My favourite time of year, in Covid times...

Over the past month, we have had a few frosts, the leaves have changed colour and started to fall, and the cozy autumn feeling has enveloped me... My favourite time of year is here!

And yet, how can I really enjoy - truly embrace - my favourite time of year during these stressful pandemic times?  Everything is just a little off these days, tinged with fear, worry, and anxiety.  We are well into the "second wave" they have been warning us about all summer, and so far, it appears to be just as bad as it was in the spring, if not worse.  Yesterday, my province broke the record for most cases in one 24-hour period.  The case count in my area continues to climb, after we remained mostly unscathed in the spring.  The restrictions are increasing, the feeling of doom is impending...

And yet, it is still my favourite time of year, and my mood is remarkably different than how I felt in the spring.  When I step outside, I take a deep breath of that earthy autumn air and I smile at the colours, the cool air, the crunch of the leaves beneath my feet.  I have things I am looking forward to:  watching scary movies, binging The Haunting of Bly Manor, working on crochet projects, baking pumpkin bread and making spaghetti sauce.  Hunkering down and hibernating is something I am good at, and while back in the spring I grew terrified of it, I am now relishing it.

I guess back in March and April, everything was still so "unknown".  We now have almost 7 months of Covid life under our belts now, and while things are still scary, I have a little better understanding of what to expect.  Back then, I was most terrified of being isolated from my mother (we both live alone), hence, why I moved in with her at the time.  But now I am quite comfortable in knowing that even if things get really really bad and we are moved to the "red zone", I think I would still be allowed to visit her.

For now, I am keeping my bubble as tight as possible.  I go to work every day, of course, so I am exposed to folks in the office.  But other than that, I go to my house and my mom's house.  I have been around my brother and his kids.  And that's about it.  I only go to the store when absolutely necessary, and last week I stocked  up on groceries that should see me through til at least the end of October.

And truthfully, I have enough to keep me busy for a while.  I have a number of orders for crocheted items to complete, and as I mentioned, a lengthy list of spooky movies to watch.  I am also enjoying cooking and baking - last weekend I made pumpkin bread, meatballs, and scalloped potatoes.  This weekend, I'd like to try pumpkin fudge and maybe make that pot of sauce I picked up the ingredients to make.

Honestly, while I'm sad all of the fun fall things have been cancelled, I'm kind of soaking up all the spare time to just relax.  There's less running, less trying to cram everything in, less stress in that respect.  My sadness is mostly over the fact that this would normally be a time when we would celebrate Thanksgiving and my nephew Caden's birthday, and that likely won't be happening, at least not in our traditional way.  Yet I still anticipate that we will figure out a way to making this coming weekend special, and I'm hoping for at least a little outdoor visit with my sister's family (we haven't seen them much since school started, and boy do I miss them.)

Overall, I am in a much better place mentally that I was when the first wave hit, and as we come up to the time when we think of all we are thankful for, I am most grateful for that.  I hope that I can continue this way, and keep my spirits up.  And every day, I continue to hope for some good news... The numbers going down, maybe some kind of scientific break-through, news on a vaccine... anything that gives us hope that "normal times" might come again.  I have to have faith that this isn't going to last forever.