Grace, who was on holidays in South America, was able to secure a flight home, but will now be spending the next two weeks self-isolating to ensure she does not have coronavirus.
Pat Patt will be writing a column for The News every day, revealing how she’s passing the hours.
Without the commitments of work, gym or any other activities it’s easy to forget what day of the week it is.
I started the day in the garden dealing with a vine that needed to be removed.
I dragged all the pieces round to our usual pile of branches in the hope that we we’ll be able to have a bonfire at some point.
The blue wrens that live in our garden were hopping about madly.
In previous years they have built a nest in the pile, so nothing can be burnt until the young have flown the nest.
Several years ago I saved up my $5 notes to buy myself a digital SLR camera, and love taking photos. Most of the time I use it on automatic so I am going to set myself to try and get familiar with the other settings.
Every year I try to get a good picture of sunlight through autumn leaves, especially the ornamental vine over our pergola or a maple tree on the lawn.
Yesterday I set the camera on close-up and tried to capture the lovely shades and translucence of a few different changing leaves, but the gentle breeze made them tremble so it was difficult to get a good shot. But I’ll keep trying.
After watching TV I found my hip had become stiff and sore, which reminded me why I am a rather erratic gardener. I must do a little each day and keep moving.
Our evening was brightened by pictures of our 16-month-old granddaughter enjoying gardening with her daddy.
Knowing her mum is not a fan of the garden, I texted ‘OMG you were in the garden’. She replied ‘Shut up and calm down. I didn’t touch anything’.
Guess we’ll have to keep working on that.