Coronavirus in Hintonburg: Week Zero

With a pandemic currently ripping around the world it was inevitable that my little world in Hintonburg would be afftected. Although the coronavirus has been in the news for months it was only last week that it really hit home just how much this is going to change my life.

In future posts I'll blog about how we're coping with the school closures, event cancellations and travel restrictions but for this first post I'd like to focus on the few nice moments that made up my last semi-normal weekend before my family went into self-imposed isolation.

The reason we were able to think about something other than coronavirus is because my brother and his lovely family were visiting Ottawa for the weekend.

On Saturday we were able to enjoy a few fun moments at a local sugar shack, Fulton Sugar Bush. This was a good activity for us because for the most part we were quite far from other people and were simply wandering the trails or goofing around with some of the home made props.

So true

On Sunday I tried something new. Way back in 2011 I started a new hobby: birding. I'm still doing it. I love how the hobby forces me to pay attention to details and gives me an excuse to go outside. I'm sortof an advanced amateur. I don't have any serious camera equipment but I do like to look for birds when I can. Well, the new thing I tried on Sunday was using a website, ebird, to track down a specific species of bird that had been seen in the area. And guess what? It worked! On Sunday I saw my first ever Snowy Owl in the wild!

"Who" are you?

This blew me away for a few reasons. First, we tracked down a white owl in the middle of a white field.

20 minutes from my house but a world away

Second because I was able to convince Glossette Girl and Margot to go along with this crazy scheme to go look for an owl in minus seven degree temperature with the wind howling around us. Amazingly, not only did they go along - they liked it!

The troops muster for the journey

If you ever see people cheering in a field in the middle of nowhere...they're birders

Anyways, it was a moment of joy that distracted us from our present woes. We're going to be responsible and stay isolated from other people (including my extended family) now. But it was a nice while it lasted.