Easter

It’s ironic how during Easter last year we were compulsorily required to stay at home in the first of the national Covid lockdowns, while this year, with very few Covid restrictions, we have elected to stay home anyway.

At this time last year we were feeling quite insecure and a touch afraid about what this virus might mean to us. We were carefully washing hands, wiping surfaces and consciously avoiding others. This year, most of our Covid restrictions have been removed and we are much more relaxed. However, we have found that Victorians are so glad to get out again that popular places are very crowded and it is better for us to wait until everybody is back at work and then resume our normal activities.It’s just much more comfortable and relaxed to do that (we can even find a parking spot!).

I am pleased to report that today, there are only seven new cases of the virus in all of Australia and every one of these has come from returned travellers who are in compulsory quarantine. There are no cases of community transmission across the entire country. People are angry that our vaccination program is starting off very slowly and extremely well behind government targets. If I were a citizen of many European countries or the USA, I would be much more anxious to receive a vaccination than I am here in Australia at the moment.

Our summer in Melbourne has been cool and damp. This Easter we are having an  exceptionally warm ‘Indian Summer’ with the temperatures over the last few days sitting around 30° C. This has been the warmest Easter decades. We have taken advantage of the balmy autumn days by having picnics outside on our deck and enjoying the sunshine. Last year Easter was quite cool so perhaps the weather has been influenced by our effectiveness in minimising Covid and is being nice to us.

We have resumed growing some vegetable and flower seeds on our kitchen window ledge as we did last year. It seemed to work well, so why not repeat something positive. I have my vegetable garden planted up with winter vegetables as we did last year, although they were not as hard to find in the nurseries as they were last year during our lockdown. We will look forward to some good crops during the cooler months.

It seemed that Easter Sunday was a good day on which to get back to our church. We attended a service this morning for the first time since March last year. For 12 months now, we have been following church services on the Internet but it is much more meaningful to be back in real life with people we know. One of the traditions of our church is to decorate a cross on Easter Sunday with cut flowers. We contributed a small bunch of the last of the summer flowers in the garden and they made an excellent display.

As this is a special day, we have also ordered another  special meal from Providoor, the online Restaurant company. It was delivered this morning in an insulated box, kept cold with a large ice block and all we have to do now is amalgamate the components – heat some and arrange others to have a delicious restaurant quality meal at home tonight.

We will get back to some local travel once the crowd dies down after Easter. We have a plan to go to one of our favourite Bed & Breakfast establishments in Newborough, near Moe in ten day’s time and providing that the border stays open between Victoria and South Australia, we will spend some time in the Flinders Ranges in mid May.