Prelude to the Storm

Despite the forecast, the weather held out and we got in a glorious walk this afternoon, after the mornings’ chores, our first youtube dumbbell session and a lovely chat with my mother-in-law.

We chose Oakey Hill as our destination, but of a family joke. The premise was that since it was one of Canberra’s most boring bush walks, we wouldn’t see the hordes that had infested our bike ride yesterday. The only other time we had done this walk was when the rest of the family finally gave into my husband’s 3 year suggestion for what we thought looked like the dullest hill in Canberra. It must have been a hot dry day, because our expectations were not overturned.

But today was a different matter. The rains that followed our dreadful bushfire season have been very restorative, and in these new troubled times, the views were uplifting. We crossed paths with about a dozen others, dog walkers, mountain bikers, a group of friends keeping careful distance from each other.

The quiet roads are a great opportunity for my son to practise his driving too.

I write this at the end of the day, listening to a glorious storm and feeling fully relaxed after a weekend of great food, board games and lots of virtual visits with family. Tomorrow we wake to even greater restrictions - playgrounds and skateboard parks closed, no gatherings greater than two, no leaving the home except for essential groceries or exercise, even more restrictions on over 70s.

Just for the record, since I’m keeping this for sunnier times when the pandemic is over, today’s menu was waffles for breakfast, lentil and pasta soup for lunch, roast lamb, potatoes, carrots and a rocket and sprout salad for dinner. The sago plum pudding I experimented with for dessert (another flour saving measure), was much derided but fully appreciated.

After dinner, my son and husband played Civs while my daughter and I watched The Healing Powers of Dude. Even though she’s older than the protagonists, the theme of social anxiety is very resonant. In that respect the school lockdown has been very inconvenient to her progress in confronting it. Poor thing, I put her to bed in tears (double elbow kiss, she won’t even allow hugs from corona precautions - beating herself up for being selfish worrying about her own problems when there are greater difficulties being faced by many others.