Blogging is useful to be able to return to times past because it is there as a reminder of the time set in stone. This last year has become a bit of a blur with the length of time & how we had little need to focus on the days, weeks, months so they gently blended in time ...
It is almost incomprehensible that we have been in lockdown of sorts for 365 days - a whole year of life changing restrictions.
In December 2019, I took several overseas trip, the first to the Christmas markets of Munich, Salzburg & Innsbruck with Ms M, then a Twixmas trip to Cologn, Vallkenberg & Monschau with hubby, enjoying the closeness of the continent. The first reports of a new virus in China started emerging but it felt far away & ‘their problem.’
In January 2020, we met the daughters at the Lakes & had a weekend together for youngest birthday - we spoke about the news of the virus & the daughters urged us to sign up to home delivery for our shopping which we ignored. They both said it was time to have the store / stock cupboards fuller with the things we use often. Having lived in remote locations in various countries, we humoured them because it seemed unlikely that we would have shortages. Little did I know ...
Daughter & friends took a rebooked trip to Iceland early February & she said some were already wearing masks on the planes & there was a feeling that it was the calm before the storm that seemed to be coming closer.
I wrote in March 2020, a year ago now, about living with social distancing & uncertainty as we watched the shop shelves empty & the hospital beds fill up.
It soon became apparent that we were all in the same storm, not the same boat during this crisis as I stopped teaching in homes & the schools shut on the 20th March 2020 for just a few weeks, or so we thought and on the 23rd March, we started the first of several national lockdowns. We were all washing our sanitised hands frantically everytime we touched something that was delivered or even the post. I sanitised our postbox flap, the door handles & my handbag in the hope of keeping the virus out ...
This uncertainty was new to us so we took to keeping busy to be distracted - baking bread, scones, pancakes; gardening; making & framing scarves from a trip in Summer 2019; sewing booksleeves, facemarks (which were largely unavailable), reading, blogging, walking - anything to keep busy. So much free time was something us working people were unused to, as was having no set routine.
In April, we hoped we had passed the first peak, limited outside exercise beaconed, & our hopes brightened along with the Spring days. I had my first home delivery of shopping as well as my lockdown birthday, just the two of us with cakes & gifts arriving by post -how very different to what we had planned. I also felt unwell, not hugely ill, just not right with extreme lethargy, muscle pains, felt cold & couldn’t get warm at all, had a persistent cough that lasted for weeks but with no tests available, I will never know if I had a mild case of Covid. The Covid app I had downloaded of the largest UK study ever told me to self isolate as my symptoms were of Covid. Easter was with no visitors, a strange cocooned time but I still put up some Easter decorations & set the table for our lunch - the simple things to keep going. We welcomed our first grandchild in to this crazy world but were unable to see him for weeks except on face time.
In May, I enjoyed the brighter days, of local woodland walks amid the snowdrops & of doing some sorting, changing decor at home & framing a silk scarf I had bought as a souvenir in Vienna. I framed the second half as a gift for a friend - spreading the cheer ... Our local woodland & lakeside walks became my saving grace as I watched the tree canopy green up above us & the bulbs appear - the small signs in nature that the pace of life was gently progressing.
In June, I blogged about lockdown day 75, a milestone - head over to be reminded of it. I also took on a little project of making an auricula theatre for plants, using only reclaimed wood as the hardware shops were still largely closed & heavily restricted. I ordered the plants from nurseries online & fortunately had some old terracotta pots. Working away outside in the brighter sun was uplifting. I continued to sew - the simple repetition of hand sewing requires concentration & the time passes - gently.
In July, I managed to complete a sewing project that had been on hold for some time - hand sewn banners for daughter with the crest from France. It was an enjoyable project, using many skills but time passed quickly. It was also the 100 days of lockdown, a skewed reality of life suspended. Like many, gardening had been our saving grace, having something to focus on as we carried on ...
October marked 200 days of lockdown, a number we would have though unimaginable in March when we started this crazy journey. Visiting favourite local places helped as a change of scenery was needed to break the endless days ...
However, the Autumn months of October & November once again brought an increasing number of Covid 19 cases & rules were tightened again and we just knew that Christmas was not going to be the same. My second European trip was postponed for a whole year - the feeling that life is on hold was hard to come to terms with; planning for longer than a week was fruitless ...
I blogged about 240 days of lockdown in November, it was hard not to be obsessed with the numbers, as summer gave way to autumn at home. The familiar rituals help in times of uncertainty & marking the start of Advent seemed predictable. Like many in the UK, for the first time ever, my Christmas tree went up in November, we all seemed to need that sign of hope, the joy of Christmas to lift our flagging spirits. It was fortunate that the first Sunday of Advent fell at the end of November too ....
I still marked the usual rituals of Advent in December because that routine gave meaning to an endless state of lockdown & they are the rituals I know which herald in the festive season. The returning of the Winter light at the Solstice is always a turning point for me in Winter, it brings hope & by now, we were in need of hope. Like most of the UK, we had a tiny Xmas with just a returning daughter & us - small but meaningful while face timing daughter, hubby & the new grandson, his first Christmas.
The New Year of 2021 quickly seemed like a repeat of the old except that we all knew of someone who had been ill with the virus. In January it took the life of a beloved Father & put my sister in ICU for 10 days. Dad was not allowed any visits for the 2 days in hospital & died of Covid Pneumonia.
Vaccines have brought some hope - hubby had his first in January, I had mine in February & there is a glimmer of hope. However, travel is still very much off the cards with many countries not vaccinating at the same pace we are so we do not know if protection will be there.
Our two long travel trips postponed from 2020 might not even happen in 2021 across Europe. We had planned a trip to take the new babe to meet his great grand Father in November 2020, but that did not happen & he will never now meet him, instead we will have a trip to South Africa to inter Dads ashes in the family grave.
We approach this milestone of 365 days of national lockdown, with mixed feelings - feeling like we have lost so much, but we have also reset our priorities.
Most of us have Lockdown Fatigue - we want to see light at the end of the Covid tunnel, we want to feel we have control over our lives again & we want to LIVE, not merely exist ....
Thank you for your time to stop by & read; each & every visit & comment is much appreciated, be safe all please 💖
It was very interesting reading. Although I still had 5 yrs. on my driving licence but never-the-less I had decided to stop driving because I got cramps in my legs whhile driving and it could be dangerous. And you can believe me when I say that that made for a very lonely lock-down. I could always have taken a drive! Gabby, as a doctor´s secretary at our local hospital works very long hours and week-ends too, so we do not see much of her and family. Therese is also working a lot. She wants to go back to Australia when all this is over. She works at a local school with 10 year olds and works at Bilka week-ends. Saving every penny she earns. She has 5 more years to study. Cannot remember what it´s called but has something to do with "brains". Alexander still has a job but with fewer hours and it is getting him down. Steen also has a job in land as he stopped working off-shore. Kjeld is always working on something. There is a lot of work when you have 14 flats! Contrary to me, he has the most fabulous health and works all day even though he is 77. I admire him for that. Well, Dee-enough of my babbling. Have a nice easter and give my love to the family.
ReplyDeleteLove and God bless,
Monica.
Thanks for sharing your experience dear Monica, I hear your frustration about your health niggling & preventing the things you love doing. Kjeld is fortunate to be in such good health with all he has to do. Lockdown has been isolating in many ways but also liberating, free from the usual constraints. Your children are precious to you & luckily they have good jobs. Take care, love to you all too xx
Delete