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.
So we have survived the first week without getting on each other’s nerves, running out of food or getting too bored.
The lovely weather has helped as we have all been able to get out and do our chosen bits of gardening and get some exercise.
The challenge I set myself of learning to use my camera is not going very well.
Each day I walk round the garden with the camera but feel I have photographed everything here so many times over the years it really isn’t very stimulating.
Perhaps it’s time to read the instruction book.
We are already seeing some movement from the seeds we planted.
Of course, the thing we least wanted, kale, is what is showing the earliest signs of life.
Hopefully the more desired vegetables will come up over the next week or so.
I went to Violet Town market earlier in the month and the local seed-savers group was giving away tree onions.
I remembered reading or hearing about them so I took a few and have planted them to see how they go.
Grace decided that she needed a project to work on, and having completed the reupholstering of the dining chairs, she has started sanding down an outdoor seat ready to give it a coat of varnish or decking oil, whatever we have on hand.
Doing a bit of midnight tidying when I couldn’t sleep one night, I discovered the melting reindeer kit that Grace gave me the Christmas before last.
It was so hot at Christmas that nothing kept its shape at all, but now that it’s cooler I can make it look vaguely like a reindeer for a minute or two before the antlers droop and the head melts down to the table.
Walked S-U-P-E-R-C-A-L-I-F today.