Today’s Review, Edit and Update: First, the house wrens - the nest is quiet now. No more activity inside. All the flutterings have moved outside. Now and then I see a tiny bird almost peer over the edge of the nest but otherwise, the fledging have flown.
Besides the typos, always a surprise to me, I fixed a couple of places where auto correct wasn’t picked up by this writer prior to the initial post. Another error was the colour of the masks that Martha made for the two ladies. In previous posts, it has been obvious that Emmie’s favourite colour is blue, based on her clothing colour choices. This was not reflected in the original version of this post: “Martha knew her favourite colour was red.” So I’ve fixed that issue.
April 06, 2020
Update about the House Wrens: The nest outside my office window, so well-disguised from any position but my office chair, is constantly busy inside. I do believe there are very active babies in there. Mom and Dad are flying back and forth constantly. When one of the parents goes down into the nest, there is lots of movement. Haven’t seen any babies yet, just lots of movement that does tax the flexibility and ingenuity of the nest. Now on to tonight’s post of Dez and Emmie in Episode Thirteen of Situationally Theirs: Spent
Spent
Rest, once a luxury for these two single women confined by pandemic mitigating policies, seemed all that they did anymore. Until today. Today they had been busy. Busy, relative to the past couple of weeks. Today had been 'pick up and delivery day', with an added bonus. Yesterday, when they contacted Digby, Emmie’s butler, he had spoken of the most recent and conflicting news reports about Covid19 issues. His main concern was about the non-surgical masks that he heard Dr. Tam speaking of, and had seen many passersby wearing. Did Mrs. Beaufort think that he should be wearing one? Mrs. Beaufort ~ Emelina ~ didn’t know at the time. Today, she was still conflicted, but interested, despite not even owning such an item. Desperanza just remained in the background, but quietly shook her head.
When they spoke with Martha, the Housekeeper, she hadn’t had the television news on. “I just don’t need to hear all the information and questions over and over again, I can’t concentrate on my sewing.”
She was still sewing costumes for her grandchildren’s school play. “They were so disappointed! Looking forward to that play and wearing their costumes. I had to finish them so they could wear them and maybe at least act out their parts!”
Martha asked about Digby and was so glad to hear that he was doing well. “Does he have enough to eat and is he eating?” Emmie assured Martha that he was, and that they would be picking up more groceries for him.
“I suppose he’s watching every news report. Definitely all the medical updates. That man will drive himself crazy with all his chasing after every single little detail.”
Emelina had an idea. “Martha there is one thing you could do for him. He seemed very interested in the suggestion that wearing a non-medical mask when going for a walk may be a help. So a mask is on his shopping list. I was wondering, do you think you could make him some kind of mask. You know what he likes and there’s lots of instructions online - but if you don’t have any fabric…….”
“Oh nonsense, I’ve got more fabric here than I know what to do with. Stacks of it. Some people have an obsession about books, about tools or about lots of other things. My obsession is fabric. I will definitely make him some masks and when you deliver my groceries tomorrow, I’ll have them on the front step. So come with my groceries first, then you can take his groceries with the masks. And you tell him that if he needs more, to just shoot me an email ~ that’s what my daughter says. ‘just shoot me an email, mom’” Martha’s laughter rippled through the airwaves.
And so it was that Emmie and Dez had a busy day. Up early, they ate a good breakfast and took their coffee with them in travel mugs. They split up the lists. Emmie did groceries and Dez went to the drug store. They didn’t wear any masks, but did wear gloves, both feeling a bit awkward wearing gloves in the stores, but felt it was better to be safe than sorry.
Emmie and Dez finished their rounds, clomping into the mud room like a couple of teenagers home from a party. It had felt like a party being out and about, hearing people talking and laughing. Most conversations were about ordinary things,……the car needs gas, the kids don’t want to do their homework, the dog picked up ticks at the park. Sprinkled through it all were the details and fear about this virus and the fallout from all the changes. Never the less, it still felt like a party and the sun had been shining all day. Once they had both hung up their coats and jackets, they stepped into the kitchen, washed their hands carefully and began unpacking their own groceries. Carefully. Transferring them from their ‘outside bag’ into their ‘inside bag’. Putting the ‘outside bag’ into the laundry, they stepped into the kitchen to put away the few groceries they had purchased. Supper was one of Cook’s specialties ~ Bavarian sausages and pirogies smothered in mushrooms and onions. Right out of the freezer into the microwave.
“You know, a busy day for me used to be non-stop running and fetching for the boss."
“And for me, it was meeting and after meeting after meeting. These last couple of weeks have really been a bit of a blessing. All that rest that used to be a luxury? I’ll never take that for granted again. Did you see those masks that Martha made for Digby? All kinds of crazy patterns. I hope he wears them. He's not a man for crazy patterns on anything. She even put a couple in with our names on the packages. She is such a good person.” Emmie handed Dez her package with a scarlet mask in it. Emmie’s was blue. Martha knew her favourite colour was blue, but only guessed at a colour Dez would like.
“I’m glad we could have helped them out today. But boy am I ever tired! Isn’t that weird? Guess we’d better step up our walking every day. I’m not, and never will be a jogger, but walking I could do all day. You need to show me the field behind this big old mansion. There must be some real work to be done out there.”
Emelina yawned and picked up the book that had been her morning read. She had brought it in from the patio when they brought in the groceries. “Let’s talk about that in the morning, Dez. I’m going to bed to read. That is, if I can keep my eyes open. Good night.”
“I am somewhat exhausted; I wonder how a battery feels
when it pours electricity into a non-conductor?
~ Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of the Dying Detective
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