You’d think with all this extra time on my hands that I’d write more.
Our vegetable garden is sprouting! The potatoes are shooting up and the snap peas have made an appearance. The two artichoke plants are hanging in there but I am not sure if they are thriving. We’ve had unseasonably cold weather all week and lots of drizzly mist-rain but it cleared up yesterday and got nice and today is summer-hot. It’s not even noon and the thermometer says 18.6 C. I’m planning to get the kohlrabi, carrots and tomatoes into the ground/pots by tomorrow.
Today is a holiday here in Sweden…Ascension Day. We had a half-day yesterday and today and tomorrow off, so it’s a really long weekend. I’m not sure what to do with it, to be honest. We don’t go anywhere and we see almost no one. I really think we should try to go see Anders’ mom for some social-distancing fika. We talk to her every week but we haven’t seen her for over two months except twice to pick something up or drop something off, via the staff. She’s bored out of her mind. 🙁 I talk to my mom nearly every week as well, and she’s probably even more isolated than Anders’ mom, since she lives alone but she’s actually been getting to see my grandmother several times a week, even though they are still on lockdown, so she at least gets to see another family member.
On Monday, while working from home, our sales rep from our printing company, who I’ve worked with for over 15 years, called to say he had the color proof for the annual report that I just sent to print. This is the second year I’ve done the layout and I was SUPER pleased with how it turned out this year. The people I worked with were pleased as well, which was really nice, but it also means they want me to do it again next year, and I’m not sure I’m up for a third year…it’s a MONSTER of a project. We’ll see. Anyway, he wondered if I was at work so he could drop it off and when I said no, I was at home, he said, “no problem, I’ll come out to Flyinge” and he did. It’s only 10 minutes from Lund so it’s actually not that far, but it was both really weird and really nice to see another human at my place of “employment”. We kept our distance, of course, and chatted about the pandemic and the changes everyone has made in their lives and our predictions for how we think things will or won’t change…the same conversation I’ve had over and over with anyone I’ve talked to since February. I’m sure you can relate.
And then, yesterday, after Karin got done working, she and I ran errands, and at the mall (exchanging Anders’ birthday shirt for a different size and buying water glasses), we ran into one of my work teammates, who I haven’t seen in person since early March. We see each other every day during the week, via our video conference meeting, but it was supremely weird to run into her in person. I think the hardest part is not being able to hug anyone hello. We kept our distance, of course, and it was just nice to see her for real, so to speak.
I can hug Anders and I can hug Karin (though we instinctively distance ourselves, too, since she’s out and about with friends), but that’s it. I miss hugging people. I miss my friends. I miss the give and take at work. And we’re not even in quarantine/lockdown the way other people are.
Now I’m going to make Karin go climb over the ditch and cut some lilacs for me, so I can bring some summer into the house. (Virtual) hugs to you!