I was overseas with my mother from the 2nd of March 2020, to the 18th of March 2020. A lot happened with coronavirus in Australia during this time, and when we returned, we were legally required to enter self-isolation. This is my brief diary to document my experiences. (For other posts see: Prelude. Part one. Part two. Part three. Part four. Part five. Part six. Part seven. Part eight. Part nine.)
The Garden
Watered our new kikuyu seeds early in the morning. I hope to have a lawn before I go back to work!
I let the cat out for a play and cuddle while the dogs were all sleeping. (The dogs are not friendly to the cat.) He actually seemed to enjoy being out this time, compared to normally he just comes out and eats grass.
I went our to the orchard and found that one of the trees had effectively been ring-barked! Looks like a rabbit or hare. Pretty upset. I resolved to fence them with puppypen before the end of the day, and hope that the almond recovers from the gnawing.
The Writing
I was trying to do edits on ‘When Darkness Speaks’, but was doing poorly. (Literally: Googling what slippers were like in medieval times.) So I set a timer and did 15 minute sprints throughout the afternoon and evening. Here’s my results:
- Sprint 1 – 618 words
- Sprint 2 – 541 words
- Sprint 3 – 717 words
- Sprint 4 – 671 words
- Sprint 5 – 661 words
Highlights include renaming a character to something more Scottish – so she is now Wynda! I’m quite pleased as it’s not dissimilar to her original name so I won’t get too confused. Overall, I’m feeling positive and pleased with this novel and its development.
All writing was supervised by dogs.
The Activities
In the afternoon, I took a couple of dogs for a walk and then did a gym session.
We played several games of ‘Hive’ and decided we didn’t really like it. It requires too much thinking and we play games for fun not brain training.
For dinner, we had Cherry Darlings and it was delicious. It was a lasagne. I want many many more. Luckily there is another in my freezer.
The News
On the news, it was announced that gatherings of more than two people have been banned. I cheered because I was right (predicted it five days ago) – not because I’m looking forward to this. There are also a number of school closures in the Barossa area of South Australia, near me. I wondered how that would really work when plenty of kids travel into and out of that area for school.
I went to bed at a reasonable time but then had trouble going to sleep.
