DAIRY DAYS - February 2020

Feb 1 2020

We are tropical still in this coldest of places

Even in summer time

I assemble the inners and outers of my

recently constructed outside cushions.

I stuff them together

With satisfying force

The garden seats are looking fabulous

It is nice to see a plan taking shape.

Feb 2 2020

The Government has banned Chinese visitors.

They are reporting 12 cases of the COVID virus in Australia among Chinese tourists.

It is almost possible to hear the intake of breath

From the tourist attraction down my road which is heavily reliant on them.

The air is heavy with implications.

Feb 3 2020

My plant order arrives

Silly to consider in high summer

But I watch a documentary on the

Lower water garden at the Melbourne botanical gardens and am seduced

By sages.

And a Lemon Myrtle.

And two Yuccas which will survive anywhere.

I look at the one in a small pot in my lounge room which has been there for ten years and reaches the ceiling.

No water, ever.

Feb 4 2020

I walk with my friend

Still doing stairs for stroke prevention.

The Diamond Princess is a cruise ship which the Japanese will

not allow to land due to people having COVID.

Hell.

I sit in her chair for comfort and read my mother`s daily diaries.

There are at least 10 written years.

Time scrolls out in front of and behind me.

Feb 5 2020

I swim early with a

companion who chatters.

I am unsociable at the best of times

Morning is not my best of times.

Just as well my pottery class is later in the day.

There, I remain overambitious and unskilled.

Feb 6 2020

Back in the pool

Disconnected, assailed by my bad body image

Real and imagined.

My friend cancels our lunch meeting.

I am loose ended.

Feb 8 2020

Saturday is a feast of Newspapers

Old fashioned consumption of the news

and opinions.

There are small articles on COVID pointing out how

people who have it are not wanted.

I talk to a friend and we cannot quantify

the threat. Unknown.

Feb 9 2020

"Mono No Aware"

Apparently this is Japanese for

the ephemeral nature of beauty.

It must be a translation.

I garden, I read, I clean out the chook house

And discover that my chooks do not like Lucerne hay

Which is very expensive bedding and all I have

They love straw.

Which is cheap and of which I have none.

Contrary fowl.

Feb 10 2020

I am listening to Sara Bareilles

Whose voice captures me.

They say the fires are extinguished

191,000 hectares burnt.

Sad scenes.

I watch the Oscars all day as I always do.

It is respite

Feb 11 2020

Up very early to walk with a friend and her friend.

It is too early to be walking in a small group which demands

Interaction.

I just want movement, not engagement.

For the rest of the day I am silent.

Feb 14 2020

Happy Birthday to me.

I take myself out for breakfast at my favourite café.

And talk all day and feel the love of multiple texts.

A World Health Conference is convened on the deaths from the virus, reputed to be from China.

And cruise ships are being turned away from many ports as people on these boats get sick.

It is becoming clearer that the old are very impacted by this new virus.

On my unique day of aging, recriminations and stigmatisations swirl.

Feb 15 2020

My sister comes to stay

Bringing champagne and a lock box so that I can secure my keys.

Many problems solved with bubbles and the comfort of a she sibling.

Feb 20 2020

I sleep in after very early mornings at the pool

And love it.

Lazy mornings are the great joy of retirement.

I read The Ethnographic I by Carolyn Ellis

Her storytelling ties the autobiographical and personal to

The social, cultural and political.

It is sometimes hard going

when I want to be languorous .

Feb 21 2020

I buy frocks on the internet

And hope they are not fast fashion.

My “don`t care “is activated today

False bravado and cavalier reaction to this incipient threat

Building.

Feb 23 2020

A local man creates jig saws in the shed on his farm.

I keep his details.

And go with two young friends to an historic hotel

For High Tea.

It is a gorgeous summery Sunday.

And a treat.

Feb 27 2020

I cancel plans to explore another regional town with a friend

Who also postpones coming to stay.

We both feel unsafe, uncertain.

I talk on the phone all day.

Viral wondering.

Feb 29 2020

It is a leap year

Our calendar coming into agreement

with the calendar that governs the universe.

There is certainly something

Afoot.