Nothing But Time!

Posted on April 25, 2020 by Bedfordlandings

When I was working full time, I yearned for the time to do some of the things I wanted to do.  When I retired, I became so busy in the community that I didn’t have spare time to do some of the things I wanted to do still!

Then came the Coronavirus (JAWS soundtrack!).  With social isolation and a limited social life, we are finding that we are catching up with many of the things we have need to do and finding new outlets as well! Now, we have nothing but time!

I wanted to just share a sampling of some of the things we are dabbling with.  I hope you will share back!

Time for Handicrafts

Whereas Jack has done productive repair work, I have dabbled.  I made a small welcome sign for the back door where guests come and go and painted a feather (not sure why but it was relaxing).

feather painting

 

 

 

 

 

 

I made a little step stool for our 2-year-old granddaughter’s birthday.  I found the Pinterest pattern and Jack helped me know what to do.  Again, painting was the best part for me!  The dried flower arrangement I made using last year’s dried hydrangeas that I had saved.dry flowers

Time for Repairs

Jack framed the lattice on the underside of the deck. He did a superb job! One day,  we pulled out the oven to replace the upper element. And as I have noted in a prior blog, we cleaned out Marthy’s Creek, our water feature.  None of these were small feats!

Time to Sew

Mask making came during a flurry about the third week of the pandemic.  I used all of my scraps and ended up with 10 masks to share. That’s the extent of my sewing.

This was the day I collected the music from the Lakeside Singers since our season was (sadly) cancelled.

Time for Baking and Cooking

Why do recipes found through Facebook never turn out like they look in their videos?  This spicy taco ring looked far better in the video.  The ingredients called for 2 TABLESPOONS of cayenne. It was so spicy that it took a load of water to wash it down, but the coconut cake I made was to die for!  It was one of my mom’s old recipes I ran across in my recipe box. Taco tube

Jack is bound and determined to make a good pie crust.  Here he is trying again while Destiny helps!

pie making

Time to Hike and Bike

We try to do something active each day.  A week ago, our  granddaughter needed a change of venue.  Since she had been isolated and we had as well, we brought her to our house to do her school work.  The teachers are sure keeping this 9th grader busy! One of her assignments is to keep a physical activity log.  We didn’t know about the log until after we hiked up Smith Mountain.  That took 4.5 hours and we were totally sore but then two days later took a biking trip in the state park.hiking

Photography

I enjoy photography, but photo editing is not my forte.  Using interesting apps to enhance photos is fun, however.  Destiny (super grand daughter) even did a little lego movie.

Decorated the cat who lives next door!

Embellished to look like a painting.

photo art

Jack on the hangar. Added bubbles!

SML Virtual Community

Early on during social isolation, I joined with a few others to develop a virtual community whereby people can join together using ZOOM to learn a new skill or simply hang out together. The first trial ZOOM was children’s book reading.  These recordings are online. Since then we have had a successful iris class, happy hours, how to make Mood Boards, Book clubs and more.

books

Family Zooming

We have gotten together as a family a few times using zoom.  It is crazy with everyone trying to talk—just like real life!  When it was Easter, we had the kids make props!  Well I did too!

Easter props

Time for Gardening and Chickens

I have planted a few vegetables (pepper, tomato and basil) plus tended to our flower beds. We purchased two baby chicks in early March.  They have now grown up and integrated into the flock!chicks

Time for Music – Bagpiping and Banjo

Jack plays a little music each day.  He has bagpiped for the church service (recordings) and continues to learn banjo through Ricky’s Bluegrass connection virtual lessons. Here is Jack playing “Morning has Broken” with my photos inserted in the production.

YouTube and SMAC-Tube

As President of the Smith Mountain Arts Council (SMAC), I have held two Board meetings via ZOOM.  During the last meeting, we decided to try something creative to allow people to record themselves doing something using their art talents.  The interest is building.  We are calling this SMAC-tube. Check it out.

What have you been doing to pass the time at home?  Learn to blog and share your link!  Happy days to each of our friends!  We miss you!!

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