnickers. This park has been a godsend in lockdown for all us Campbell apartment dwellers. At the weekends it has hundreds of people in it, mostly having picnics and supporting our local coffee and wine bars, the bakery and the pub - all offering takeaway now. Even when lockdown is finished it would be great to see people using the park this way even more.

And a big tick from these two for the gi-normous donut and caramel slice Rob bought them from one of the local cafe/bakeries!

Six weeks in

We will have done 6 weeks of lockdown tomorrow - so only three more to go (maybe??). So far daily COVID case numbers  have stayed pretty static in Canberra - not increasing, but not reducing much either, unfortunately. Our city has the highest double vaccination rate in Australia (over 50% of eligible population) and at least 80% of all over 12 year olds have had at least a single dose . So we're getting there - go Ken Berhens!

Over the past few weeks we've got into a lockdown routine that keeps us busy, keeps us fit and well and brings us lots of happy times with Ella and Abi, and a few friends and neighbours as well.

We continue to take the girls to the park a couple of afternoons a week, as a break from their school at home work. Its a treasured time for us - how lucky are we to have the girls so enthusiastic about going to the same old park every second afternoon in the company of their grand-parents (a definite silver lining of lockdown for us!). The girls even seem keen to do this with us even now they're in school holiday mode (although school holidays in lockdown mode are a bit of a non-event really).

We saw this mob of kangaroos on the way to the park yesterday afternoon - in the reserve just over the road from J & J's house). Its probably been a good breeding season for kangaroos with all the rain we've had. Abi was impressed.

Another nice routine we've started is to do a walk and picnic lunch each week with our friends Judy and Jurgen. So far we've walked the lake and lunched on Aspen island, walked Weston Park and lunched by the lake - and yesterday we met at Canberra's Arboretum, doing the scenic Dairy Farmers Hill walk and then lunching at possibly the most scenic spot in Canberra, right at the top of the hill. We usually walk with Judy and Jurgen's doggies, Charlie and Poppy. Charlie came on his own yesterday and I volunteered to be the dog walker (I really like Charlie), but I did  battle to keep him "on track" given the excitement of being outdoors with all those sights and sounds and birds everywhere.....

Canberra looked beautiful from here - the only distraction being the icy wind gusts coming straight off the snowfields south of Canberra..

This picnic lunch up on Dairy Farmers Hill was the most scenic so far, we decided - and complete with a stunning sculptural piece too. We are so lucky to live in such a beautiful city - and all of this within the recommended 5klms of where we live!

And to continue my lockdown sustainable sewing project journey. I cut up a few of Rob's old linen shirts (cutting off the worn bits!) and sewed them into a new summer top for me - a design I made up myself! I'm pretty pleased with it!

Next lockdown project might have to be working out how to do a hair trim???
 

Lockdown fun

Until today this is the only way we've been able to catch up with Ella and Abi over the first three weeks of Canberra's lockdown - thanks be to Facetime!! We had nearly two hours of chats over the screen last Thursday afternoon. It's wonderful!!

Ella in particular was very talkative and in a great mood. She's enjoying the break from school (while still keeping up with all her schoolwork!). We heard all about her thoughts on a lot of subjects.

We're allowed to have outdoor gatherings now of up to 5 people - woohoo! So we were planning a low key catch up together in a playpark at the weekend BUT it rained virtually the whole weekend so that didn't eventuate. So much rain - on Saturday alone we had over 40mm. This is how our Hassett Park was looking as a weak sun emerged on Sunday afternoon.

Ella and Abi have rediscovered their BMX riding mojos in lockdown - and this rain and all the attendant mud and water proved to be a very exciting drawcard today when we were invited to accompany them on a ride through Fadden Pines. 

They were both covered in mud within a few minutes of us reaching the bike trails.........

And Abi had a spectacular skid through one of the water holes - and a mouthful of mud!

She was spitting mud from her mouth for a good while afterwards......

These girls never stop - Is this the effect of days spent in front of a screen of Google classroom? They were both soaking wet by now too - from head to toe. Lucky it was a mild 16oC this afternoon.

And then the long haul home - up the steepest street in Canberra, and Ella pedalled the whole way to the top of the hill today for the first time.

These girls are an inspiration in finding joy in lockdown!

 

No changes here

We've been in lockdown almost three weeks now, and just heard today it's being extended for another two, until the 17 September! I'm sure no one around here was surprised to hear that, with cases still cropping up out of nowhere here in Canberra and the virus still spreading around regional NSW.

We're both sitting pretty here in Campbell with nowhere to go and plenty of time to do it in. We love our one hour walk every day (and we've heard that we can do two hours of outdoor recreation from now on!!) and the fact that early signs of Spring are bursting forth everywhere gives us plenty of joy.

I took pictures of my favourite wattles in bloom on our Mt Pleasant walk last week.......

And luckily, we never tire of our favourite lake walk; there's sometimes even a (COVID safe) celebrity sighting as a bonus...

We had a few days of rain and all of a sudden the Prunus blossoms were out .....

And another day or two and it was looking like this ............

One magical morning the coffee cart was open near the carillon so we were able to enjoy our morning coffee on Aspen Island. Small changes in our routine like this seem very exciting and special at the moment!!

For the rest of the day we find things to do ....... Facetime with the girls is always a highlight (especially when Abi does her reading with us). And I have embarked on digitising our travel photos and journals from all the trips we've done over the years. This was always going to be a "one day" job. So far I have managed to convert this .......

into these 5 bound books ....... over the past 12 months or so of COVID (with one more book on our first 6 visits to Bali and Lombok in for printing atm). It's a big job but I am enjoying immersing myself in our travels again - and realising how lucky we were to see and experience as much as we have. Who knows how overseas travel will look in the future?

I'm doing some sewing projects too - lots of masks and anything else I can think of to use up fabric in the stash.

We've having a break from the sourdough breadmaking for a while and trying to keep the extra kilos it caused at bay. Rob is spending lots of time with his new keyboard instead and enjoys his lessons which are now conducted via Zoom. How would we be handling this without the benefit of the Internet and all our devices?
 

Canberra's in lockdown

It seemed like it was inevitable, with the Sydney COVID outbreak leaching out into regional NSW, Canberra has cases now too: 6 as of this afternoon... and we're in lockdown, as of 5.00pm yesterday afternoon.

Rumours of an impending lockdown started late morning yesterday. It was a regular shopping day for us and by the time we got to our local shops at midday the car parks were full and we ended up queueing at Aldi for an HOUR AND A HALF just to get our weekly staples. It was so stupid really because we can shop for groceries anyway during lockdown - and the shops will be deserted today (with empty shelves being restocked no doubt) - but we really did need those few things for our regular Thursday afternoon tea date with the girls!!

Day one of lockdown has been eerily quiet around here: very few cars on the road, hardly anyone in the park and no apparent movement around the building. We did our allowed one hour of exercise, walking around the lake, and hardly saw anyone else. It's so different to the first lockdown in March-April last year when there were so many people doing the lake walk they had to  set up the "walk clockwise rule".

It was a beautiful day here too. The lake was mirror smooth and not a cloud in the sky - like the whole city is in suspended animation.... and no one (but us) around to admire it.

Even the swans have gone into lockdown - not making a move and 1.5 metres apart!

Jody sent me this pic of Abi today. She'd busied herself creating a "Zen Garden" using collected objects from the garden as her day's project. The girls had gone a whole day without the TV on and all was calm. To celebrate the first day of lockdown all day PJ wearing was allowed as was a break from school work.

I don't know what to say in summing up ... it's a worrying time and we all feel in a state of flux. Rob and I both had our second jabs this week (good timing). Jody's had her first jab this week too and Joshy's is next week. But it's way too worrying until we've all been done (including the girls!). It feels like there is an awfully long way to go with COVID.