Ah, goodness. I'm full of gooey love for people. Today we got together for our Gardeners Meet Up which we used to hold once a month before the pandemic. So many people had been asking me when we were holding our next meeting that I decided to do it, despite only very recently being only allowed to have outdoor meetings of ten people at once.
So when I got down there, I expected to have to direct people into groups of ten, or to have the police turn up (the sign's been up in town all week), which would been even more interesting since there was at least ten of us not wearing masks. Masks have been mandatory in Victoria for a while now, but there's still a few of us not wearing them for either reasons of belief, or hidden disabilities. I thought the police might do a drive by and ask us questions, but they didn't. It did make me laugh - most people just joked 'oh, watch us scatter!' and you're talking older people, country folk who I thought might be a little more conservative, but nope. They just shrugged it off, saying the police had bigger fish to fry and that what are they going to do, book a gardeners group? We joked about us being on the front page of the paper: REBEL GARDENERS GROUP FULL OF ANTI MASKERS! DEFIANT GARDENERS BREACH COVID LAWS TO SWAP TOMATO VARIETIES!
I got a few interesting tomato varieties, one being an Australian variety that fruits early, has thick stems and compact growth - although I didn't think I'd plant more tomatoes, looks like I'll be sqeezing a few more in. There was quite a bit of produce as well - broad beans, leeks, cauliflower and silver beet, and bunches of roses, jars of seeds to share, eggs, lemons and even home made soap and honey.
The only annoying thing was my son's dog, who I was puppy sitting - she was very yappy and excitable and hard to control! I didn't get to speak to half the people I wanted to, but caught up with a few and made some great plans to cement some community gardening events. Richard (South African, avid permaculturist/biodynamics guy) has talked me into joining in a community leadership program run by the council so I'll put in my application for that soon, and join him and another woman in starting some kind of community exchange for the town, such as labour working bees on a roster system with people who sign up for it, open garden days, and workshops. I feel a bit excited about this community building again, after a time of being really disillusioned and set back because of the lockdown laws and everything apparently at a standstill.
Anyway, everything feels super positive. I feel sad for Europe at the moment being in lockdown whilst we've been on 0 cases for a few days now. I'm sure it's in the community still and it wouldn't suprise me if we get another outbreak at some point, but for now life seems at least a little bit back to normal.
Honestly, catching up with people who love gardening and care about community is enough to make your heart burst.
Even if we were apparently breaking the law.
It's good to collect and gather again, and outside is definitely the place to do it. The masking laws and emergency rule is technically still in force here but almost NO ONE following it, since we've had no covid in since forever and there are almost no new people coming in. At Football on Saturday almost no one wore masks - and LOTS of shouting!!
I think this idea of waves will be with us forever - seasons of political instability, seasons of Q, seasons of financial collapse. Actually nothing has changed in the world at all - was ever thus with wars, plague, famines etc. Often reflect on what the middle ages might have been like had they had the "benefit" (I use that word with some caution) of social media.
The dog training posts sound like they're gonna be fun.
Oh god. Imagine the memes about the bubonic plague?
And you are so right - we just don't think in big time spans really. People forgot history has always been like this, and we're living it. though sometimes it does feel like the end times...
!ENGAGE 25
Good on you all and great many not wearing masks 👍
Thanks - it's sooo good. Things getting a lot more relaxed in Victoria at the moment.
Cool, really heartwarming to see you got that social time. The mask thing makes me laugh, it's the pseudoscience of outside makes it ok. Even in my art class, sometimes we land the exhibition hall so we are distanced enough that I allow the masks to drop, even inside. But last class, I kept mine on because the numbers are on the rise here. So weird to have all these combinations of behaviours in cities and communities around the world, with different levels of alert and lockdown.
Love to see this anyway!
Yeah totally, we're much more relaxed here now - no numbers at all for about a week. If there's heaps of people getting sick around you it makes mroe sense to have a mask on - and I'd just make my husband go to the shops for me haha.
:) cracked me up! good you had some social time though, must be nice during these times :)
Haha oh yes it was great. I almost felt it was a shame that we didn't get busted by the coppers and make the media!
I bet, would have been funny to see a headline like that :)
Good for you guys! This really made me happy to read 😘 I hope you have a fantastic growing season and gather together again real soon.
Thanks - so glad it made you happy too! We can't wait for the next one....
I'm so happy you got your gardening group back together and they came with a wonderful attitude!
And that community project you are applying for sounds wonderful - lots of good things happening there!
It does warm you heart to have get togethers like that! And all those wonderful garden goodies!
I love reading about your gardeners group and that's great about the community program!
It's so rejuvenating to have normal relations with humans! And very encouraging to me over here in the US, where our supposed president-elect is proposing mandatory masking whenever you are outside your home, and a six week total lockdown. I pray for sanity to return. Joy Matters!