How YOU Spent Your Corona-cations

In the last installment of HeartWood, I wrote about some of the ways I've been filling my unexpected free time during the weeks of social distancing and Stay Home - Stay Safe. In this installment, I'm giving other folks a chance to share what they've been doing. And what a variety of things they've come up with!

Check them out!

Tonya Howe
Croton, Michigan

​I've been puttering around with a few drawings and one of Eldon eating soup.

Laura Bailey
​Hartland, Michigan

I'm still working half-time at U-M (currently from home), but with the extra time I've been taking my dog Eleanor for long, meandering walks around the farm fields and vacant land and building sites surrounding our home in Hartland. Unfortunately, the ticks are out like mad, so we can't go off trail as much as I'd like. 

Eleanor and Laura

Eleanor sporting sportswear

Eleanor recuperating from a strenuous outing

Eileen Kent
​Croton, Michigan

I’ve been out weeding the garden - staring into space - sitting on the outdoor swing and watching the river - baking too much!  Ahhh, lethargy!  There was a moment of inspiration though - I pulled out some fabric scraps and made a table topper for upcoming Memorial Day.  Now back to staring into space . . . 

Eileen's table topper

Cindi McDonald
​McKinney, Texas

We have been watching too much TV, Netflix and Amazon Prime.  Also, managing to work out at least three times a week. ​

And we're enjoying housebound happy  hours with the help of our new margarita maker!

A little TV time, well-deserved after a workout.

The margarita machine, ready for happy hour

Kendra McKimmy
​Croton, Michigan

​I have joyfully been working in my garden (look how big the garlic is already!) and last week canned a couple gallons of maple syrup. Keeping very busy around here even though my regular artsy muse took off for parts unknown.

Kendra's impressive garlic crop

And maple syrup!

Emily Everett
​Grosse Pointe Woods, Michigan

I’ve never been a jigsaw puzzler but a friend sells them so I bought some to support her local business. It’s hard for me to focus on anything for very long during stressful times but I get lost in a puzzle, every time. Even writing this for Nan makes me feel like I took a happy pill.

Emily's choice of puzzles reflects her passions: yoga . . .

. . . and Frida Kahlo!

Brenda Huckins Bonter
Newaygo, Michigan

A great time to create. In my walks in the woods I find so many "tree spirits." They fascinate me, so I've finished ten so far. I do a quick sketch on site, then add sharpie and watercolor. Now working on grad gift caricatures.

Janet Glaser
Fremont, Michigan

I've been working on learning how to bake bread. I tried early in my marriage, but too time consuming and nothing would rise!! I think the yeast has improved because I've had success in baking loaves of bread AND in making pizza crust.

My husband "designed" the one with the wreath of pepperoni slices and lots of onions. Mine was not so carefully thought out. Anyway I made the sauce too! It was fun. 

The pepperoni-wreathed pizza

And Janet's free-form creation. Both look yummy!

Phyllis Flanigan and Mike King
​Farmington Hills, Michigan

We’ve got a quilter friend who went into auto overdrive, sewing masks and scrub caps for healthcare and front-line workers. So we are her crew, turning right side out and ironing everything she sews. Last week we topped the 4,400 mark (just the two of us).  With our small group, we’ve topped over 10,500.

So that has been keeping us busy. Trying to get in some daily yoga and weight lifting. We also started going to wave at Mom every Monday morning at 10. That’s fun. ❤️

Some of the masks Phyllis and Mike have helped make

Kathy Misak 
Newaygo, Michigan

Last Tuesday was a special Covid day. I got to hang out 2 loads of wash and get out the very quiet weed whip and head down to the river for some enjoyable work. I also got the clippers out and cut the grasses out of the iris bed.

Many games of Scrabble have been going on in our house, and each night now we seem to gravitate to The Newshour on PBS. Making a call to a friend or family member is an almost daily event. Meditation is becoming a regular part of my day and I hope it continues.

The Muskegon River behind Kathy and Rod's house

Jan Ross
Arcata, California

I have been forced to become a walker rather than a swimmer the last few months. My dogs love it and it has been spectacular watching everything come to life this spring. So very grateful to live where I do.

Arcata Community Forest

Jan's very willing walking buddies, Kip and Nixie

Ray Pokerwinski
Croton, Michigan

When I'm not patrolling the area in my role as self-appointed neighborhood watchman, I've been spending time in my workshop. My latest project is making hand-turned bottle stoppers.

I also created a fairy fire station for Camp Newaygo's Virtual Enchanted Forest event last month.

And like Cindi and Dale, we're enjoying home-centered happy hours, too.

This one even lights up, for a little romantic ambience

The Fairyland fire station

Happy hour, backyard style

Laurel Sercombe
​Seattle, Washington

Editor's note: Laurel is an ethnomusicologist and the most devoted Beatles fan I've ever known.

​One thing I spent too much time on was adapting my (famous) lecture on the Beatles for an online popular music class at the University of Washington using Zoom - weird not to be able to engage directly with the students. Also, I gave blood.

Laurel in 2002 at the Abbey Road crosswalk made famous by the Beatles

Sally Wagoner
Croton, Michigan

​After initial quarantine tasks such as cleaning out drawers and closets, the promise of birth, growth and renewal overcame the need for order. We talk everyday: me and these little giving friends who awaken like babes from a nap. They give me hope.

And every morning I take a barefoot walk into my "woods" - about a dozen trees at the end of our drive - to see how my shady native plants are faring.

Gloria Switzer
​Fremont, Michigan

I have a designated recipe and cookbook cupboard in my kitchen, filled with recipes from my now deceased mother and mother-in-law as well as my own recipes, some in small wooden recipe boxes, although most were loosely scattered all over the cupboard. Plus, there was a multitude of recipes I had cut out from magazines, newspapers and the back of packages, for at least the last 4 decades or more!

I took the whole mess out of the cupboard and put them on the kitchen table with great intentions of getting them and that cupboard organized! It took a very long time (think weeks not hours) to go through them, reorganize or throw them away or rewrite the ones that were so stained and tattered they were useless. We ate on TV trays many times during that extended project!

​In all of that mess I found a delightful surprise; a recipe in my Grandmother's handwriting for Sour Cream Cake, that I swear, I had never seen in my life! The cake was tasty! She would be 132 years old this year. 

Project in progress

Gloria ready to try the cake recipe

The recipe

Valerie Roberts
​Durham, North Carolina

What I missed most in isolation is playing with my 3-year-old grandson, Roman, so in addition to FaceTime on the phone with him a couple times a week, I wrote him an adventure story. I mailed him a chapter every two days. Each chapter introduced three new animals, all of which live in north America. I sent a link of the story to my neighborhood list serve and was gratified to read thanks from parents and grandparents anxious for activities. It was fun for me to create, fun for him to read, and according to his parents, fun for them to read aloud.  

Read and download "Isolation Adventure" here.

Sandy VandenBerg
Fremont, Michigan

Editor's note: Sandy and her native plant garden were featured in a 2018 HeartWood blog post. This spring she has been giving away extra plants to friends, via social-distancing pick-ups.

Stay home and stay safe was a gift in some ways. My gardens have never been so well tended. Really enjoyed knowing the plants are going to good homes.

Sandy's plants, potted up and ready for pick-up

Katherine Myers
Claremore, Oklahoma

 I've always been active in the gardens, but I've increased just walking--and have lost 10 pounds during the shutdown. I'm happy and my doctor is too! Though I don't have a blog, photos for my Lily Hill page force me to stop gardening and appreciate the views, far and close up,

Lily Hill, a gardening hobby that grew and grew

And iris

A little early for lilies, but not for peonies

So lovely!

Kay Cummings
Newaygo, Michigan

Hiking is one thing I’ve been trying to do to be active, in addition to yoga about 3 times a week.  Beyond that, I’ve been continuing my piano lessons (on my own), and planning my wedding, which was last Saturday and was quite different than the one we originally planned!  Much simpler, with only 10 people, but very nice just the same.

Proper wedding attire, 2020-style

Kay and Bob, unmasked

Rebecca Howey
Rochester Hills, Michigan

Editor's note: Rebecca's "one or two sentences" came in at 774 words. I didn't want to cut a bit of it, though, because there's a lot of good stuff here! (I keep telling her she should have her own blog.) I just gotta say, it's a good thing I didn't ask for pictures to go with it.

The most beneficial thing (much better than vacuuming, which I have not done) has been the free Coursera from Yale called "The Science of Well-Being." It's really about what makes us truly happy and how to get there. Spoiler alert: it's not what our culture tells us.
 
Also, these days it's a bit disconcerting to see the non-virtual students sitting close to each other and hear them coughing!  (Has anyone else been yelling at their tv screens? It can be the most innocuous old sitcom and I'm all, "Don't shake hands! OMG, now you're hugging each other! OMG, OMG, OMG!" I'm better at this now, but it was rough for a while there.)
 
I have been knitting up a storm - charity knitting, mostly with "legacy" yarn I inherited from a friend's stash. I also made miles and miles of chain stitch cord and mailed it off to a friend who is converting her fabric stash into face masks she's giving away. (She and housemate totally ran out of elastic, old t-shirts and potholder loops. Their dining room is like a small factory.)
 
I think doing things for others is especially good just now, though it was more than sobering to consider that the hats, sweaters, and ponchos I was making for the Navajo school kids might . . . well, you know.
 
I dusted off my elderly Kindle and learned that, with a newer software download, it is Way Less Annoying. I've read and read and read!
 
I have been going through my DVD collection and Watching All The Bonus Features. The directors' commentaries for Bend It Like Beckham, Seabiscuit, and Monsoon Wedding were almost better than the films.
 
This last one might seem counterintuitive.
 
It started when a Facebook friend (a friend of friends in real life, one of the few FB friends I've not met) shared a post from the Holocaust and Humanity Center in Cincinnati. They were having a virtual book club. First up was Elie Wiesel's Night, which I had never had the courage to read by myself. Being part of a group was helpful. The next book was Anne Frank's diary, which I had read, so I fired up the Kindle and read Francine Prose's book about the book and its author. Wow! I learned all kinds of stuff.
 
I also learned how much I swear when figuring out the arcane magic tricks of the multiple websites required to borrow e-books not owned by my library.
 
I did not, however, curse during any of my several calls to the library staff who helped me gain access. I think one of them wanted to, though; that episode was something goofy in the library's circ software.
 
It was all worth it in the end, though, AND WHAT ELSE DID I HAVE TO DO? A jigsaw puzzle of Easter eggs, shaped like an egg. Also coloring, knitting, and - OK! - vacuuming, like that's gonna happen.

This organization, the Holocaust and Humanity Center, offers all kinds of online sessions. There's one later this week about preserving your family artifacts: photos and other things. (They have a website and multiple FB pages.)

AND, because I attended a bunch of those, I got invited to a series of Holocaust survivor presentations from a community college in New Jersey that is absolutely inspiring. They tell the tale, but the focus is on resilience.  
 
Also MSU Extension "Cabin Fever" presentations. The most hilarious thing there is that I forwarded the follow-up email with its many citations to a cousin, who replied, "I was 'there' too!"  
 
And the mourning dove chicks on the front porch have flown the coop. Stupid birds! But I did learn that just before they fledge, a normal human being will be convinced that their no good rotten birdbrain parents have abandoned them. That was good to know, because it was gonna be one Huge Moral Dilemma whether I fed those things or not. Last I saw them, they (two of them) were standing up in the flower pot under the porch light and looking like it was time to steal the car keys and light out for the Dairy Queen.
 
WHAT WOULD WE BE WITHOUT THE INTERNET IN ALL OF THIS? Mostly insane. I might even be vacuuming.
 
Another thing I have done is re-read Salinger's story "For Esme - with love and squalor" or whatever it's called. The whole thing is online as a pdf.
 
It has come up in multiple conversations (because I MAKE IT), because I firmly believe that the ONLY thing that we must do during this time is "survive with our faculties intact." Job One, right there.  ​