Easter 2020 is one we will probably never forget because of the isolation from friends and the need to stay home in our own bubble. The weather was lovely the first couple of days but cool and showery for Easter Monday.
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Katherine invited us all to a Zoom 5 pm drinks on Good Friday and it was good to have a catch up with the family again. Early Saturday morning I made a quick trip to the local Four Square store - they opened at 8.00 am and I was there waiting for them - first and only customer for about 5 minutes so was able to grab the half dozen things I needed, deliver Easter eggs for the children to their front door and home again within 25 minutes. Then on Sunday morning at 8.00 am NZST time we joined with James from London for an ‘Easter Bonnet Parade’. The challenge was to make and wear an Easter hat, or tell everyone an Easter Bible story.
Easter bonnets
A screen shot of all of us online together. However, the star of the show had to be James, who did a ‘puppet’ show about Jesus and the disciples, using cut outs from magazines pasted on to sticks, and an improvised mountain with house plants and a sheet representing the mountain for the story of Jesus feeding the masses with loaves of bread, and in the ‘second act’ a plush blanket representing the sea when Jesus challenged the disciple Peter to ‘walk on the water’. Sadly we overlooked taking a screenshot - we thought we were recording it but if we did we have no idea where the recording went!
A southerly change came through on Monday with very strong and very cold winds; yesterday was freezing cold with heavy rain showers. In the newspaper this morning there are photos of snow at Kingston, near Queenstown, and reports of snow on the Crown Range road and the Milford Pass road was closed - that shouldn’t have affected anyone but it is early in the ‘season’ for there to be road closures due to snow.
Today, Wednesday, is still overcast but no rain so far. The forecast is for a change to a north westerly wind from the southerly we are currently having so it might be a bit warmer but we are still only forecast to have 13 degrees.
Checked a bag of carrots this morning to find half of them had black mould on them - something I’ve never experienced with carrots. So we’ll be having carrot this and carrot that and I will make a large pot of carrot & cumin soup (which is very yum anyway) and put some in the freezer.
What many people don’t seem to get is that social distancing is just that - we are hearing of people who are gathering in their streets for a catch up and even some friends who went walking with another couple - albeit 2m distance but not what we are supposed to be doing. This lockdown Alert Level 4 is to be reviewed on 20 April but we will not be suddenly jumping in cars and going to the shops and meetings etc. We will go back to Alert Level 3 (which originally we were only in for 2 days) which is still very restrictive on travel and what businesses can operate so we are a long way from ‘normal’ activities. We’re fine and still keeping ourselves busy - haven’t had to divide the house up into separate areas yet so that’s a good sign!