Diary Entries

The silent enemy Stands out in a crowd The king of the news The one with the crown An invisible enemy Plaguing the world Killing too many The destruction unfurled A hurtful enemy A pain in your heart Loosing loved ones It tears us apart But listen We can beat this virus Band together 'Cus Aussies Are Survivors

COVID-19... Today is a day like no other. There will only be one of these days in my lifetime. As there is only one thing on the tv today and they are messages of COVID-19. We are left alone in isolation waiting for the day we are finally set free. Complaining will not help us in COVID-19 so we just have to wait for normality. We have more time this year to reflect on the ANZACS and thank them for fighting for our freedom. I thank those front line workers doing their best to keep their country unscathed from this COVID-19. As school reopens and the smell of familiarity cleanses me I still wait for the day where we are truly set free from COVID-19.

TO A VIRUS ========= I know you're there hiding around each corner lurking somewhere out there biding your time to find me forgetting to keep my shields up protecting my defences down and idling then you will come attacking to take me hostage fighting I don't know where you're waiting but I won't let you stop me smiling One day you'll be the one shaking and I'd be back in the streets dancing

This is my AMAZING poem; Quarantine is very dumb. Yes, it's true, that it's not fun. Not meeting in the sun. Is easier said than done. We can't hang out with Mates. Or take a trip to the United States. Sneaking out gets a hefty fine. You can't go fishing with a fishing line. Scomo says we'll be out soon. With a cure that will make us immune. Some people decided to read books. Others thought that they were good cooks. China made this disease. Bringing all countries down to their knees. Unfortunately, this is the end of my writing. BTW Australia is very delighting. I hope you liked it!!

Severe drought, fires, flooding and a global pandemic. Sound familiar? This is what Australia has been experiencing in the past 6 months. News of the fires traveled internationally, Australia was burning. As the fires started to dwindle away we were faced with yet another natural disaster, flooding. We had no time to recover. News started circulating of a virus, but at that point we weren't concerned, we had to help friends and family recover. About a month later, there was a confirmed case of Covid-19 at a Boys school in Sydney. That's the type of thing you hear about on the news and think, "that will never happen to me." Suddenly we start hearing more and more about this virus, it's spreading, rapidly. Toilet paper, hand sanitiser, soaps and other cleaning products start to disappear from store shelves and videos circulate of people fighting in stores. Restrictions on many items were put in place after that. Numbers at schools start to decline and our school announces that during this time, we will be doing online learning, that was a shock. However, I feel that during this time, Australians have developed a nationwide sense of community and we have all started to learn how to do our part to help others.

Dear Diary During the pandemic life has been crazy! It seems like everything is slowing down. Like I was on a roller coaster flying 1 million miles an hour but then all of a sudden it stopped. Different people have different opinions about this time. Some people are loosing loved ones while others are enjoying the quiet time. Well I have a different story. On the 6th of December I moved far away from where I lived. At the start of the year I started school and I was brand new. I knew no one! When I started at my new school was when the pandemic started. But nothing was really happening. it was all in china and I never thought that it would come to us here in Australia. So I moved schools again because I didn't really like the one I started the year at. When I moved there was only a few students in my class and I felt like an outsider. Everyone was at home hiding away praying that the pandemic wouldn't get to them. There I was though. The new kid. The next day I decided not to go to school any more and to also hide away like a lizard hiding away from a pray of lions. For 6 weeks I had no one to talk to. I felt trapped and alone with no where to go. This changed me a lot. It changed how I felt about my self. It changed my goals and changed my state of mind. I know that my story won't be the most inspiring but that's not the point. I'm here to promise something. promise something to myself and maybe to some of you. When this is all over I promise that everything will be ok. I promise.

On my first day of working from home during the Covid 19 pandemic, Monday 23rd March, I received a text from my husband informing me that they were closing the Queensland borders on Wednesday night at midnight. "How quickly can you pack?" he asked. With the news of many deaths overseas, the seriousness of the pandemic made me think, well if we are all going to die then where do I want to spend my last days. Our two adult daughters, new granddaughter (1 month old) and extended family were all in Brisbane. My parents were also driving down from Cairns to Brisbane for a critical eye operation and were needing care and chauffeuring around the big city. So we fled the state of New South Wales for Queensland the very next day. Throwing a suitcase of clothes together, wondering how long we would be away and what seasons to pack for, emptying the fridge and cupboards of perishable foods and packing the necessary tech equipment to work from home. Justifying to myself, well home could be anywhere, couldn't it? We drove off with a sense of panic, foreboding, seriousness, fear, adventure and a touch of excitement. I write this 8 weeks later. We didn't die. Working from home happened. I was able to support my parents for five of those weeks before they set off once again to the cleaner air of the cane fields of Far North Queensland. I got to support my daughter and bond with our new grandchild. I basked in the sun ... and I returned to New South Wales.

The Sweetest Poison I sense your terror; you’re right to be afraid. Chaos is a dangerous yet beautiful curse. An autumn crocus unfurling its petals, Its illusive form a garden-ground verse. There is no conjuring something from nothing. There is a give and a take, a chance to try. Sometimes a flower is simply a flower, And the best thing it can do for us is to die.

ISO-GARDENING [PART 2] Snip, snip at the rosemary with the slightly blunted secateurs– sharpening’s another item to add to that lengthening list. Dead twigs of rosemary mingle with hopeful bursts of green, blue flowers still a-bud. Its perfume’s given us many a fragrant roast, many a wake-up tea. It’s been picked for hasty posies, and always, always means remembrance. My parents hover behind one shoulder, Ophelia trails her sighs behind the other. There. Our woody rosemary’s lighter now. I sit at a bench to refine the cuttings: these to strip and dry the leaves for cooking, those for a posy that might grow roots for striking, these splendid ones to strike in soil today. Out of the lopping, I reassure the parent plant, will come new plants. Life will go on. And a sudden gust of autumn wind sweeps my hopeful piles to the ground. I pick them up again. No use moaning. The cuttings and I regard each other for a moment. Yep, I tell them silently. We’re all in this together. The old bush regards me with a tolerant eye. We’ll see, it seems to say. We’ll see. My phone alarm nudges me towards my writing desk. Oh yes, we’ll see. Together.

ISO-GARDENING [PART I] I’ve just googled growing basil. Three transplanted supermarket seedlings have suddenly died outside. Too cold. We didn’t know they were tropical! Those green patches on the soil on the inside crop are mould! Due to the tea-leaves generously and thriftily added to their soil– for nitrogen, says my co-gardener. And now we know they’re picky about water, that solves our daily argy- bargy over when to add it. The space outside our back door once grandly called ‘the herb garden’, is being prepped for hopeful punnets of lettuce and snow peas– oh the visions splendid of sturdy globes and delicious pods! It’ll be fine, as soon as we cover it with chicken wire to fend off one neighbouring chicken, three brush turkeys and a bandicoot; oh, and work out where the leopard slugs hide by day to wait for their evening feed. Enormous creatures, centimetres long, they glide out in the darkness like pirate vessels intent on tender plunder. And I’d better prune our faithful rosemary bush, enduring through drought and bouts of sporadic gardening that would leave it below thickets of tomato plants self-seeded, occasionally fruiting. The self-seeded parsley often flourished there until work deadlines left them parched, unwatered and drooping. Oh, unproductive retrospective guilt! We have high hopes this time. My fellow gardener’s stopped tipping daily coffee grounds out the back door as mulch. The cow manure’s bought. We are on track. This time.