Stay at Home Day 53

our backyard

Today begins the 53rd day since our county issued the Stay at Home order. While others in the country, and world for that matter, have had to shelter in place for longer than that, there is no arguing that we have gone a long time without being able to visit family, attend gatherings, play pickleball with our friends, participate in any of the group activities we had become accustomed to in our new community, eat at restaurants, travel, visit local cultural institutions, etc.

To date, there have been 4.76 million confirmed cases worldwide, with 326,000 deaths. In the US there are 1.53 million confirmed cases, with over 90,000 deaths. North Carolina has 18,512 confirmed cases to date, with 659 deaths. Gaston County has one of the lowest virus cases in our area, fortunately. As far as we know, no one in our community has gotten the virus. Having said that, we know that it is out there and we need to remain vigilant.

While Phase 2 may go into play this Friday, lifting some restrictions for restaurants and hair salons, I will need to decide what I want to do about a haircut. I found a stylist in Mount Holly who I really like, and have been to her several times. However, she has chosen to spend her time off this week in a beach community, posting photos on Facebook. She admitted that her location is very crowded. This is the type of situation that puts people at risk, and I would have expected her to spend the two weeks before going back to work in a more controlled environment. There is no way that I can wear a mask when she washes and cuts my hair, and I doubt that she will wear one either in light of her disregard of the stay at home order. I will need to think long and hard about whether I want to be that close to her upon her return. My hair is in desperate need of a cut as I last saw her on March 3rd. All the stylists will be swamped when they can finally reopen, so odds of getting in to see someone new are slim. And I have no idea what any of them have been doing in their time off either. This is our new world, and everyone has to determine what their risk tolerance is going to be.

Yesterday morning Jim and I took our kayaks out on the lake early in the morning. Weekends on the water are a zoo with all the boats and jet skis, so we wanted to go out on calm waters without having to worry about being hit. Or knocked ashore by the waves. It was beautiful and peaceful, and certainly a wonderful way to forget all the pandemic madness for a little bit anyway.

Mountain Island Lake

The other thing that brings me joy is watching the birds in the backyard. The goldfinches have finally discovered my finch feeder with its special finch food. Another bird this morning made good use of the bird bath, and I saw my first hummingbirds out back over the weekend. I picked up a lantana basket at the farmer's market on Saturday, and it drew them right in. My hummingbird feeder certainly hadn't been doing the trick.

for the birds

We shall see what this Friday brings in terms of removing some of the stay at home restrictions. But thinking about the birds reminded me of the John Lennon song "Free as a Bird." Somehow the lyrics seem very appropriate today.

Whatever happened to
the life that we once knew?
Can we really live without each other?
Where did we lose the touch
That seemed to mean so much?
It always made me feel so
free as a bird.

Summer Hummer

hummingbird

In the spring I put out the hummingbird feeder that I purchased last year, eagerly awaiting the arrival of the tiny birds. Weeks went by without a sighting. Friends of mine had been commenting on Facebook that they had yet to see anything at their feeders either, despite following the instructions on how often to change the sugar water solution. I wondered what was going on weather-wise that the birds were not making their way to St. Louis. Finally on July 17th I saw my first one. Now there are several who come to feed, including a much smaller juvenile.

Last Sunday I went to the Missouri Botanical Garden with someone from my Women in Focus group. It was a beautiful morning in St. Louis with a cooler temperature and low humidity. There was a nice breeze as well, which isn't necessarily a photographer's friend. We had a good time while she worked with me on going 100% manual with my camera settings to try and capture a water droplet. I can't say I was totally successful, but I learned some things about my camera so that was worthwhile. All the water lilies were in bloom, and I am a huge fan of those. We wanted to play around with our lens balls a bit, and that certainly resulted in a lot of strangers coming up to us to see what we were doing!

Missouri Botanical Garden

After grabbing lunch we drove over to Horseshoe Lake in Madison County, Illinois. I had never been there before, though I had seen a lot of photos on Facebook that were taken there. It is a nice lake, and many people were there fishing, having picnics or just taking walks along the lake. We even saw a woman walking her dog with a bow and arrow on her back! When we stopped to talk to her, she explains that she fishes with a bow and arrow. The arrow is attached to fishing line, and she reels it back in after each use. I never knew such a thing existed.

Horseshoe Lake

Friday there will be a camera crew at my house filming a show. Morbid Curiosity is a "made for TV series of short Horror/Drama stories" which air locally through Charter Communications. For this particular story they were looking for a Victorian home, and ours fit the bill. The first part of the show  is set in the 1920s, and that is the portion that will be filmed Friday. The second part is present day, and will be filmed in our back yard at a later date. There will be murders, ghosts and mass casualties! It will be very interesting to see the making of a show. And to watch my neighbors' expressions when a "For Sale" sign goes up in my front yard, albeit on a temporary basis. Hopefully all the ghosts will leave when the filming crew does. Stay tuned...

Stay on the Sunny Side

sunflower

It's no secret that I like to take photographs, particularly nature shots. I had seen on Facebook a week or so ago that a friend of mine found a field of sunflowers in a neighboring county. When I asked her for directions to the field, I never dreamed she would go along with me as she had already been two weekends in a row. But she did want to go, and said it was magic to be there at dawn. My alarm went off at 4:30 last weekend (sorry Jim!), and I was on her street a little after 5:00. The only problem was that it was totally dark outside and I could not read the house numbers. I pulled over to the side of the road and turned on my overhead light to send her a text message. I was hoping that no one would call the police as I'm sure I looked quite suspicious. I saw a man leaving his house, so I rolled down the window to call out to him. Luckily he was not carrying, so I didn't get shot. I explained that I was picking up a friend, and asked if he knew where XXXX address was located. He had no idea (keep in mind this is a relatively short street, perhaps three blocks in all.) I then asked what his house number was, and after he told me I continued on down the street. By now my friend had texted back her location, and she was waiting for me on the curb when I arrived.

fog at dawn

We continued on to our destination in St. Charles County without any further excitement. There was one other photographer already set up when we arrived, and another friend met us at the site. Some low-lying fog added to the mysteriousness of being in a remote location at the butt-crack of dawn.  As the sun began to rise, it was totally worth getting up so early. The fog hung around for quite awhile, and really added to the atmosphere of the location.

country sunrise

The sunflowers had probably peaked a week or more earlier, but there were a few that still turned their happy little faces towards the sun. We were fortunate in that the morning was not too hot. That was especially lucky for me as I had on jeans and hiking shoes. I would rather sweat a bit than get eaten alive by mosquitos and/or chiggers.

sunflower field

Weldon Spring Site
Interpretive Center

After we left the field of sunflowers, we drove a short way down the highway to the Weldon Spring Site Interpretive Center. Located under an enormous pile of rocks is 1.5 million cubic yards of hazardous waste. An interpretive center explains the military history of the site, and native gardens offer an opportunity to see insects and birds up close.

While the center itself was closed (it was only 8:00 by this time!), we still enjoyed the gardens which were teaming with hummingbirds and, to a lesser extent, bees and butterflies. We also trekked up the stairs to stand on the top of the landfill, which happens to be the highest point in St. Charles County.

hummingbirds

While getting up at 4:30 is not something I normally would want to do, I have to admit that the sites were well worth missing out on some sleep. This past weekend I also had some interrupted sleep, but for a very different reason. But that's for the next blog post.