Saturday, April 4th, 2020
Saturday – of course, it being a weekend it is a super cloudy day lest one might want to take the opportunity and laze in the sun. Clearly the gods feel protective and want to ensure sun exposure and hence skin cancer avoidance. I would of course much prefer if I could make this choice myself….
Never the less, the day was pleasant enough and we spent some time on the patio love seat/hammock. This hammock stand is a really great addition.
I had a chat with my Capetonian friend in Frankfurt and one of my besties from KfW times. With everyone at home, we are finding more time to text and speak.
The latest trend I gather (in the US) is building picnic tables for squirrels. It seems one can even buy kits for self-assembling these. I guess this is to help those not skilled enough to cut and glue or nail a couple of pieces of wood together. EM has a plot to make a round one using the tree branches I cut last fall.
I could not resist sharing this with one of my Hamburg friends who had told me the excitement of her day yesterday was watching four squirrels playing catch in their garden. Apparently squirrels in Hamburg don’t make sounds, unlike the squirrels in my garden in Bethesda, who have positively screamed at me from their tree. I did try to take a video, but sadly the mic on the phone is not strong enough to record the cacophony.
Scanning media on the patio I found these African artists rather inspiring. Nice to see people cheering up and helping others.
Speaking of help, on our walk yesterday we observed the demolition of a house, there yesterday, gone today. They had some beautiful, almost in bloom Azalea bushes. I tried to get EM to bike past and pick some up in the evening, but she felt too shy. So we made a point of passing the property at the end of our walk, which took us further afield to Westmoreland and Little Falls Park, today. And lo and behold, the plants were still there, uprooted amongst the remnants of what must have been the kitchen of the old house. The poor things were stuck between half a fridge and a kitchen cabinet. We managed to drag two of four out, shake off the soil and shoulder them to take home.
These small bushes are surprisingly heavy…. Initially, we felt like grave robbers; until we came to the house across the street where an elderly, I believe Swedish couple, were tending their yard. I became all apologetic and was admittedly a little embarrassed, so felt compelled to explain that these poor plants were left to die. The lady of the house said something beautiful – you are not the only ones, others have been there to rescue plants. So we are now the proud owners of two rescues 😊 who now reside in my back garden in the company of their relatives.
Overall feeling good about the day's activities. I did my 300 cuts today in addition to our one hour walk. In the evening we took the bikes for a spin around the Hood – more EM’s thing as I struggle up the hills, but it is getting easier, so I will keep it up.
In return for going biking with her, she took some ukemi for me. Clearly the living room is not the greatest place to be practicing shomenuchi nikkio, jokumenuchi shihonage and shomenuchi irimi nage all in omote and ura. She also tolerated suwari waza ikkiyo, nikkiyo and sankiyo. I left the ushiro ryokatatori sankyo and kotegaish for another day. There is only so much abuse she was willing to take. Practice with her did confirm my suspicion that it is much easier to do this with someone who knows how to take ukemi. Maybe by the end of our confinement, she will. By the end, I may have forgotten my almost newly acquired skill of rolling as I am too scared to do this on the living room floor. If this continues for much longer though, I may take my rolling mat out onto the lawn and take the plunge.
Confinement is a word reminding me of the middle ages. In the historical fiction I have devoured, taking me through the War of Roses to Elisabeth I, women seemed to have spend inordinate amounts of time in confinement, though mostly related to childbearing, hence the women only. The other association I had, was that of “sanctuary”, also a common feature of middle-aged politics; just read about Elisabeth Woodville on that. She spends years of her life in the "sanctuary" of the London Tower.
If you enjoy historical fiction – Philippa Gregory has covered some four hundred years of women in the British monarchy. Very entertaining reads and historically accurate as confirmed by my read of a PhD thesis on Elisabeth I to compare with Gregory’s account of her life.
Beyond Corona news today covered the search for Robert F Kennedy’s granddaughter and her young son. There must be some curse on the Kennedy family, seeing they seem to all be dying in accidents. On curses, it is said that Elisabeth Woodville cursed the murderer of her two sons, a common explanation why the Tudor line became extinct so to speak (Elisabeth I was the last Tudor to reign).
On the status of the pandemic, numbers in the US (and the UK) are still increasing at frightening rates, so the status quo is likely to continue for a while to come. The US is now at over 200k confirmed cases and rising. Curves in Spain and Italy have plateaued with reported new infections decreasing noticeably, while Germany and France seem to be reaching plateaus. Worldwide more than 1.2 million cases have now been reported. Also, authorities across the world are revising their recommendations on face masks, including in the US. So I guess we shall be making our own to use until mum sends some from Germany. Her pharmacy has advised they are expecting delivery of a batch on Monday, that is if they arrive, given that the US is engaged in a novel form of piracy, having diverted a shipment of face masks destined for Germany.
More and more articles I come across are thinking about what life after lockdowns may look like. And while there are many different scenarios making the rounds, it seems uncontested that human behavior needs to change to reduce the risks of pandemics going forward. Like we have not known that our way of life is not sustainable, but maybe it took this to open the eyes of the world. Scientist are at least now heard (okay, not in America, but they try). While there have always been transmissions of viruses from the animal kingdom to humans, the way we are living, leaving less and less space for animals, living ever closer to them, increases the rate and likelihood of transmission.
To a certain extent, the world has united in the fight of the virus, if not the politicians, the scientist across the globe are working together to find cures and vaccines. While this is not a new thing, I do find it encouraging that nationalism has not stopped this collaboration; on the contrary, research facilities and academics are moving closer together as the sense of urgency cuts the tape.
In terms of lifestyle change, I found a couple of products I am thinking of acquiring to reduce our environmental footprint. The reusable silicone bags featured among EM’s birthday gifts already, so no more ziplock bags in this household. I'm glad to see this start-up (women entrepreneur!!!) is coming into the big shops now. And I am very tempted to order these soap nuts for my laundry, in addition to bamboo towels to replace paper towels.
Bamboo is a great material anyway. The flooring in my addition is bamboo and we just love bamboo socks and t-shirts. They are so soft! And of course, their production uses less water and fertilizer than cotton does.
Now it is time for our daily vitamin dose, so off to the kitchen to make apple-carrot-ginger-orange juice. I like to throw in some ginger, which is so not popular with the teen. Then I have to think about next week's menu. Tomorrow I have a request to make Emperor Tsao’s chicken. This means a run to the grocery store and an added risk. Seeing we are running out of milk, I might as well. Likely Rodman’s is the choice of the day. Export heaven! I will pick up some Easter goodies while there (I know, not good for maintaining that bikini body, but then who knows if we will even be able to feature it this summer), a nice loaf of seed bread and I might even find such rarities as flour and t-paper.