March, in which life got hectic then quiet.

I skimmed through my February post to see if pandemics were on the horizon, and yes, I was enjoying podcasts about coronavirus. And yet my outlook was still looking ahead at a busy few months of a birthday in Melbourne at the flower show, rehearsals for Women of Truth, and organising the Tocal Field Days. My mental state was bored.

I don't need to explain anything to anyone, because having the foundations and routines and plans of our lives dismantled one by one is a shared experience! I was at first pretty excited, because how can you be bored with life when EVERYTHING is changing so fast and we are living in history! Plus I would have so many free weekends because of the mass gathering cancellations! Then, the cancellations went too far and I lost my birthday trip to the Melbourne Flower Show, JKs wedding at which I was to be a bridesmaid, church, dinners with friends. At some point 2/3 through March I got especially anxious. I woke up very early in the mornings worrying about things, like was it too reckless to have lunch in a restaurant for my birthday. And a couple of times I had really physical symptoms of anxiety, a heavy dread on my chest. I also noticed I was addicted to the news. Now I've gone back to normal. Overall not suffering anything particularly bad. I would also say that things really got busy for a couple of weeks when they changes were happening, things were pushed forward or plans changed and then changed again re church and stuff, but now everything has calmed down.

In the first week of March the toilet paper shortage began. I went to Singleton and spent most of a Saturday with Lucy and her fam. Learnt a new board game that is a bit like monopoly or ticket to ride but faster. I can't remember the name but it has a wild west theme and you try and grab land asap. I may continue to do a monthly visit to see Lucy, depends on the rules that follow.

I was asked to play the cello at our church womens weekend away and it was my first time playing cello for church singing so I was very excited! There were 2 practices. Thrive was held on the 13-15 March, just on the edge of the start of the cancellations. Mass gatherings were cancelled on the 13th. So we scraped through and were as safe as we could be. 

I spent saturday afternoon in bed. It was rainy, bed was cosy, and I was preserving energy to share my story in the night session. When I got up I had such bad hayfever I thought I was getting a cold which added to my anxiety. I realised it was hayfever a few days later. Anyway, Thrive was great, even the parts I slept through.

The 15th was our last Sunday of church in the hall, unexpectedly.

17th of March is of course Sweet Pea Day, which was my trigger to go to Bunnings and buy fresh seeds because my stock was expired. Thankfully I beat the rush on seeds which people hadn't yet stockpiled. I decided to try properly at growing poppies from seeds, because how could I resist these peonie poppies!!! The trick is, do not bury the seed. Put them on top, they need light. And keep them damp. I am also growing perpetual spinach, Kale, cornflowers and sweet peas from seed in a little nursery of punnets.

Not a very fun birthday, just got older and didn't go to Melbourne, no cake with friends or colleagues because of social distancing. The Saturday before I organised an early lunch with immediate family. This was when they had just brought in the 4 square metre pp rule, so the restaurant was very empty and spaced out. It was good to do something normal and birthday-ish. That week home group went to Zoom so I missed out on a chocolate cake with them. Work was equally bereft of cake and fun. On Thursday I was given flowers from a colleague, a gift hamper of treats from G, and a card from E. I went to mum and dad's for dinner and dessert which was also lovely. And a dress came in the mail that I had ordered a week earlier so that was like a present too!

I played keyboard and cello on our first recording of "home church" which is how we are doing church online. We don't have a church building to set up in and there isn't much reason to do it live, so it is pre-recorded and then shared on youtube on Sunday morning. I am looking forward to Sunday mornings and watching my church TV. I try and avoid checking the news or listening to podcasts, I just eat breakfast, put washing on, make tea, and then watch church. Here is a screenshot of our first service with me on cello! I probably wont do music again for a while because the current restrictions mean basically only families can be music teams and 4 people together this close is forboden.

Speaking of music, I did a duet with Bec in Tassie via the app Acapella. This was a rough unrehearsed first attempt. Have a listen here. Bec went on and added a 4th part. She is very good at the app and uses it a lot.

I have LOVED that my favourite musicians and even people I didn't know were musicians have been doing live music on instagram. Even if people are on the other side of the world, like a saturday night, I can watch it live on a Sunday morning. AMAZING MAGIC. Sara Groves and her family sing from her living room once or twice a week.

This one was a total surprise, the Sydney comedian Hi Josh on instagram is married to a very talented singer and her sister also sings and plays violin and I have loved their live music. Like Eva Cassidy.

Thursday morning this week I watched Jess Ray and her husband sing while I worked. 

This music has been a huge joy this month. As well as my garden.

This is me all dressed up to do a prayer at JKs wedding on zoom. Only a few weeks before the planned wedding the 5 person limit came in and the choice was to get married with 5 people or wait for who knows how long, so they jumped into action, put all their lovely plans aside, and married on the Saturday.

This is the wedding. They were very happy. I went to their house for the afternoon for luncheon and cake, sitting apart from the others of course.

I've started posting a bible verse every day on my instagram stories. It's a little creative/reflective routine. I have to take photos using the tilt shift blur on instagram and I have to keep an eye out for things to capture.

 Last week I worked from home 2 days while the office was recarpeted. I did not enjoy it. When I start WFH properly I will bring my proper big screen home and my desk chair. My laptop on the kitchen table is not productive and the wooden chair was hard to sit on. I also had a rhematoid flare up, my temperature rose by 0.4 degree during the week, and I just wanted to lie down, and I had to take neurofen. I believe walking is good for it so I did evening walks which were lovely and I saw some church people on my street a few blocks up.

Here is a page from the kids book I just finished.

I treated myself and the economy to a takeaway burger, and bumped distantly into K, another social treat! K and I have been watching the Lord of the Rings over the last few months, and we have one part to go.

Here is the office pre carpet, with the old carpet and all our drawers marshalled together. I sadly broke 2 jars of lovely loose leaf tea in the move.

And here is the new carpet!

This weekend, 4-5 April, is my first true isolation weekend. I haven't been to the shops (even though I have NO EGGS!!!!). I went for a walk on Saturday morning with Fi, she on the path and me on the road, and I think walking with a friend will be my main contact with people. Ros and I are thinking of doing Jillian in our own homes with Zoom on. Anyway, isolation isn't the worst. The weather is amazing, my garden is pretty and alive, I'm going to catch up on some jobs like washing windows, this blog, today I baked a (egg free low sugar) slice to use up pantry ingredients and purged a huge moth infestation from a jar of nuts. It's a season I can enjoy, I'm not a big fan of always being busy and organising things, I'm born for going for a walk with one friend and then pottering in the garden and house all weekend. The challenges are though, don't eat a lot of junk food, and don't consume a lot of media and entertainment. This is an opportunity to be creative, rather than distracted.