Covid Diaries Week 11

This is a recap of our 11th week of physical distancing measures: May 23rd - May 29th.

Doing

April and May have absolutely flown by, I think because I've become pretty busy at work. Over the weekend the weather was hot and sunny. It’s like we bypassed spring and went straight from winter to summer this year. It was snowing less than two weeks ago!

Most of the weekend was spent playing in the backyard. It’s such a good space for the kids and I’m very glad we have a backyard during this pandemic. The bouncy castle is still a hit, and one of Ella's favourite things to do is sit in it while it fills up with air.

On Sunday morning we had brunch outside, cooking bacon and eggs on the BBQ. Takes us back to our days in Australia!

I went for a 6km run at noon on Sunday and almost died, it was so hot. I’m really not used to running in the heat at all.

Following the weekend, we had a few more days of hot and humid weather before it broke later in the week with some rain and thunderstorms. My parents got a lot of work done on the garden and with the combination of rain and sun it is looking pretty green out there! Ella has really enjoyed getting to know some of the plants - she even noticed some lettuce that had seeded in another part of the garden and helped my mom replant it in the pot with lettuce.

Rain and warm weather is kind of a nice combination. The kids love walks in the rain. Searching for worms and splashing in puddles (or “cuddles” as Ollie calls them), keep them occupied for a long time.

The rain also gave way to a beautiful rainbow one evening during my walk around the marsh. It was fading by the time I took this picture but it was a very beautiful setting that night.

Cooking

I haven't cooked anything big this week, but did stumble upon this very easy granola bar recipe. 

Drinking

It was my mom’s friend’s birthday this week, so we decided to mix up some cocktails and drop them off at her house. The first one we tried was an Earl Grey cocktail: Cooled Earl Grey tea, gin, lemon juice, honey simple syrup and lemon and lavender bitters (purchased from Kinsip Distillery in Prince Edward County) made a very refreshing drink. I will admit that in the recipe linked we ended up using half the amount of Earl Grey recommended - otherwise it just tasted like iced Earl Grey tea (which was not necessarily a bad thing). It was a really refreshing drink and once the lavender starts growing in the garden adding in some fresh lavender will be a great addition.

Our second one was a rose wine mixed with vodka, Grand Marnier and lemon juice, based on a recipe in my Love and Lemons cookbook. Also a nice fresh option but I think everyone preferred the Earl Grey. (UPDATE: I've made the Earl Grey cocktail several times since our initial tasting. I love it.)

Watching

Andy and I are obsessed with Money Heist. We just finished Part 1 and 2, which make up the original first season that aired in Spain in 2017. Part 3 was created after the show was picked up by Netflix, so we’ll see if that makes any difference to the quality of the show. If you give this show a watch, I’d urge you to watch it in Spanish with subtitles, rather than dubbed in English (which is the default setting in Netflix). I think it is a much more authentic experience, and my parents recently started watching it in English and aren’t really that into it.

Reading

I finally downloaded a new fiction book onto my kindle this week. I’m reading Paper Aeroplanes by Dawn O’Porter. I read another one of her books, The Cows, a few years ago, and enjoyed it so I thought I’d try out another of her books. 

Paper Aeroplanes is a Young Adult book about two teenage girls living in a small town on the island of Guernsey in the 1990s. The girls are very different but both are dealing with their own family traumas, and form an unlikely friendship. I like the book - it’s not outstanding, but I have developed a connection to the main characters and the time period reminds me a bit of my own teenage years.

In the news

All our teacher friends in Australia went back to school this week. In secondary school only Years 11 and 12 have returned so far, the other students are continuing with distance learning for two more weeks. It’s been interesting to hear about what my old school has put in place: mainly daily staff temperature checks, limited visitors to the school, and lots of sanitising and hand washing. Other than that, my friends have reported it is sort of business as usual. That sounds radically different from what my school here are planning for in September! Although we don’t have any official guidelines yet, there has been talk of wearing masks, temperature checks for everyone, small class sizes, blended learning, staggered start times, plexiglass in offices, and no sports/gym classes. But for now we are waiting on a government announcement in June which will give schools some specific guidelines to work within.