Lockdown: The Positive Thread
 

Noticed a few positives from the lockdown?
Post them here :D


No negative stuff. No moaning. No talk of CoVid-19.


Anything positive you've noticed from the lockdown/quarantine.
Any activities you've taken up as a result?
Post pics, anecdotes etc of things you've seen, noticed, or think about.


MoFo has threads on all the bad stuff... and we need some positivity in times of crisis and international bad-vibes.


As a starter, I'll start by reposting what I said the other day:


---


In late 2011, the local council allowed a greenbelt to be concreted and turned into houses.
Summer 2012, all the flowers and trees in my local area died.


No birds, no bees.
No flies.
For 8 years, wildlife in the area has been minimal or non-existent.


Humans go into lockdown... and the birds reappear in the thousands within 24 hours, and now, I've got bees in the garden as well after only 3 days.
Big, fat, fluffy white-arsed bumblebees scouting the area for food.


Can only be a good thing if the wildlife is currently encroaching into built-up areas. Shows that there's an immediate knock-on effect for the other creatures that inhabit this world :)

Re: Lockdown: The Positive Thread
 

Will add again.


I've taken up gardening again as well.
I've let my garden go overgrown for a while now. I kinda got bored with it and left it to ruin.


Yesterday I went out with 2 black binbags, and filled them with all sorts of crap.
Broken flower pots etc... weeded everything, including the weeds growing between the slabs and added new soil to the flower boxes and planted a bunch of seeds and stuff.
Just waiting on them to grow now :D
Edit: I haven't got a clue what the seeds are... it'll be a surprise if and when they sprout :D

Re: Lockdown: The Positive Thread
 

Did you plant any glacier cherries or bananas??? :)

Anywho, for me the biggest positive by far has been.....

.....not a single annoying 'doorstepper' has either rung the bell or knocked on the door ..... bloody marvellous so it is :)

Re: Lockdown: The Positive Thread
 

I might plant some bog roll and see if it grows :D
Will be quite an enterprise if it does.

Re: Lockdown: The Positive Thread
 

That's another first for about 8 years... a robin in the garden.
Couldn't move the curtain for a better pic though :(


https://i.imgur.com/doxC1EL.jpg

Re: Lockdown: The Positive Thread
 

Thought of another positive:

We're practising 'only one person does the shopping' to minimise both our exposure to others and theirs to us, and as only the wife drives ..... which also means she's currently having to pay for the weekly shop (that normally falls on me) - leaving me with extra money for music 'n' movies :)

Edit:
Herself is back from shopping and I gotta say it's tempting but she only bought three so I reckon a good chance she might notice if 33% of them suddenly goes missing and ends up buried in the garden :D

Of the positives:


Resumed my Portuguese (Brazilian) online lesson, which I had given up. I do it for one hour everyday.


I have started working out again. Quite seriously.

Re: Lockdown: The Positive Thread
 

Definitely some silver linings here:

1. I got to help out my elderly neighbors a little, and we talked about community and how things were when they were younger, and how maybe this'll lead people to come to rely on one another more.

2. My wife switched jobs recently, and went from working home most of the time to not at all. It's going well, but obviously she'd love it if she could work from home semi-regularly. This has forced them to get used to the idea, and might lead to it becoming a more regular thing in perpetuity.

3. I'd been thinking just before all this started how many books I hadn't gotten around to reading, games I hadn't gotten around to playing, how many movies and TV shows my wife and I wanted to watch

4. I've been dieting, and having food items seem a little scarcer certainly makes that easier. :laugh:

Just got a bunch of little household tasks done, too. Making the best of the situation.

Re: Lockdown: The Positive Thread
 

Re. Gardening...


I've managed to pull a muscle in the back of my leg and twinge one of my already slipped discs :laugh:


Garden looks nice though.

Re: Lockdown: The Positive Thread
 

GREAT news, y'all!
Happy! Season 2 is now OUT!!!!

Re: Lockdown: The Positive Thread
 

I’ve mentioned this before, but where I live in Connecticut has got the landscaping crews out big-time. Anything that stands still is swept up & anything that moves is blasted with a leaf blower. Supposedly to keep people (men mostly) working, I presume, because I have never seen anything like it.

We do have my good news thread. :)

Re: Lockdown: The Positive Thread
 

For any situation whatsoever that our culture made us see / consider as negative, there's always something positive that we're not seeing. The virus causes death, destroys the countries economies, but gives a tremendous life to many other things, and this is not nihilism, I'm not nihilist, I'm actually a positivist, I try to swim against the crowd, just that. While old people are being condemned by this invisible virus, couples are trapped inside a cubicle, years to come people might wonder why so many of their friends born in the same month. Those who already have children's, whose daily-routine is driving them to school, going to work and pick them up, now have time to spend with their kids, getting to know their interests. It's a very long vacations where money doesn't buy you distractions so easily, you have to stick with the fundamentals, either yoga, meditation, conversations, culinary, movies and books. It's also a incredible test to mental endurance, people can't live with their own thoughts nowadays, it's also a moment of realization of how dependable we are on consumerism and how we must adapt. Those who've been fighting environmental annihilation have so many reasons to smile, this, probable year will save us, not just us, but many species.

If you need any help, just say! :) I'm portuguese! Where are you from?

Re: Lockdown: The Positive Thread
 

Eu não ajudo, esta língua já tem morcões que chegue.

Re: Lockdown: The Positive Thread
 

It is a break Earth needed. My city is incredibly clean just 1 week after the government closed all public entertainment and advised everyone to stay home if possible.

ahahahahahaha :D

@neiba
India. And thanks for the offer. I might take it up, if I get stuck somewhere.

Be my guest! :) my pleasure to help!

For when the lockdown ends...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsM_VmN6ytk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdytOGnUFoI

Wow! Vera Lynn is 103!

They've sprouted already :eek:


I think they're tulips.


https://i.imgur.com/jrLVfDZ.jpg

Hmmmm .... looks more like a part-buried, whittled carrot to me :skeptical:

:p

Re: Lockdown: The Positive Thread
 

I got to binge watch Ozark.

Getting some needed yard work done.

Wife is now working from home so I get to see her more and hear her cussing at co workers when they cant hear her is quite amusing.

Being able to just plain sit back and chill has been quite nice. Hopefully cabin fever takes awhile to set in, but for now all is good.


Now I want to watch some prison movies... ;)

started rewatching "Hannibal".. M<3ds Mikkelsen.

It’s unbelievable.

You wish. :D

Thanks!
(It was seeing the very end of Dr. Strangelove recently that reminded me of this song!) :)

But I had no idea Vera Lynn was still alive! That's amazing! Same age as the recently late Kirk Douglas! (She's got a song about her on Pink Floyd's "The Wall.")

Didn't know that about The Wall. Can't say I liked the song or the album.

# Can work from home, so if I finish my task before my time is over, I can simply start watching a film, or something.
# Since I work at home, I don't have to waste time commuting to and from work, although it didn't take much time, it's still some precious time saved, so I sleep longer!
# Don't have to interact face-to-face with other people AT ALL which is introvert heaven!
# I'm safe from Corona and from prying eyes of all these lustful women that are after me... Okay I'm just kidding! I'm not safe from... Corona! I can still get it from touching a takeaway food box that I order! :D

This definitely qualifies as a positive news.

I received a free Tinder+ subscription for a month (my miser arse would never pay for a dating site). It allows me more superlikes, but more importantly it allows me to roam around the world.


Bend, Oregon has the sweetest, funniest and friendliest women between the ages 28-40 😂.

Sure, but the way I handle that is to have a baking pan ready ahead of time, dump it all in, and heat it to 225° for 40 minutes or so, or if you have CDO like me, then an hour.

Christ, I hope this works:

1. Dump it all in.
2. Throw out everything it came in.
3. Wash hands like you have ebola.
4. Set timer.

Works even for subs, but not so much if there's mayo or anything that can't be heated.

PS. Don't try this if you're elderly.....We don't know enough about just how susceptible is "susceptible".
PPS. Women (of all ages), WASH UNDER YOUR LONG FINGERNAILS.

Re: Lockdown: The Positive Thread
 

MORE TIME TO WATCH FILMS.

Re: Lockdown: The Positive Thread
 

Earlier, I was going to say its quieter around my neighborhood, but then two hours later, neighbors were fighting, face to face (hope they didnt catch COVID-19) and boy did it last long.. Family members on both sides started getting into it, all because of loose dogs roaming around.

Re: Lockdown: The Positive Thread
 

Been lovely round here tbh with everyone inside.
Usually there's a handful of people hanging around the carpark nearby, drinking premium strength lager and fighting over who smoked the last joint.


It's great at the minute though.

Re: Lockdown: The Positive Thread
 

I'm wondering what will the junkies do when lock-down is obligatory.

Officer: Where you going?
Junkie: To my dealer's house, getting a fix.
Officer: Have a nice day.

Re: Lockdown: The Positive Thread
 

Wonder if it's possible to use the 6ft distancing rule when an officer tries to arrest you :D

A week later... and there's more of them



https://i.imgur.com/R4UARaE.jpg


Don't think they're tulips, so still got absolutely no idea what they are.

Re: Lockdown: The Positive Thread
 

Definitely either geraniums or some other plant imo.

Re: Lockdown: The Positive Thread
 

Also, this has gotten bigger and still no idea what it is.


https://i.imgur.com/Zjl3BMi.jpg

Nah not Geraniums.
The sprouts on those are like little weeds.


Those things came from golfball sized bulbs :)

I was right then - some other plant :) Told ya so :D

Periwinkles.

Re: Lockdown: The Positive Thread
 

Just googled... not those :(


Close though.
The things I've got here, the leaves are... ahem... long and narrow, but also thick and furry :D

Re: Lockdown: The Positive Thread
 

Sound a bit like Triffids :eek:

Re: Lockdown: The Positive Thread
 

FOUND OUT WHAT THEY ARE!


Forget-Me-Nots


Pic off the web:
https://sarahravensblog.files.wordpr...anakawho-1.jpg




They should be renames "Find-Them-Nots"

Gonna be really ironic when you have to Google the name again next year.

Re: Lockdown: The Positive Thread
 

:D


You know what's weirder...


Forget-Me-Nots are usually blue. These are pink.

Forget-Me-Nots hate direct sunlight. These are growing in a south-facing suntrap.

Forget-Me-Nots prefer being near water. These are growing in a south-facing suntrap, that has no water nearby.


Nature = Weird.

Re: Lockdown: The Positive Thread
 

Dodgy pic, but my neighbour has put their Christmas lights up!


https://i.imgur.com/6Itqyrm.jpg

Re: Lockdown: The Positive Thread
 

The question is... are they early or late?

And are these "Lockdown Lights?"
(Are they rainbow colors? As the rainbow has now been adopted as a symbol of anti-virus / pro-isolation solidarity.) ;)

Re: Lockdown: The Positive Thread
 

Nah just the regular blue and red twinkly lights :D

I kept asking myself, "how do you see a dog?"


Then I read the post slower.
=*(


lol

He should have put them up in shapes of eggs, bunnies, and chicks. Then he could have called them "Easter lights". :)

.

I didn't know that, but I guess that's why we've been seeing some rainbows on doors and windows around here.

To be brutally honest with the quality of that photo we'd never know even if he had made the most fantastic Easter tableaux ever seen out of them. I actually thought it was a rejected still from Close Encounters at first :D

Re: Lockdown: The Positive Thread
 

My mystery blubs have grown more and now have green stuff bits.
https://i.imgur.com/8v5PF0k.jpg


https://i.imgur.com/t96hxjQ.jpg


And just to the right of the blubs, is more green stuff growing.
https://i.imgur.com/tiIhdE2.jpg

Re: Lockdown: The Positive Thread
 

The, erm... things... what they called?
They've grown more, and now have blue ones on them as well :D


https://i.imgur.com/LdAM70U.jpg


https://i.imgur.com/o1IftD1.jpg

Re: Lockdown: The Positive Thread
 

Positive thing about the lock down: Custom Lists are (hopefully) finally happening! Scaffolding's coming along. Slightly trickier than expected in some places but nothing too bad yet, and might be ready for some very early testing soon.

The colour denotes 'gender' - the pinkish ones are female, the blue ones male.

Yeah, you're right, I just made that up.

Did you just assume the gender of my garden?
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/i...zP63i&usqp=CAU

Re: Lockdown: The Positive Thread
 

I've lost weight because I'm not eating FAST FOOD anymore.

Re: Lockdown: The Positive Thread
 

It's kinda ironic how fast food actually slows you down.

Re: Lockdown: The Positive Thread
 

Ok, another garden thing I can't identify.
I thought it was an Acer sapling had attached to an old root system. It looked exactly like an Acer sapling, even the buds, before it sprouted leaves.
So I wired it, anchored it, and planted it in a pot to bonsai it up.

But now it's sprouting leaves, I can see it's something else.
Checked loads of websites, nothing.



Anyone help?
https://i.imgur.com/sNzsurf.jpg


https://i.imgur.com/4tn6PGI.jpg

Re: Lockdown: The Positive Thread
 

⬆️ What is Acer?

Re: Lockdown: The Positive Thread
 

Acer Palmatum
Sometimes called Japanese Maple.

Re: Lockdown: The Positive Thread
 

This is my Acer about 4 years ago:
https://i.imgur.com/oEGcPF1.png


No new pics atm as it's currently recovering from a massive pruning.

Re: Lockdown: The Positive Thread
 

Friend of mine put this together in quarantine. He did such a good job! Also helps that I think this is Billy Joel's best (but weirdly underrated) song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcJHl304Byw

I think this is a Crab Apple tree.
And going by the bark/trunk, possibly crossbred with the Acer.

A Crab-Racer Tree perhaps? Maybe it'll move sideways as it grows?? :)

MasterClass Quarantine Edition - SNL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VN2p8...ature=emb_logo

Tom Hanks At-Home Monologue - SNL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kol7RE3wCNA

Re: Lockdown: The Positive Thread
 

Yeah, watched that last night out of curiosity as much as anything. Not especially funny, if I'm being honest, though parts of it were pretty good. I admire the attempt, though.

I liked Weekend Update and the Carole Baskin skit, It starts at 1:50 in the top clip.

Yep, admired the attempt, good to see Tom Hanks is doing well.

Re: Lockdown: The Positive Thread
 

This is more neutral than positive, but: I'd already moved to a "permanent nine-o-clock shadow" beard last year, but for now in the quarantine I'm extending that to past the jaw. :laugh: Before I was still keeping pretty clean-shaven up to the jaw line but now it's just the super short scruff everywhere. Looks okay, easier to maintain, easy to go back on.

Re: Lockdown: The Positive Thread
 

More growth from the mystery-root thing I planted:

https://i.imgur.com/J4g1CSK.jpg


The Can't-remember-what-they-are's are growing well:
https://i.imgur.com/02oHtJ4.jpg


And the mystery bulbs are going well too :D
You can just see the mystery-root thing at the bottom right corner in this one too.

https://i.imgur.com/zt3FT1l.jpg

Re: Lockdown: The Positive Thread
 

And the mystery tree going well too :D
https://i.imgur.com/qsYE0bo.jpg

Don't fall asleep near that thing. Just ask Donald Sutherland.




o.O

What sort of vehicle you gonna haul all that stuff to the farmer's market in?

Re: Lockdown: The Positive Thread
 

Harrier jump jet :D

Re: Lockdown: The Positive Thread
 

The Triffids should fetch a pretty penny each.

Re: Lockdown: The Positive Thread
 

Another positive of the lockdown for me atm is I've been studying random stuff.


I've watched about 900 YouTube videos on dinosaurs and threw a load of study into planetary physics and astronomy again :laugh:

Re: Lockdown: The Positive Thread
 

Amazing...


Doing that space stuff I mentioned ^^


Hubble has spotted a collision in a nearby solar system.


Star Fomalhaut, 25 light years away, in Piscis Austrinus constellation... visible from Earth with the naked eye.

The star is only 200m years old. A mere blip when compared to our own Sun which is 4.6 billion years old.


Around the star, is a huge cloud of gas, dust and ice and an icy ring of dust and ice.
It's a planet forming cloud that is similar to the one that would have surrounded our Sun 4.6bya, with the ring of ice and dust similar to the Kuiper Belt that currently circles our solar system.



Fomalhaut had a known planet too: Fomalhaut-b

Until now.


In 2006, the planet Fomalhaut-b, grew massively in size and brightness... by 2013 it was a large fuzzy blob... and by 2014 it was gone.


Astronomers have put together the info captured by Hubble and have concluded that there must have been another large object in the system that collided with Fomalhaut-b, destroying both objects and returning them to clouds of dust.
The collision would have taken place in our year 1981, with the light eventually reaching us in 2006.



In the space of 200m years, a star forms, a planet forms shortly afterward, and is then destroyed. The planet taking barely 10 years to vanish.


Amazeballs.

If we think we're having a hard time here, just imagine what people on planets in this star system are going through!

Re: Lockdown: The Positive Thread
 

Yeah they've all got body parts flying through space and we're just being asked to not buy all the bogroll.

Re: Lockdown: The Positive Thread
 

Been about a week... mystery bulbs getting bigger and the mystery thing at the bottom right getting there now too :D :D
Not sure, but I think I planted swords.


http://i.imgur.com/DxKaAo2.jpg

Re: Lockdown: The Positive Thread
 

Had to clip the mystery tree as well as it was getting too big.


https://i.imgur.com/9gBRy0k.jpg

Well, I think lockdown is teaching all of us the benefits of living a simple life. We career around from interest to interest and event to event but in the end what really matters is family and friends

In the midst of lockdown I am dreaming of eating this on a winding road in the misty mountains. When will I see the mountains again ?

Re: Lockdown: The Positive Thread
 

My mystery bulbs and mystery plant things are getting a bit big now.


https://i.imgur.com/XnxMuFx.jpg




Also, the mystery bulbs, I found out they're Gladioli :laugh:
They're gonna be awesome when they flower :D

My mum was kind enough to make them after rains last week. Also made 'Capsicum Bhajji' along with the onion ones.


I am missing Vada Pav though. Haven't had one for three months now.


Anyways, hope you are doing well.

Re: Lockdown: The Positive Thread
 

Ian Tree about 3 months ago or so:
https://i.imgur.com/sNzsurf.jpg



Ian Tree about 10 minutes ago:
https://i.imgur.com/RKfaHKz.jpg



------



Bonsai about 7 or 8 years ago:

https://i.imgur.com/oEGcPF1.png


I had to chop her back about 3 months back, and thought I'd killed her because the new growth didn't start.

This was 5 days ago.
https://i.imgur.com/AJhctTb.jpg


This is about 10 minutes ago.
https://i.imgur.com/1t4AGJ7.jpg


She's exploding! Already had to trim it again and cut a lot of the new growth, and had to wire the new stuff as well already as it's growing way too quickly.
Not bad for something that almost died 3 months ago.
Bonsai almost died about 5 years back as well when we had a bad winter.
That's one tough old tree :D

Awwwwww, so cute that you gave the tree a name <3

:D

Re: Lockdown: The Positive Thread
 

I just had to check over the thread. Thought I'd said why I called it Ian.


The mystery tree... sprouted from an old root system.
I initially thought it was an acer cutting had latched onto the system and sprouted, so I called it Ian after Ian Malcolm "Life found a way" :D


Still no idea what the thing is though.
Pretty sure it's a fruit tree of some kind going by the leaves and how they've changed shape as the tree has gotten bigger.
Either apple, cherry or plum. Time will tell.

Another 5 days of growth:


https://i.imgur.com/okcn9WB.jpg


So I've had to cut her back again:
https://i.imgur.com/dACQF90.jpg

Another sad coincidence...
Vera Lynn died yesterday at age 103+


https://youtu.be/HsM_VmN6ytk

Re: Lockdown: The Positive Thread
 

8 days ago after a trimming:
https://i.imgur.com/dACQF90.jpg




This morning :D
Starting to take shape :D
https://i.imgur.com/XYRwsQ6.jpg



https://i.imgur.com/vMUkoiW.jpg

Go Ian! Go Ian!! Go Ian!!!

:)

#teamiandotcom

Oh this one isn't Ian :D
This is Ian:
https://i.imgur.com/RKfaHKz.jpg

Pffffttttttt

#teamunknowndotcom #feckiandotcom