How to Manage Yourself Through a Pandemic

This caged animal (and yes I feel like those caged animals in 'old fashioned' zoos that paced the fence line)  is practicing relaxation and rest.


Found this posted on Next Door in our London neighbourhood:

Lovely Neighbourhood

One of our neighbours played Amazing Grace from a speaker in our street and gave an prayer afterwards. Very emotional. Thank you neighbour!


You may appreciate this British submarine captain's advice on social isolation here.

1. Have & stick to a routine - get some daylight
2. Be sure to keep up your cleaning standards & take care of yourself
3. Give yourself down time - turn off the news! ((avoid negative rumination)
4. Quickly deescalate conflict with cohabitants
5. Communicate - ie talk to each other (avoid detachment)

Here's one I made a little earlier this year for Quirky AB's birthday - hence her favourite colour!

Upside to Corona USA & UK

It's a bit quieter on the beach, but still... too many people need to learn what social distancing means and how to be kind to others ...

Anyone made a mask yet?

And how many hours have you spent on Zoom or Skype or Teams or FreeConferenceCalls.com? At least I am learning new tech skills!

In the meantime we, along with 300 million others in the USA,  received this in the post - pictured here for my UK friends.

We still hear and see planes overhead, although our governor has tried to close Florida to New Yorkers, NJ, CT and Louisiana where virus is the worst. Gov DeSantis suspended new vacation rentals, and put checkpoints in place on roads and airports.

So this ''regrow your veggies''
experiment might not be working

I found my list of positives in these times of perturbation  (ie the virus); we have:

1. Time to study/experiment/learn new things (tech, word perturbation, something always wanted to learn) and get those required CE (continuing education) hours done. Just know not all attempts work out (see left & 18 March post) - LOL
2. Less  traffic, cheaper petrol, good for the environment
3. Focus on being more frugal and more discerning in our consumerism with less waste (try using your paper towels and plastic bags twice, but I make no comment on TP!)
4. Motivation out of boredom with time to de-clutter, wash windows, clean, etc
5. Time to craft (see below - try not to get too carried away ...)
6. Less social pressure (as no one sees most of you) to dress up and wear makeup - easy on the wardrobe (OK, good to look presentable on social media and video chats)
7. Less human interference with wildlife, e.g. turtles nesting on our beaches-read about India here
8. Appreciate and marvel in the kindness of strangers and those positive segments on TV news
9. Share a laugh [Re]connect with family and friends - there is a positive side to tech and social media!
10. Space & time to be lazy -- Oh, I mean relax -- and enjoy a good book
11. Mental energy and space to write personal Christmas cards and recipients have time/motivation to read them - job done early!
12. Appreciation of old routines and how they structures our  days/weeks/months. So if you are missing this, you might consider creating some new structure to your time.

This put it a bit better - thanks for sharing CD!

This was posted on NextDoor today from our local police constable in Hammersmith & Fulham, London, UK. It is one of the best messages I have seen on the subject, so decided to share. For my US friends, what you need to know is many UK parks are closed. London is under a 'Stay at Home' (ie lockdown) order banning people from leaving home except for a few essential reasons -- which does allow outdoor exercise once a day. By contrast, we are under a 'Safer At Home'order here in west central Florida.

Covid19

Good Morning All, We will be back out on patrol today. Yesterday whilst out my colleagues and I met many people still out and about. Just to confirm a few things:

1. Sunbathing in an open space doesn't count as exercise once a day.

2. Working from home doesn't mean going to a sunny open space and working from there. I appreciate this won't be relevant to many of you. But please don't go out unless needed as stated in Government Advice.

There are many of you asking us questions regarding parks being closed. This is the decision of the council. There are some which remain open for the time being. But this being said, if you abuse it you may end up losing it. So think before you grab a towel and spend the day in the sun in an open space. These actions could result in them being closed. If everyone all goes out when needed and for the right reasons we can continue to enjoy these places when you choose to exercise

In forensic science, Locard's principle holds that the perpetrator of a crime will bring something into the crime scene and leave with something from it, and that both can be used as forensic evidence.

 "Every contact leaves a trace "

Apply this to someone who may have Coronavirus without knowing and continues on with life as usual. They will leave a trace of the virus whether it is symptoms or the virus itself. We have all read the news and perhaps seen first hand the effects of this virus.

So please think before you act. If you have to question if something is essential then it probably isn't. Have a good day.


If that wasn't enough to cheer and calm you, then try my friend Carol's photography expo here. I think we should set it to music as a mediation!
So  I am off to craft - LOL  and wash windows and clean out drawers and ... all those things one never has time for ... look on the bright side.  I finished what was for me a very frustrating basket - never mind the side walls didn't flare out like intended!

But no I will not be making one of these! If, however, you want to here's the link and credit - click.





















And out my window ... in addition to the Spring Break crew some of whom are still here -

Are you a Coronavirus Vector?

Almost turtle season
At least there will be less humans on the beach!

Well, I had a whole fun blog post and then it just disappeared!  Another symptom of the virus?? According to a google search, it has happened to others.  So here goes.

I had come up with 10 positives that might come from the virus ... including send Christmas cards early, protecting marine life, and of course crafting ... but I just don't have the energy to dream them up again and found someone had posted a similar idea - click here.

Our beaches are now closed by the county ... but it is not clear what closed means. The dry sand area from roughly the dunes to the high tide/wet sand mark is owned by the county.

Today the County Sheriff appeared on TV and said walking/exercising on wet sand (state owned) is acceptable (of course you have to cross county dry 'closed' beach sand to reach it) and that people were doing as required.  Still seems some people don't know how large a marine turtle is (ie not social distancing), but it has gotten much better.

Now if you are facing or think you might be facing a toilet paper shortage you can calculate your supplies here or find alternatives here (funny) and here (serious)..

And if you are sewing you can make face masks for yourself and your local medical personnel - instructions here. These were common before we got all this disposable 'modern' gear.

Draw your own conclusion about beach 'closure' . . . 

Yesterday, before closure                                                                    Today, after closure

Patience, Kindness . . . Rinse and Repeat.

Seems a good motto to me.

Out the Window: Life in 'Shutdown'

Not a bad view if you have to isolate!

From out window we have a lovely view of the Gulf of Mexico and on the horizon we can see the Tampa Bay shipping channel. Currently, we've spotted at least 4 cruise ships anchored - presumably empty except for a skeleton crew - 2 Celebrity and 2 Royal Caribbean. 2 Carnival ships are in the Tampa Docks.

It's Spring Break in Florida, a time when families and

This looks fun - inflate by swising through the air
then lay on beach or float in water - like a sofa

university students come to party. Many attractions are closed and our weather is fine, so the beaches are one of the only options for spending one's holiday time.

Clearwater Beach 15 March
source:  NBC news

Although some cities further south have closed beaches (as of 15th) so far our Florida state governor has not mandated a state-wide closure, leaving it up to individual municipalities to manage the crowds -  - a bit controversial, especially as he has closed the bars during Spring Break. 

Fortunately, it isn't quite so bad here . . . but still it feels over populated given the coronavirus pandemic - we limit our beach walks to later in the day once the crowds start dissipating at sunset.

Almost turtle season!

Today (18th) we received a letter from the county sheriff, asking all businesses on the beach to "self-enforce" groups of no more than 10 roaming the sand and sea.

Unfortunately, the university students are not making any attempt at social distancing ... yet.  Social distancing with turtles is required too!

All of our volunteer activities have been suspended, but it is a great time for crafting as this article explains - click here. Glad to see crochet relives stress and brings on feelings of happiness (never greater than one completes a project successfully!). True especially for this lady quarantined on a cruise ship.

I will refrain from posting pictures of empty store shelves (think TP, fresh meat, canned goods etc) as we have all seen it around the world!

Save your newspaper; if you run out of TP try making your own.. I do wonder if one positive yet unintended consequence of this pandemic will be that we use our resources more wisely; I have already started to be more prudent and frugal..Perhaps we will revive some wartime recipes too.

Or probably easier - regrow fresh produce - click here to learn how.

For a laugh this was recently spotted in a senior living facility's trash room; look closely for the [fake] lizard - is this senior humour?

Now how do you think this

is going to turn into this?

Pine Needle Baskets and More

OK, so I live in PINEllas county -- so a pine needle basket isn't such an odd idea and a very old tradition.

Here's an example by Debbi Young from the Tampa Bay Basket Guild.

These are very time consuming and a bit tedious to make, but beautiful. Today they often include beads to create spacing and "wraps" (yarn, or waxed linen wrapped around a row of pine needles) to add colour.

see the blue pen for size

Of course my efforts are a bit more modest and I have only begun the baskett base.

The pine needles are anywhere from 6 to 18 inches long and require washing, drying and optionally treating with glycerin to soften before one begins to weave the basket. Pine needles can also be dyed various colours.

I started with a treated sandollar base cente (above), but you can use all sorts - below's a wooden base center.

Basically you sew the pine needles together using either waxed linen thread or artificial sinew (waxed twine).







This is a slash pine and below left to right are pictures of the pine needles and cones from longleaf pine, slash pine and then
sand pine - all of which grow right here in Florida.

Slash pine grows very rapidly and is a major source of timber in the USA.

When not having fun with pine needles, I completed a wool drying basket (yup originally these type were used to dry sheep wool) complete with  add feature of a self designed lid

Start by weaving the base (the cans are there as weights to hold down unruly spokes- but equally could be for stockpiling for a hurricane or coronavirus!)

Then you might need to shape the base flat - here I am using old  vinegar bottles filled with water, before weaving the sides. I fancied a band of blue colour as you can see . . .

and before you know it (well OK it takes me a few days), you put on the rim ad have a basket. Because I want to store wool/yarn in my basket and the Florida sun bleaches everything, I decided to add a lid utilizing a new diagonal weave & glue technique - not perfect, but it will do.

and to close here's the obligatory sunset picture out my window.