This was our 2013 Jayco Flight Swift 198 RD

THIS WAS OUR 2013 JAYCO FLIGHT SWIFT 198RD, PARKED AT THE TOMBSTONE TERRITORIES RV PARK IN ARIZONA



Monday 23 March 2020

Making the best of this time and celebrating another year

Staying home in Wheatley/Leamington, Ontario

Who would have thought what we are all experiencing this year? Every day is marked with more drastic measures or bad news to halt the spread of the covid-19 epidemic. As we are all scrambling to adjust to the new guidelines and prepare to stay in isolation, I personally found a bit of highlight in all this. You see my brother-in-law had to fly to London England for a business trip three weeks ago. When he was due to come back to Canada we knew he had to stay home for self- isolation, so my sister shopped for groceries, prepared their home for the event of a couple of weeks quarantine time and came to stay with Benno and I before he arrived back at their house. 

Reggy and Elsa love going out with Christina

Although I am sorry for my brother-in-law’s isolation, who said that he is healthy and feels ok, I am not sorry to have my sister Christina here with us. Actually I am really happy about that! Today is my birthday and I get to spend it with my hubby and sis, but it is also my brother-in-law’s birthday too and he, unfortunately, is spending this special day all by himself. Happy Birthday Paul and I hope we all can get-together soon.

Porcelan Clay in the works

In the meantime besides shopping for more groceries and essentials to hold us over for some time, we thought of fun things to do. Christina brought some clay that we used to create a few items. It is air-drying after sculpting and a few days later we painted them with the acrylic paints that I had. 

Painting the clay and rocks
Christina's creations

One day we had reasonable weather to have a stroll at the deserted beach here in Wheatley and we took the dogs with us for an outing. Several rocks and driftwood looked interesting enough that we brought them home for some more crafting. It would have been nice to spray them with clear gloss after painting, but my can is empty and the hardware store is closed.

Puzzle time
The hardest puzzle I ever worked on

But we have also three 1000-piece puzzles that we wanted to do. The first one that we attacked went reasonably fast. After that we amused ourselves with the painting and a bit out outdoor activity. The next puzzle we took out of the box we thought would go just as well.  Ha, we had no idea. We’ve been at it for several days now and not even half is done. I don’t think I ever worked on a puzzle that difficult. Not only are the colors blending into each other, the paint strokes are also in different directions so that you don’t know which way the pieces will go and the third difficulty is that all the pieces have different shapes and not one is the same. It is testing our patience for sure.

Scarf in the works
Benno entertained himself with his drone
and sometimes the drone snug up on us

While I was in the Kitchen preparing meals, Christina crocheted with a new yarn that she bought recently and I really liked the colors. I thought it would be a scarf for herself and to my delight it was a birthday gift to me! Thank you Christina so much! But wait, this scarf was still in progress yesterday and somehow the crochet hook broke in half and we had no spare. To fix this emergency, Benno tried to glue it together with crazy glue, but it didn’t hold. He ended up in his shop using the lathe to fabricate a threaded stud, bore out the two pieces of the crochet hook and thread the holes, to be able to screw them together using the stud. Now it’s better than new, but my poor sister worked on this scarf until midnight unbeknown to me. 

Turns out the lathe is good for all kinds of repairs

I had to model the new scarf

Kudos and admiration to Paul, who baked himself a cake yesterday and he showed us the wonderful results on Face-Time, where we toasted each other with a cup of coffee. I baked a cake also this morning. It is a walnut marzipan torte. The topping of the marzipan I brought back with me from my recent Germany trip, as it is difficult to find here in the stores. We sure devoured a slice of cake in no time at all. Now we are looking forward to the BBQ dinner later on.


Marzipan torte
That was a nice birthday celebration!


Hoping that everyone is healthy and endures the “distance yourself time” without problems. Lets all do what we have to do. I will keep you in the loop.

8 comments:

  1. Happy Birthday Marlene.
    Nice that your sister was able to visit.
    Benno knows what he's doing. Better keep him around.
    We all hope this epidemic passes soon.
    Never thought we'd ever see this in our lifetime.
    Be Safe and Enjoy the solitude.

    It's about time.

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    1. Thank you for the BD wishes. I'm sure happy my sister is spending some time with us and yes, Benno knows how to fix a lot of things and to create some too. Who knows how long we all have to endure this epidemic, but hopefully we all will stay healthy.

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  2. Yes, difficult time to deal with but you are making the best of it and I'm envious of the sister time. Being sequestered with a sister or close girlfriend could be fun. I know Benno can keep busy so I'm happy to see the things I would enjoy. Such talent you girls have with your painting and crafting.
    Happy Birthday, Marlene (and Paul), that is a lovely scarf. :)
    Stay safe and healthy. All of you.

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    1. Guess we are all being tested with how long we can hold out to stay away from everyone. It wont be easy once the weather warms up. Yes, my sister and I are having fun just hanging out together and crafting etc. We never did that when growing up because of our age difference so its special. Thanks for the BD wishes and I'll pass them on to Paul. You and Bill stay safe too!

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  3. Happy Belated Birthday! to you and your brother-in-law. It is certainly a crazy and scary time we are all living through. Nice that you have your sister visiting just sad that the reason her husband has to be in isolation. Take care. P.S. looks like a nice scarf.

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    1. Thank you guys. For sure crazy and scary times and hopefully one day we are all going to live normal lives again. Sad that not even families should get together. I have a talented sister, don't I? Love her!

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  4. Estimada Marlene desde Ushuaia , fin del mundo te desemos un muy feliz cumpleaƱos. U saludo con mucha estima para Benno tambiƩn. Loreto y Lito

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    Replies
    1. Thank you for the birthday wishes Loreto and Lito. We are remembering our time in Ushuaia fondly as we enjoyed it there very much. Take care.

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