Lockdown Day Four: the first weekend

Sunday 29 March 2018: not a lot of difference this weekend apart from the, usually we have to go to Bunnings [DIY store] for something, trip. And, we stayed in bed much longer both mornings. Eric slept until nearly 9am on Saturday which is almost unheard of! Mind you he has slept badly this week, unsurprisingly. Saturday was my most productive day in AGES. The weather was beautiful and as well as washing and general busi-ness I spent hours in my potting shed.
When I broke my leg in August 2019 it obviously put a total hold on everything gardening. I did start to grow some microgreens indoors a month or two into my rehab but for weeks and weeks I could not even get to my veg plot. It was 6 months before I could actually think about doing anything down there by which time the place was chest high in grass and weeds. Even today I am limited by mobility, what I can manage and how long I can work for. The winter garden will be different though! Over the weekend I took cuttings from gooseberry and red currant bushes. I still have not acquired a white currant bush and I have black currant bushes for Africa! The fact that I did not pick any currants this summer does not matter as I still have tonnes from the previous year in the freezer. I sowed, in trays; cabbages, broccolis, cauliflowers, poppies, spinach, lettuces and parsley. I also planted into larger pots some pan choy and cauliflower seedlings I bought at the garden centre before the lockdown. I planted up a container of zinnia and gazinia I grew from seed. Zinnias are frost sensitive so I will pop the container into the poly tunnel over winter.

Oscar did not share in the busi-ness of the day!

My Plymouth barred chicken has been sitting on a precarious nest in grass on a slope just above the veg plot but during the recent winds and rain the eggs rolled down the hill coming to rest in the path in the veg plot. Totally exposed and easy for Oscar to help himself to the eggs if she left the nest. So, I re-purposed a bee nuc box that Eric had made awhile ago but we could not use for bees as he used treated wood. I put some hay and grass from where she originally nested in, slid the eggs in and put her on. She promptly walked off a sat a few feet away!! So, I put her back on the nest and blocked the entrance. She kicked up a huge din but finally settled so a cracked the 'door' so she could get out and, on checking on Sunday, she seemed fine. I hope the few remaining eggs hatch as she is a good layer. I also have another chook sitting on a small clutch in the little chook house. I was thinking of culling the remaining chickens who don't lay and eat anything I plant but who know's how the pandemic is going to pan out. I may need the chickens for food in a few months!!

Saturday evening I made keto fathead pizzas which I think are nicer than the usual ones I make using the bread maker to maker the pizza dough. Certainly a lot quicker! Sunday's roast was a cheat. I reheated some left-over roast pork from earlier in the week!

Sunday was less productive, kept flitting from job-to-job. I planted some strawberry runners. I don't think I got one strawberry this year but the chickens would have had a feast! I also sorted out the stuff in my poly tunnel. I have resorted to herbicide use as I have a worsening couch grass problem, to add to that of the oxalis. I am clearing the whole think out, spraying then will start afresh.

Had a long chat with my sister in the UK. She works in the judiciary and so working as normal. All fine there except for my niece who has a sick baby and invalid husband at home so I worry for her mental health over the coming few weeks.
Touched base with a fellow NZSL course student who is over from the USA and living alone with her rescued severely injured cat. As a vet she is working a few days a week at the practice but I think is going to find this lockdown very hard. Trying to speak a bestie in South Africa but she's not great at answering her calls!! She writes heaps though which is a huge improvement.

Sunday afternoon we had 'booked' a video call with our friends whom we usually catch up with most weekends. We settled on the sofa with coffee in hand and the four of us chatted for over an hour. I guess this is the new norm! Was told that Matamata has a crop of cases and on checking the MoH website find that our little town is officially a cluster. Not good. I almost feel I'd like to get Covid-19 and get it over and done with but of course, the big unknown is will I, or somebody I inadvertently infect, be one of the serious casualties of the virus! I guess that's the reason we all do our bit and stay home.

I do have to venture out tomorrow though. I start work and have to collect my laptop and get some training on the software and I need pharmacy supplies. Crap timing to get a dermatitis-type rash that is driving me mad with itching a spreading by the day!

As of 9am today: New cases 63. Recovered  56. Total 516. Deaths 1.