It’s Easter Monday and the weather is pleasantly cool.  I don’t expect any more summer days from this day on.  Winter is on its way.

Being Monday it is time for the Share Your World Challenge from Sparks

Here is my contribution:-

What do you do to get rid of stress? 

I do half an hour of vigorous exercise every day.  It pumps up the endorphins and gives one a sense of well-being.   I also do at least 20 minutes of Yoga. It is calming as well as strength building.   It is actually amazing how good you feel after a session of yoga.  There are many yoga workouts you can follow on YouTube including Chair Yoga for Seniors

In the past people were buried with the items they would need in the afterlife, what would you want buried with you so you could use it in the afterlife?

My computer of course!  Maybe my phone would be better.  Imagine being able to contact my kids if I still had my phone in the afterlife!   HAHA, Maybe they wouldn’t like that!   My computer – I could still blog and nobody would know that I am dead!

What’s the opposite of a koala?  (this is strictly for fun.  I know what I came up with as an answer, but it was nonsensical.   Alaok.  See?   It’s okay to pass on this one too if you want)

Koala is a marsupial in Australia – it is soft, furry and cute, eats leaves and hangs about in trees.  The opposite to this would be the African Ground Pangolin They are covered in hard, scales so are not cute and cuddly.   They burrow deep under the ground and eat ants.

What’s the creepiest tech out there?  (My interpretation of “tech” is app or program.  If you know what “tech” is supposed to mean, hey!  Great!   Educate us. 

The drone is the creepiest tech as far as I am concerned.  It looks creepy. I have not idea what it’s looking at and I just don’t trust them.

GRATITUDE IS AN ATTITUDE

What method are you using to find your smile right now?   Please explain in detail so others might utilize the same ideas.   Some bloggers have shared a daily (weekly sometimes) method that they are using to keep their spirits up right now.   I’d love to hear from anyone who does and is successful at it!    Have a great week and stay safe!

• Talking to kids, family and friends online. Getting them to talk about how they are coping and hearing their funny stories makes me smile.
• Facebook makes me laugh – lots of funny things posted and also just reading the dumb things people post makes me smile!
• The creatures in my garden make me smile.  Today the bunny chased a visiting cat – I didn’t see it myself but the Earl did and the way he related it make me laugh out loud.
• Other bloggers experiences are also uplifting and make me smile.  I also smile when I think the whole world is going through this.  We may be far apart but we are connected.
• Finally – you’ve just gotta smile.   I used to tell my Grade One kids at school – “Smile because  – if you’re smiling you can’t be crying!”   They could finish that sentence for me!

I have been told that I am quite good at cheering people up so if you’re sad and you know my number – give me a call!

Easter Sunday today and the storm we were expecting did not arrive.  There was a bit of a wind blowing but no rain and it was quite warm.

I am sure that all over the world Easter came in spite of social distancing and lockdown and hope it was enjoyable to you all.

Fortunately, rabbits do not get Coronavirus and they ignore the rules of isolation. We certainly had a visit from the one that hangs out around here!

“This one is for the Earl”

“And this one if for Puppy – Lollz can have the one in the middle”

We spent a relaxed day doing various things.  The Earl made pickled fish with the left-over yellowtail from last night. It is in the fridge ready to snack on for the rest of the week.

He then went to tidy the shed and found a box of old photographs.  I had forgotten all about them and we had fun reminiscing about the old days.   I will be sorting them out and putting them into some kind of order in the coming lockdown weeks.

So far 80 085 coronavirus tests have been conducted. There are 2173 confirmed cases.  410 have recovered and 25 have died.  Tonight there was an interesting item on Carte Blanche about wearing masks.  (Carte Blanche is a South African investigative journalism television series that airs on Sunday nights.) There is a lot of controversy about whether it is really necessary but after watching this I am convinced that we should all be practising social distancing and wearing a mask when we are near other people, both for their and our own protection.

Stay safe everyone!

Here is my contribution to this challenge

The prompt is Night-Time

The super moon two nights ago

Scops Owl in the night at Tzendze Rustic Camp Kruger National Park 

New Year’s Eve – Jubilee Farm, Plettenberg Bay

The kids bonding

After last night’s address from the president, we learned that we have another two weeks added onto our original three-week Lockdown!   That will make it a total of five weeks – there is a long haul ahead!

It is Good Friday today, the sun is shining, the birds are singing and the white rabbit is lazing in the sun.  I just hope that he remembers that he has a delivery to make on Sunday.  Bunnies are not affected by COVID-19 nor do they have to obey the Lockdown rules!

The Easter Long Weekend is usually the one time that our whole family gathers together in Struisbaai.  Sadly that is not possible this year.   Our grandchildren are in their teens and beyond so understand the situation.  I feel for the families who will be missing their grandparents at this happy time.

Whatever circumstances you find yourself in I wish you a great Easter Weekend.  And those who are celebrating other holidays like Passover, may you be blessed too.  May this crisis be over soon!

Today I am participating in Cee’s Fun Photo Challenge

She posted this photograph with some instructions:-

The possible topics from this week’s photo:  floats, things hanging on trees, rope, fishing items, grass, green, orange, white, blue, numbers, bare branches, or come up with your own topic.

Feel free to use your photo archives and see what photos you have that fits the current week’s challenge, or even better yet grab your camera and take a new photo!  ENJOY and have FUN.

My chosen topic is “Birds that thang about in trees”  Thanks Cee, you know that I will always try to squeeze a bird or an animal into a topic if I can 🙂

African Hawk-eagle

White-browed Scrub-robin

Grey Go-away Bird

Paradise Fly-catcher

This evening our president, Cyril Ramaphosa addressed the nation. The president thanked the citizens for their cooperation and understanding of the disease and the reasons to take the drastic measures taken so far.  He commended South Africans on being a people who come together and unite at moments of great crisis. From the first confirmed case, the daily increase in infections was 43%.  Since Lockdown it has decreased to only 4% per day. The measures taken have definitely slowed the progress but it is only at the beginning. The monumental struggle demands that we cannot be complacent.   We cannot stop lockdown too soon otherwise we risk reversing the gains that we have made.  The president announced that we will be in Lockdown for a further two weeks to the end of April.  Many measures will be put in place to help small businesses and the poor to get relief.  Senior Government Officials will take a one-third pay cut for the next three months. These funds will be donated to The Solidarity Fund. The president exhorted those in a position to do so should also donate to this fund which has been set up specially to help fight COVID_19 and to help those affected by it.  A lot is being done regarding testing and provision of care of those infected with the virus.  Our president believes we have the talent and resources to create a uniquely South African way of dealing with this crisis.  I believe he is right.  The whole country is behind him.

Our president left us with the message of Easter, a message of Hope, Recovery and Rebirth.   South Africa, I believe we can do this!

It was sunny again today.  The Earl had to fix his radio aerial which took him most of the day.  I did some laundry and Lollz and I went to the shop to top up on supplies.  We couldn’t decent braai chops so we decided to do pizzas for supper instead.

I spent some time researching what is happening with Coronavirus.  We are expecting our president, Cyril Ramaphosa to update us on whether the Lockdown will end or be extended.  He is being very proactive in trying to protect our country and the rest of Africa from the virus.  We expect him to address the nation sometime this week.

Testing for Coronavirus is being ramped up in South Africa and with this more and more cases are being confirmed.

Total cases are now at 1 686 in South Africa. There have been 12 confirmed deaths so far. Three of those are from the Western Cape where there are 462 confirmed cases of the virus.

It was distressing to learn that Britain’s prime minister, Borris Johnson, is in ICU with the virus.

When one is cocooned in a relatively unaffected area it is easy to be positive and think this will all be over soon.  But then reality hits when you turn on the television, listen to the radio or pop into social media.   We have to stay at home, people.  We have to take this seriously!  I have just heard on the radio – “If you can’t go out into the world, we are going to bring the world to you!”   This is not comforting,   5FM!   We want to hear that it’s all over and we can go to the beach again!

My friend, Heather, sent me a link to a very interesting Ted Talk in which Bill Gates in 2015 warned that the world needed to prepare for a pandemic.   It is well worth a look!

It seems to me that countries are better prepared for a war than a pandemic.  Gates warned that a pandemic would kill more people than a war and that enough trained people should be prepared like soldiers are prepared to be ready to go where they are needed to fight the disease.

Plagues and pandemics have of course been popping up throughout history.   This diagram that I found on Visual Capitalist along with a really good article on the subject  puts it in perspective

So right now Coronavirus is not looking too bad – BUT do we want it to look like the Black Plague?   The Spanish ‘flu spanned two years and killed between 40 and 50 million people.   We need to stay at home otherwise this can only get worse!

David Kramer a very popular singer and songwriter in South Africa made wrote a new version of his hit song “Welcome to Cape Town.   But this one, #TsekCorona!” encourages people to stay away from Cape Town during Lockdown.  It is performed by the KaapKreools Collective. See it here.

It is half-way through the 21-day Lockdown and today, we have rain.   Being Monday, Lollz is back working online and we are carrying on being positive, completing necessary tasks, finding interesting things to read and projects to do.  We only watch television or Netflix after dinner unless it’s to watch Wild Earth’s live game drives in Kruger National Park.  During Lockdown you can take a virtual game drive that you can follow live or later during the day.  We usually watch later as the morning drive is very early and the afternoon drive is at our exercise time!   The advantage is that you can fast forward to the interesting bits too.  The guides are very good so you learn something new on each virtual drive. If you watch live you can interact and ask questions which the guides will answer live. Having these virtual game drives helps take the sting out of not being able to take our caravan there in real life!

Missing this life!

I am adding a different blogging challenge to my routine every day.  Today I am responding to Bush Boy’s challenge to post the last photo on my SD card @ 3 April. No editing allowed!

Female Cape Weaver

This evening I cooked lamb shank and roast vegetables for dinner.   This was served with tzatziki and a Greek salad of cucumber, baby tomato, spring onions feta and olives.

Ten days in Lockdown – almost halfway through if they decide to lift the restrictions on the due date.

The SA government is really taking the Corona thing seriously. I read a report here about what they are doing. High-risk areas have been identified, 5400 field workers have been trained and deployed to areas in need.  Provinces are working with the National Health Laboratory Services (NHLS) to identify testing sites which will include both fixed and mobile test facilities. And still more people are being trained.  President Ramaphosa said, “The coronavirus changes everything,”   He is urging businesses and citizens to rethink how governments, businesses and communities function and relate to each other.

Unfortunately, there are still people who are not taking things seriously.  One young man posted a video of himself ignoring lockdown on Facebook.  Unfortunately for him, the police tracked him down and he will be facing charges of contravening Regulation 11B of the Disaster Management Act 2002. He is currently in police custody and he is expected to appear in the Pretoria magistrate’s court tomorrow [Monday].

We only got up after 9 this morning.   The weather started off calm and sunny but the wind picked up later during the day.    Our day took its normal course of chores, checking on the garden birds and bunny, reading and blogging.  Lollz cooked dinner this evening – a lovely pasta and chicken dish.

I decided to contribute to this week’s black and white challenge from Cee The topic is ‘wheels’

Bicycle Wheels in Amsterdam

Wagon wheels in Bruges

Landrover wheel

I have not participated in the Saturday Stream of Consciousness challenge for a while but as part of my Lockdown routine, I am blogging more so here goes.   This week’s word is ‘deep’.

After waking from a night of deep sleep we only arose at 9 am this morning.  The sun was shining brightly and I could not resist setting the picnic table and eating breakfast outdoors.

Fried eggs, bacon, banana, mushrooms and tomato with a little bit of basil pesto on the side

The rabbit that uses my garden as his home digs deep burrows now and then but because we love him deeply we forgive him.  It was a glorious day today and he greeted Lollz and sniffed her fingers as if to say, “what have you done with my snack?  Is it hidden in your deep pocket?”

Last night Lollz brought up the topic of her visit to Greece sometime in the deep past.  My ancestors come from Ithaca and Kefalonia and she’d visited these islands in 2006 while the Earl and I had been there in 1997.   From the depths of a cupboard, I brought out my trip report and photo record of our trip.  This got the Earl to reading it out loud and reminiscing about everything else we did on that trip too.  Deep nostalgia set in and he started on about all the places we’ve been and the fun that we’ve had.  “We need to go somewhere again,” said he.  I got back to the deep cupboard and took out some more of the places we’ve been and the fun that we’ve had.   These have kept him in deep silence, reading and planning for next time!   Yes, this deep, dark time will pass.  We will get back with feet in our shoes to finding any new direction we choose. (with apologies to Dr Seuss.)

Latest statistics of Coronavirus in South Africa

Total in the country is 1505 an increase of 318 since Day 3 of the Lockdown

Western Cape 374 an increase of 103 since Day 3 of the Lockdown.

A total of 7 people have died.

It seems that our government has acted in time to prevent too deep a disaster in our country.  However, we have been warned to continue to be vigilant as the real battle lies ahead and the real test of the country’s health system has yet to begin.

Trevor Noah has a message for all South Africans.