Well tomorrow we drop down to Level 3 as a country, which means little change for us except we can now pick some takeaways up or have them delivered. Will be lovely to get bread from our market bakery, Jerry & George as I' a bit fed up with my own bread even though it is quite delicious!
This morning we went for a bike ride, not quite as long as we had planned (from home to The Sign of the Kiwi) as the wind up on the tops was terribly gusty & strong - not at all to my liking. We consequently went toward Evans Pass & had our morning tea picnic in the stone shelter overlooking Sumner where we discovered a walk we'd not known about before ...... so many neat routes to explore on the Port Hills so we have no excuse for being couch patotoes!
I made some lovely cardamon bread on Friday 24th after seeing the recipe shared by Lauire Schwarz, a Park Ranger in Banff, whom we met when we were over there in 2017. She's been running online baking classes for her Facebook friends but generally at an hour when I am working so I pick up recipes when I can. Also made my best sourdough loaf yet, which accomapnied the very tasty carrot & kolrabi soup I made though the third photo shows the black tomato marmalade I made.
On ANZACDay I got myself up in time to 'Stand at Dawn' with a few of our neighbours; also placed a sign remembering Dad at our gate. Was strange standing silently looking down over the city sparkling below as a gentle zephyr tickled my hair. Had hoped to hear a bugle or some musical note ringing out but it wasn't to be up our way. Later, after I'd completed preparing apples for dehyrating & when Caroline got up we went for a lovely longer walk up to Lyttelton & then back down the road taking a few photos of letterboxes. As is usual now, we saw plenty of folks to talk with ... all at a safe 2m distance.
Later in the day I dropped some coconut cream muffins off at Val's place before popping in to see Glen & give her some muffins (again at a safe distance). Onward to the Redcliffs dairy where I could buy milk, oranges & onions; at least there is usually a queue of one other person there as opposed to 10-20 folk at the supermarket. Was lovely to be out of the bike on such a superb day so decided to water the community garden whilst I was off the hill.
I'd spent a couple of hours on Thursday morning at the community gardens pulling out old, dead vege plants, weeding a few beds & generally tidying up before giving it all a thorough watering. Barbara from across the road popped over for a chat; was good to know that she was getting lots of visits from her family in a shared two house bubble.
The rest of Thursday was spent in our own garden whilst Caroline continued to work away at her desk. Everytime I went inside she seemed to be on some Zoom meeting or another, or trotting out to the kitchen for yet another snack & cuppa. (Oh, how easy that is a habit to get into!) That evening we joined in reading for an hour for World Book Night, which was quite delightful.
The rest of that week was spent working my usual ECan hours with my main focus being collaborating with the designer on the climate change education resource I'd been working on before lockdown. Simon is doing a realy great job turning my Google word doc into something that looks stunning & interesting. I also liaised with colleague Debbie over the Covid-19 lockdown Piwakawaka newsletter to be sent out to schools after ANZAC weekend. So many of our resources available online have easy to do at home practical activities for kids in them and Debbie has highlighted a few of them. I've also focused some attention on our EYR - the council's Youth Ropu - reading over their submission to the Council's Annual Plan & sitting in on the Team's Meeting they had with Councillors on Wednesday evening. Friday afternoon 4-5pm, I again joined them at the monthly Youth Meet Up, which for the foreseeable future will be held online using Zoom. Charlotte Dougue had drafted up a really interesting & fun agenda for the meeting to which 20 young people attended.
I try to break up my work days with at least an hour of exercise doing eitehr the full hour of the Les Mills workout that is on TVNZ 1 or following Ruth, my usual gym instructor's Facebook workout. Caroline & I also head out each morning straight after breakfast for a fast walk with longer walks each weekend but I am sure we're still eating more than the calories we burn off.
Last week, if there had been no lockdown, I would have been in Wellington attending an NZAEE national exec planning workshop & AGM. Instead we held the AGM via Zoom & delayed the workshop until people's heads were in a better place. Many of the exec are university lecturers getting to grips with remote teaching as well as being busy with families. I have yet to write up the notes from that AGM to distrube to Cantab members but will get on to it .... soon!
Am now also planning & working with Kathy on another community project - mapping Mt Pleasant to show our delightful gems & great walking tracks. We're thinking it will be a great project for the community to work on whilst still pretty much keeping to our homes & close neighbourhood. It was certainly lovely to see how many people stood at the top of their drive on Sunday 19th April at 10am to talk to neighbours after being encouraged by the Neighbourhood Support Street Met idea.
Special Nights
Saturday dance nights
Movie Nights - stream or DVDs
Celebrating Katie's 50th birthday
Finding old blanket & hippy books
Plugs & Cords
Chucking out 100 VHS videos & setting up the VHS player
Creative people - amusing videos, songs
- Stay the Fuck at Home
- Family Lockdown Boogie by a Wellington Family
- A parody by a woman from the West Coast of the Julie Andrews song with the Von Trapp family to share the Covid-19 rules. And another Julie Andrews classic - My Favourite Things
- Von Trap https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMBh-eo3tvE and more https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aAnPFeo11s
- Chris Mann's version of Adele's Hello
- Bohemian Rhapsody parody
- Police even used Wellington Paranormal's Officer O'Leary to promote the Covid-19 measures
https://www.forbes.com/sites/avivahwittenbergcox/2020/04/13/what-do-countries-with-the-best-coronavirus-reponses-have-in-common-women-leaders/?fbclid=IwAR1X6H5p4j4kO5OOimTyQitTnBLrE6sY4h1FHgoMRvIsHQXRSfZ32DeAdSw#2f464d973dec
Quieter streets https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/16-04-2020/enjoying-the-people-friendly-streets-of-lockdown-lets-make-them-permanent/?fbclid=IwAR3yYnXlOBP1R1HgBd5AIn-LTfZTHbVhXes1yT3WBvlHl66gu2t674gilNY
More native birds in city
NZ Falcon, Wellington: https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/121048347/rare-nz-falcon-spotted-having-its-dinner-in-empty-wellington-cbd-during-lockdown?cid=facebook.post&fbclid=IwAR1KHLF3d6SnmELuxVGnQi94qUosK0zXl1rtnHYJbQt5Vo42QPuKuzNbC_0&fbclid=IwAR32XsaO625admcvP63jt2BGAYq2LwuDvtgU_4nsIyQ2cCkiQoJNm7RZtFU
Tui, Christchurch:
choir
Connecting globally with friends and family
I have enjoyed Zoom calls with old friends from school - Rose, Bales, Fred, Kathryn, Heeni - sharing stories of ourselves & families in lockdown as well as sharing crafts we have done or books we have read. I have wondered to myself why I haven't used Zoom before as it is better than a phone call when one lives at a distance from old friends. Kathy, from our community centre, has helped Glen (at 93) learn how to use Zoom so now, instead of a hasty chat when dropping off treats, I am able to chat with her via Zoom whenver she or I need to.
I have had a few Skype or Viber calls with family, which has been lovely - everyone seems to be doing well in their bubbles with Des & Heather doing their own shopping, getting flu shots, and Alan & Joy keeping busy with work & art at home whilst the girls do their shopping.
It has been fascinating reading emails from family and friends elsewhere in the world. We're all in pretty much the same boat with countries dealing with tackling the virus in slightly different ways and, of course, there is debate here as to whether our approach was the best given the impact on the economy & many people's lives. One thing for certain is that the 19 people who have died so far (27th April) died earlier than they would have without the comfort of family being close by. They may have been old or with underlying, compromising health issues but I imagine each would have prepfered to have died in their won time with family able to give them a fitting send off. We will never know how many more may have died had we not gone 'go-hard-go-early', locking down our country & closing our borders.
Excellent scientific and geographic information
John Hopkins University: https://www.natureindex.com/news-blog/behind-johns-hopkins-university-coronavirus-dashboard
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