Witweg: Lock down 26, some restrictions have been lifted

Sunday May 17th

Another week has passed in which the weather turned suddenly very cold, with temperatures dropping some 15 degrees from Sunday into Monday. A strong wind from the North made it very unpleasant. Such a contrast with the warm week we had enjoyed. We hoped that would never end and seamlessly glide into summer, although, living where we do, we know that that is extremely unlikely.

But at least the week helped me to tackle a task I had contemplated for months and never got round to doing, that is changing the furniture in my sewing room which is full of book cases stuffed with sheet music, cd’s, records (yes, the old vinyl!), magazines, books about hobbies, sewing patterns and materials, patchwork in statu nascendi, stories I have written, books about writing, old photo albums etc. etc. Moving three heavy bookcases stuffed to the hilt from one wall to the opposite wall, takes time and muscle power, and implies eating dust! Every case had to be emptied out, cleaned, sorted, and then moved to its allocated spot. And they are heavy, even when empty. Before that could happen, I had to move a desk from out of that sewing room to a temporary spot in another room before I could do anything. Whatever, after a lot of dust, clearing out, getting rid of paper in different forms and sizes, and protesting muscles, I managed to do it! I feel very virtuous about it, as well as delighted. For the result is much better than I had anticipated. And it gives a lot of satisfaction that I could manage most things without much help from others, which is a must in this time of social lock down. Even before the empty wall was painted, it already looked very good indeed. Tomorrow the desk will be moved to that bright and light wall, with the help of a niece with muscles, as I can’t handle that on my own. It is made of solid pine.

I tried to paint the wall, although it still looked pristine, but it is what one does. However, it wasn’t a success and I stopped after I had finished 2/3 of the wall. Was it because the paint was too old? I discovered that the wall was papered with two different kinds of wall paper, apparently remnants from other rooms. As the wallpaper was always painted over, I had never noticed. But it became obvious when I started repainting. Part of the wall was fine and easy to paint, but once I came to the different wallpaper, the paper became very bubbly. I was terrified that they would not disappear after the paint had dried sufficiently, so I stopped and left a third of the wall unpainted. There is a slight difference in colour, but I decided not to bother as my desk will be against that wall anyway, plus a shelf with photos and other trinkets. So I decided to live with the result, which isn’t perfect.

This whole procedure kept me busy this past week.

Besides, our intelligent lock down, whatever that means, has partly been lifted. Dentists, hairdressers and several health workers are allowed to work again. Gone is my Coupe Corona, hopefully never to return. Although seeing a dentist and my hearing aid specialist is fraught with complications, I saw them both. Before seeing a dentist etc., a patient has to answer a lot of questions about one’s health and in the case of the dentist my temperature was even taken on entering the surgery. Handgel has to be used and in the waiting room, places are allocated and very much spaced out.

But it was an exciting week, meeting real human beings, although not allowed to shake hands or to come too close. In the case of the hairdresser and the dentist the latter is an impossible condition.

After such a special week, meeting real people and not virtual ones, I went for a long afternoon walk today, to enjoy the bounty of Spring. The rhododendrons are now in full bloom everywhere, maythorns, lilacs, other shrubs, large chestnut trees with their white and red flowers, they are all a feast for the eyes. The wild garlic still carpets the floor of the woods in places with its white flowers. The little ditches and streams are laced with horse parsley, interspersed with buttercups and tiny porcelain blue flowers. In a garden we would perhaps see them as weeds, but who decides what is a weed and what isn’t? They are beautiful and lifted my mood and my spirit.