I recently needed to fill in 3 or 4 more hours walking with the standard poodles around the Adelaide parklands. This was in mid-January 2022.
It was a warm day and we walked amongst the trees in and around Veale Gardens. We moved slowly through the shady areas beneath the trees to fill in the time. As we did so I made a series of photos of the trunks of the trees.
It was a return to what I used to do when I lived in the CBD prior to 2015 -- walking the poodles in the parklands and making photos. Only this time I wore a mask and kept my distance from everyone because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The pandemic is a game changer.
Mid-January was a time of anxiety as the Omicron variant of Covid was circulating throughout South Australia after the state borders had been opened in late 2021. I was doubly vaxxed, as they say, and I was due to receive the booster shot of the vaccine in mid-February. As the vaccines were losing their effectiveness in protecting me from the virus I was becoming wary and anxious.
I was anxious enough to make an appointment to be tested for Covid to see if the test results were positive or negative. They turned out to be negative, thankfully. I will feel less anxious once I've had the booster vaccination.
These are anxious times.