Week in Review - Pandemic and Painting
- christinestrike
- Mar 30, 2021
- 7 min read
March 22-28
This week marks the births of my Dad and my nephew. Last year when isolation started I sent my nephew a birthday gift that was delivered to his door, a strange occurrence with us living in the same city and annually getting together for his birthday. The delivery person showed up in an unmarked van heightening the surprise and was amazing, dancing up to the door with the package, clearly enjoying himself, making everyone happy. My niece caught it all on video, it was so great to see how this person was embracing the lock down and making the best of it. I think back to that moment as it is a good reminder of looking to the bright side whenever you can, make the most of situations and remember that you can only control how you respond. I also think back to that moment and can't believe it was a year ago when lock down was new and novel.
How have you managed through the past year? How have I managed through the past year? I embraced the start of isolation, enjoying a long spring break with my daughter, spending plenty of time at our cottage and jumping right into the role of home school teacher when online learning began. I love all the time I've had with my family...we still love each other and want to spend time together even into our extended lock down here in England.
I was gifted some sourdough starter, like many others, I enjoyed baking with for many months. It made the trip from Winnipeg to Winnipeg River and back many times, providing us with Cinnamon Buns, Crackers, Bread, Doughnuts, Pretzels and more. I wrote an article about Sourdough for the Lake of the Woods District Stewardship Association magazine. I love cooking for others, notably my family.
We were well into planning for our 6 months in England when the pandemic hit, there was a lot of back and forth whether to proceed. We missed out on a family trip to Hawaii in May and Aaron missed many work travel opportunities. We decided that we could pandemic there or pandemic here once it was known that it wasn't ending any time soon. We sold our house, getting the call about the offer while out on our boat, so exciting. That involved plenty of packing, cleaning, sorting, more packing & cleaning and moving to my Mum's for a month before coming to England. We were fortunate that restrictions lifted during the summer and took a road trip East along the north shore of Lake Superior, meeting up with friends in Thunder Bay, Aaron's brothers and families in Wawa for a wonderful few days of family time and camping along the way. We also managed to get in a trip to Saskatoon at Thanksgiving to visit my in-laws, being their first house guests at there new, lovely condo. I think we have been very fortunate.
My contract wasn't renewed due to lack of work because of Covid in mid August. This allowed plenty of time to focus on getting things ready for the move and house sale, although I was feeling ready to work come fall, not being able to look for a long term position I applied for multiple part time seasonal jobs. I was blessed with 3! One had me getting up at 4 am to work with the best early morning team at Chapters, another was selling purses, bags & clothing at Daring Divas, and my dream job working with chocolate at Chocolatier Constance Popp. I was rewarded with the best co-workers, giving it my all, and really enjoying the work often putting in 12 hour days. I had great visions of wrapping things up at the job I was laid off from, it took me a long time to let that go, I firmly believe in finishing what you have started and doing a job well. I am also a believer that everything happens for a reason even if I have a hard time seeing the good while in the middle of some difficult situations. And really, the pandemic is hard, more on that in a later blogs.
So back to the week. Monday, the day of restart for me. My sleep has been good again, fingers crossed the insomnia is at bay. I did some more paintings, worked on my blog, photographed and listed more items on Etsy. I'm thankful to have these tasks set out for myself, they are a great way to be present and timeline our stay in England. It also allows me a lot of time with myself, doing copious amounts of thinking and self exploration. I have found most of the pandemic this way, generous moments of thought. There was a nationwide census here on Mar 21, we were also part of a census in Australia when we visited there. Our credentials are slowly getting stored around the world. The paperwork needed to be mailed, so in the afternoon I set out on bike to send that off along with Easter cards and do a quick shop up before meeting Genevieve after school. During the day I did some listening to Brene Brown and I have been listening to the audio book The Equivalents by M Doherty, an interesting non-fiction story of female poets and artists that were part of a program at Radcliffe College in Boston during the 60's. The college was one of the female schools associated with the male Harvard College.
Tuesday brought more writing, I am enjoying documenting my days and thoughts. It is my Dad's birthday, I enjoyed a video call early in his day to give him my well wishes. My weekly shop up by bike at Sainsbury was a sunny outing and we played Catan in the evening while listening to 89.5 The Lake from Kenora, ON. It makes me feel like I am at the cottage.
Wednesday after a good night sleep I turned my alarm off and accidentally slept in as I closed my eyes again with a headache. I woke still plagued with a headache, I think sitting at my desk in front of the laptop is affecting me and I desperately miss the magic hands of my massage therapist. I baked the ginger cake as promised in the morning and prepped pie crust for quiche for dinner. I used two different flours and they worked as indicated, one for pastry and one for bread. The ginger cake (which is baked like a loaf) turned out really well, I think it may become a new go to as I am growing to like the zip of the ginger more and more. The headache didn't cease and I slept for almost 2 hours in the afternoon, up in time for the afternoon ritual of tea time and Dawson's Creek upon my daughters return from school. She said that she had a good day, winning their hand ball game in gym, a class she was nominated as captain of the team in already. She is definitely finding her way. After a day inside Aaron and I went for a star lit, moon lit and path lit walk. The path systems really are amazing here, led lights embedded in the paths or lighting placed to illuminate them. We did find one darkened path leading to the astronomy building, no lights near the main building or telescope domes except the moonlight. Perfect evening for star gazing.
Thursday. Morning bicycle ride to a close by church and cemetery that Aaron had been wanting to find our way to. The cemetery is said to have one of the highest IQs of any in Cambridge, many scholars, professors, non-conformists and academically important folks buried there. The headstones were impressive and it felt like the upper echelon. We saw the graves of two of Charles Darwin's children! There were directions at the entrance of a long path, All Souls Lane, into the site that indicated where the burial site of a famous philosopher, Ludwig Wittgenstein, that we found. Learn about him here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Wittgenstein A very simple, nondescript headstone, with rose petals strewn about. There were a few other folks walking about that were with someone that could open the doors to the church, I was able to peek inside and it looked like an artist studio inside, so exciting to me, what a space to create within. I did some shopping on my bike in the afternoon, fresh bread for dinner, another pair of Poundland readers for Aaron's collection and salsa for dinner tomorrow and met up with Genevieve on her walk home.
With so much time on my hands I have been doing a lot of soul searching and spend much time inside my head, it only seems appropriate that I do a self portrait with all of the painting and thinking I have been doing. Today was the day. I have not had much success in the past with faces, I find that I am seeing better now and its true what they say about practice. Part of my self analysing has been looking at my skin and attempting to take better care of it, as you can see in the portrait I have rosy cheeks that have bothered me for some time. I appreciate my wrinkles, the scar on my forehead, and my freckles. The menopausal acne, mascne and red cheeks I could do without. Lets see if I can clear some of that up with a dedicated skin care routine, good old soap and water isn't doing the trick.
Saturday, the first full day of Easter Break, it started with morning cuddles with Genevieve during which she matter of factually said she had some plans for the day that included doing chores, who is this kid, wow! I biked into the city to pick up skincare items, much planning was done for the upcoming two weeks.
Flower painting is something I enjoy so I jumped at the chance when Clare Hall, where we are staying, offered an online Botanical Watercolour class. We started out with basics, how the paint works, colour mixing and a few techniques. We then moved onto a detailed painting of a pansy. The tutor was fantastic, she is a botanical illustrator that does amazing work. See her work here: https://tinasfineart.uk/
Genevieve had her first outing with a couple of friends from school, I was so excited for her, she had a fun time, they all brought picnic items. I made raisin scones for her to share and then they bought more food on their walking about. I made flat bread for the first time to go along with the curry I prepared for dinner, will definitely be doing that again. I recommend trying it as it is so simple and delicious. I didn't sleep well Sunday night, I think I was too excited about Monday's adventure on the train.
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