Rainy Retreat
It has been more than a month since we retreated to our house in LA up in the hills. Our busy nomadic life of traveling between NorCal and SoCal has been put on hold for a while. It has been quite delightful, despite the pandemic stress, to be able to settle in one place for once. This spring has been a lot of rains and chilliness. (Up until the heat wave suddenly arrived last week.) Since the Coronavirus lockdown, we have been quite creative with our StayHome activities. We cooked multicultural food, baked cakes, assembled puzzles, played a board game, and of course, watched a lot of movies and YouTube. It is unprecedented and quite surreal, but surprisingly I found this StayHome time to be peaceful and sometimes enjoyable. I often had this imagination of a war time, hiding in a secret bunker. Especially when the spring rainstorm hit in LA a few weeks ago, it felt safe and protected inside the house. It was relaxing to listen to the rainfall on the roof while we turned up the fireplace and played Monopoly together. Social distancing is not all bad after all.
Since it is one of the most discussed topics of all time how powerful it is to wash your hands well, I thought it would be a good time to share the bathroom products we use.
Long before this Coronavirus situation, I happened to send this long-selling soap dispenser from Vipp to my parents as a late Christmas gift. We have been using the Vipp products for nearly 10 years now. Vipp started out as a small family business in Denmark selling their iconic pedal bin, which was originally made for hair salons. Now, you see their products in Modern homes and design magazines. Our soap dispenser is as shiny as new except for the minor rust around the dispenser hole. We also have a matching soap dish and of course, their trash bin. Vipp is clearly a brand made to upgrade your bathroom.
Rainy days are not Uni's favorite. She has been waiting for the sun to come out for so long this spring. Now that the sun is back, she is out in the deck, getting toasty in the sun heat.
We celebrated our Easter at home as everybody else did. Nicolai again made me the Danish Easter lunch, which is pretty much same as Christmas lunch, as I always make fun of Danes' fondness of routines and sameness. But this is enjoyable to me as we only get to try this meal twice a year. The menus are... pickled herrings as a starter, meatballs and breaded fried fishes as main dishes. You eat all of these with pieces of rye bread, and of course, snaps is mandatory.
Social distancing feels like never-ending. It can get quite stressful sometimes. I feel like we are getting a little too relaxed now that the weather is gorgeous and that makes us want to go outside. The last two weekends, we did a lot of garden renovations and some house upgrades on our own. It's a good way to stay fit and let your pandemic stress out. Our backyard has been untouched for many years before we moved in but after all the spring cleaning, dead branches and weeds are gone, and it's ready for some nice citrus trees, tropical plants, and a herb garden to be set in place. We have this secret project to turn our backyard into an outdoor movie theater with our newly bought projector. I'm dreaming about popcorns and beers (maybe a coke for me...), many cushions, hanging light bulbs, and watching a movie on a warm summer night with friends and our visiting families.
Greetings in Japanese
みなさん、StayHomeはどうお過ごしでしょうか。ロスの家にリトリートしてから1ヶ月以上が立ちました。今年の春は去年に続いて雨が多く、寒い時期が続きました。
先週あたりから気温がぐんっと上がって、カリフォルニアでは珍しく寒かった日々が嘘だったかのように、今では初夏のような気候です。私たちもSocial Distancingのため、たくさん家で時間を過ごしたので、暖かくなってからはものすごい勢いでガーデンリノベーションを始め、雑草や冬に溜まった落ち葉や枝をいっきににクリーンアップし、夏に向けての準備をしています。
家で過ごしていると、あまりコロナウィルスの深刻さへの実感が湧かないのですが、馴染み深い芸能人の方々が亡くなったというニュースを聞いて、あっ、またしっかりSocial Distancingを頑張らなきゃっと考え直す日々の繰り返しです。手洗いにちなんで、デンマークの有名なバスプロダクトのブランドVippを本文では紹介しています。長い長い戦いですが、あともう少しな気がします。みなさん外にはなるべく出ず、手をしっかり洗って、気を許さずに一緒に乗り越えましょう。