Day 22 Lockdown Thursday

It is so lovely and quiet here at the moment I need to take advantage of this time. The children arrive tomorrow afternoon and they will bring energy and noise! and hugs and .....

I am very quiet and comfortable in the bubble this last week - pottering around seems to be the order of the day - no great projects, just nibbling away at a variety of projects.

Tui - typical pose wanting the ball thrown.

I have been preparing and doing some of the final blocks for the scrap quilt, done a bit more Sanskrit homework ( need to do more), playing with my drawings ( not for the last few days), making apple shortcake with the never ending supply of Braeburn apples on the tree, picking feijoas which are falling furiously, preparing meals, watching "how to" videos on Youtube, taking Jonathan's trousers in about 2" around the waistline ( all his hard work on the farm), and sleeping well. The last few days I decided to makje a few of the free motion quilted blocks using the Freebie pattern put out by an Australian quilt designer Helen Godden. This has required a bit of experimentation with Inktense pencils,m applique, acrylic paints, aloe vera gel and stuff called textile medium.. Quite fun but not all that intellectually demanding.

Easter was a bit of a non-event, but it was Callums 10th birthday, and he was at his mother's so after I had made him a bag with some boy fabric I had with me and gathered up a few goodies Jonathan and I went around and sang Happy Birthday on the footpath.

I made a bag for his birthday, made a card and apple shortcake and took around games and balloons - 10 years old - Wow the time has flown!

Some of the blocks for my scrap quilt that I have made in lockdown - whole lot more were previously pieced - not there yet a few more to come

The first two days of Helen Godden's Flower Power Quilt-along - experimenting with paints and applique and free motion quilting patterns

I have continued to do  some of the admin work for the School of Philosophy online classes that they are now offering free to the public - the software has been unstable occasionally causing a bit of frustration but it is good to make a useful contribution. And yesterday I put the video of The Art of Quilting exhibition up on You tube - it seemed a waste that it was not being seen - a gorgeous exhibition behind locked doors. Still we did get to put the exhibition on. A major textile art exhibition called Vision2020 never even got able to open in Sydney, and they are not putting the works they selected online and will do a print catalogue as well.

NZ is still doing well on the Covid19 front - 9 deaths and all elderly and frail, several from a dementia unit ( that must have been a nightmare ) and yesterday only 20 new cases. I am a bit apprehensive about all the calls to lift the lockdown  - not sure what that will mean  for me,and the family. Will schools go back? The govt have put a huge amount of effort into home learning - providing computers, public TV programs, and hard copy material. Businesses are crying out to get going again - I do hope reason prevails. But there will still be risks for us over-70s. It will be interesting to see what the kids have done when they arrive tomorrow. Hopefully they can get out to the farm and have a good run around with lots of fresh air.

One bonus has been the opportunity and time to touch base with people using technology and this means I dont feel so isolated. I got to talk to Brian in Canada, Karen in Colorado, Penny and Robin in Sydney, Debbie in Adelaide and we even got Randall on Whats App!  Lots of people are checking up on each other and that is a real benefit - a sense of community I hope will continue. Hopefully my neighbour will mow my lawn by the weekend. Windy and wet out there today.