I've never broken out of prison; In truth I've never been incarcerated so have never had to do so. However today Faith and I staged a successful breakout from lockdown-confinement and it felt good!
Only a few days ago I was lamenting our inability to get out and about in the Adelaide Hills for some much-needed open spaces due to some inclement weather. After being restricted to our house and back yard we both felt the need to stretch our legs and to breathe some fresh country air. It didn't happen though; Not until today that is.
A glance at the sky, and the Bureau of Meteorology app, this morning confirmed that today would be a great day for a drive so off we went with an excitement only virus-lockdown can inspire. The day wasn't perfect being a little breezy and cool however it was perfect enough and we felt happy to be out for a little bit. The great breakout was on!
Straight away we noticed that there weren't many people out and about on the roads, which suits me fine. It boded well for our plan to hit the Botanical Gardens for a stroll and sure enough when we got there we found it was virtually deserted. Barely any people...Which also suits us fine because...Well, we don't like most people much at all.
We found bees though, as pictured below making short work of the pollen in the dahlias. We were pleased to see quite a lot of bees and whilst we got a few appraising looks they pretty much went about their business mostly-oblivious to us walking around.
I don't know what these two jokers did to end up behind bars as they seemed friendly enough. As we stood there they both hurried over and jumped up out of the water to say hello...I assume they were looking for a feed; Considering the lack of people around their usual lunch-time feast was non-existent. Or maybe they recognised a couple of fellow jail-birds in us and wanted to find how we had escaped confinement?
We wandered around the gardens aimlessly for around an hour and, as I'm ever the optimist, went to the cafe in the centre for a coffee only half-expecting it to be open.
Alas, my fears were well-founded as it was locked and quite obviously not serving the coffee I so badly wanted needed. A few moments of grumbling on my part was ended after Faith told me to get over it and wait until we got home. Not one to give her any reason to get mad at me I did what I was told...I get in trouble enough as it is, trust me.
As we strolled we remarked about how cool it was that the gardens were almost devoid of people and therefore noise. This was punctuated by the lack of traffic noise from the nearby city which was also mostly deserted. We ran into a few people doing the same as us however, at a guess, I'd say there were ninety percent fewer people there than would normally be around. So, virus-lockdowns are good for something at least. Less people.
Here in Adelaide we're being told to stay home unless it is essential to go out and, I'll be honest with you, todays breakout couldn't be considered as an essential reason to leave home but I figured it was safe enough to do so.
W'd planned to make the decision to stroll in the gardens only if we judged there were very few there. The car park only had a handful of cars within it so we thought it would be safe to go in. I figure we saw under twenty people in the whole botanical gardens area and so there seemed plenty of room for us all to stay safely away from each other.
We arrived home only a couple hours after we left, it was a short breakout, but a successful breakout nonetheless. Of course we're back now, willing-participants to lockdown again, but a little outdoors-time was just what we needed.
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In the current situation I feel it is very important to keep one's mind positive and active; There's a link between physical activity, positivity and attitude as far as I know.
We have no shortage of things to do at home, and of course we can spend time in our own back yard or walk around our suburb, however a change of scenery was nice today. Sure, it was a little naughty of us to take this non-essential outing however we came home feeling a little more energised and better for having escaped lockdown for a little bit.
If you guys are allowed out, or are able to break out of prison home like we did today, where are you going and what are you doing?
Design and create your ideal life, don't live it by default - Tomorrow isn't promised.
Be well
All images taken today by me on my Samsung S9