Birds and Spiders

I seem to be doing a lot of extra laundry...so many of our conservation efforts seem to be countermanded by the need for sterile conditions and constant hand washing. I was gazing out the laundry room window today and decided that the view wasn't bad at all. The Streletzia (bird of Paradise) and the Grevillea (Spider Plant) on either side of the front porch are both unusual and complementary. It is a dreich, damp day today, and the temperature has dropped at least 20 degrees, so a picture from the laundry room window  seemed perfect for Flower Friday,

It was good to hear from Dana that she and Jim had landed in London and that the third seat in their row on the plane was empty and not a coughing, feverish person. Blake slept on our bed, and when he's not accompanying John in the garden, he's vying with Ozzie for his bed. I will bring Blake's bed over, but I doubt if it will change the dynamic much....

We are not only learning to wash our hands, with soap, for 20 seconds every every time we think of it, we are also having to learn not to hug or even touch each other* and to learn how to open doors with 'an elbow or a hip', turn on light switches with a knuckle and stay three feet away from each other. Since the stores are sold out of hand sanitizer, suggestions are being made on how to make them with vodka or gin. I might be tempted to just cut to the chase, skip the hand washing and drink the gin....

We have plenty of R95 masks leftover from the fires, but are being told not to wear them unless we are sick ourselves or we need a reminder not to touch our faces. A report in the newspaper from the Santa Rosa airport said nobody was wearing a mask in the terminal, and one man on a plane had one on but his wife said he 'looked ridiculous' so he took it off.

I can't help musing on the trifecta of trials that we have been soldiering through...fire, flood and now pestilence. I think we must have made the gods very angry indeed....

* By this I don't mean John and I don't hug each other, but that, being Californians, we're used to hugging complete strangers and must now pay attention to who we hug!