Life in the Age of Corona
A Daily Diary
Sunday, May 10th, 2020
Mother's Day
I am up at 7:00 like every day. The house is quiet still, only the cat ventures to the stairs when he hears me moving around Like every day during this pandemic his first request is to go out – even before food. The sky is of a brilliant blue and the tree in front of our house still a lush young green lit up by the early morning sun light.
When I open the kitchen door to release Max into the wild world outside, I note that it is rather fresh, but the air is crisp and beautiful. Even before I have finished making my coffee, Max is back requesting to be let in. Of course, I comply and proceed to feed him, but he is not interested – strangely. Oh well.
The coffee and I venture back to bed and I begin my daily excursion into the world of news. Of course, the virus dominates the headlines yet again. The world today has 4.09 million known infections, so 88k more than yesterday. Clearly the virus is still spreading. There is an interesting graph showing % death in relation to population making countries comparable. Worst is UK (6.6%) followed by Sweden (6.2%) in second and the USA (5.1%) in third place. So the much acclaimed Swedish model with no lock downs and reliance on the common sense of its population does not seem to be going to well.
Most of the US news is about reopening and the fact that it is too soon and the country is nowhere near ready in terms of testig and tracing capacities. Projected death are increasing to 134k by August, which is "just" 60k more than previously projected. While I understand that this economic shut down cannot go on forever, I am still convinced it would be better to bite the bullet now for a few more weeks, than restart and start thsi whole lock down thing over because the economy reopened too soon. If however the latter happens, it will not help the clown in the WH with reelection. It might also mean no election as people will not want to go out and vote in person and the GoP is against voting by mail, which is considered a threat to democracy. Kind of a strange argument seeing the most senior official in the administration cast his ballot by mail. And strange also in light of the discussion around Russia meddling in US elections in 2016. So basically an uneventful day in the news.
EM prevents me of venturing downstairs to make another coffee. Half an hour later she appears with a tray that not only features a latte, but also Eggs Benedict, toast, and fresh strawberries. I get a lovely bouquet of red roses and am gifted to rolls of TP and my favored dark chocolate with orange zest. What a feast!
I must say our “junk food” cabinet has never been as well stocked as over the past 60 days. My assortment consists of nuts, dried fruit (increasingly rare to get) and dark chocolate (80% cocoa). Hers is filled with "Goldfish", Oreos, Sun Chips, Fizzers, and so on.
The day continues to be delightful. We had made arrangements to meet friends at the Bethesda farmers market. Because the Parkway is closed on weekends theses days so people can walk and bike there, we have to take the long way. Not a hardship seeing we open the roof and enjoy the breeze.
The market is very organized. They only admit people in pairs and there is a line to get in. It is an amazingly short wait out in the sun. Eight minutes later we wander from stall to stall. Everyone is super disciplined in maintaining the appropriate social distance. Stalls have marked of 2 meter spots for people in line, though there are almost no lines due to the access controls.
The berry folks have a Mother’s Day special and we score four quarts of strawberries and two quarts of blue berries for US$ 30. I guess berries will be the snack of the week and presumably EM will make a smoothie everyday. I am thrilled to find some green garlic as well as Ramson. The Ramson will make a great pesto and seeing comes with bulbs I shall plant it in my kitchen garden tomorrow before harevesting the leaves. If I am lucky, it will come back next spring.
We also pick up some Kohlrabi, eggs and a Hibiscus-Sorrel liquor from Montgomery County’s only legal distillery. The shopping spree ends with a freshly made juice which we take to the picnic tables on the near by playground. EM and her best friend walk around the field with the appropriate social distance. A’s mum and I sit in the sun and chat.
It is as if these tables were made with social distancing in mind. The four benches around the table are space at a 1.5-meter so we can all be safe. It is so nice to interact with other humans we end up staying for three hours.
Once all the groceries have made their way into the fridge, I retire to my spot on the loveseat in the back garden and enjoyu the sunshine while I talk to mum until the shade catches up with me as the sun moves behind the house. Time to plant yesterday’s rescues.
The Mondo-Grass we dug out from a neighbor’s yard is just enough for the spot behind the Azaleas and I find a perfect place for the wild ginger along the retaining wall.
My plant order is still not in sight. I received some generic e-mail in response to my enquiry advising me my order is scheduled to ship in spring, no date, no nothing. I write back, pointing out that their response did not answer my question; that actually I wanted to be given a date rather than being informed that they have plants coming in from their nursery still. At least the herbs for my kitchen garden should arrive next weekend, when it is to be nice and warm (28C).
Given Virginia is reopening next week, I will check if the marina is back in business. Maybe we can take a boat out next weekend. I am getting used to the idea of an entire summer in DC, just hoping pools will reopen. Otherwise we will need to find somewhere else with a swimmable body of water; preferably lonely. I need to ask my friend C about her mother’s cabin up on the Potomac; just in case.
Once done with my planting I go an dress up, put on make-up, earrings and a necklace for the photo shoot. Some amazing person has offered to take front door step pictures as a Mother’s Day gift to the Hood. She will email them to the various participants. I think it is a lovely idea and am quite excited to have a reason to dress up with nowhere to go. I believe it is the same lady sewing masks for pretty much the entire neighborhood. Glad to note I can still walk on my heels! All my lovely heels are sitting on the shelf feeling very disbanded.
We will end the evening with making “Seabass en Papillote” and a movie.
What a perfect day!
