Lens-Artists’ theme for this week’s photo challenge, in these pandemic times, is At Home.

Here in our quarantined community, we do get out and walk around the campus, but these photos have been taken within the last month inside our house.

In an effort to entertain us, the activities directors at our senior community are airing videos on our close-captioned TV stations. This was one of them – the Chicago Symphony Orchestra playing Beethoven’s 9th Symphony!

We do spend most of our time in the room with the TV these days, because it’s also where our computers are and where all my art supplies are. Sometimes when we are watching the news, I’ll just listen to the news while drawing. Here’s a recent drawing – I’d been wanting to do a swan on black paper.

Here’s my husband, Dale with our cat, Hazel, sitting on the couch watching something on TV the day after the symphony.

Last fall a friend gave me a bagful of daffodil bulbs. I had too many to plant in one spot, so I did an experiment, planting some on the east side of the house, some in front (which gets little sun), a few in a pot on the back patio, and a few in a raised bed of mulch with lots of pine needles. Obviously, the ones on the east side of the house bloomed first.

Next, one daffodil bloomed in the patio pot. But a late snowfall last week knocked it over!

Fortunately, the snow melted quickly and it popped right up again! None of the other daffodils have bloomed – just the leaves have come up!

Since we spend so much in the room with our electronic entertainment, here’s another view of that room – which, like many of my interior photos, has my cat in it!

The only plants I have inside are a perennial geranium, and an orchid plant. The orchid has been blooming for two months – recently half the blooms fell off, but there are five left. The geranium and the orchid sit on the window sill over my kitchen sink.

A few days ago, I was taking photos of my closet for another photo challenge, Becky’s April Squares, and who did I find in there? Hazel, of course! I think when she jumps on a shelf in the closet, it probably means she doesn’t want humans around. Her look is one of surprise, annoyance, or both!

She likes that we are home a lot these days, but there’s such a thing as too much togetherness!

In this photo, she’s perched on the back of a chair on our screened porch. She loves being out there, for the fresh air and to watch the squirrels and birds! This was another late snowy day!  Since taking this photo, I’ve moved these all-weather chairs outside on the patio, since recently Dale bought a little “bistro” table for the porch at Costco. I’m hoping it will soon be warm enough to sit out there and read or eat lunch.

We are fortunate that a walk around the entire campus of our community is one mile, so we do walk outside every day that the weather is decent and usually do two rounds. That is when we have a chance to see our friends and neighbors that we miss seeing a lot more often! It also gives us a chance to watch the progress of the swans. The other day, the female “Duchess” (as she’s been named by a majority of interested residents) was off her nest completely. Five eggs! They should be hatching in mid-May, and probably several of our resident ducks will be venturing out with their little ones too!

So we have plenty of space to live out this quarantine without it being too onerous. I feel sorry for friends who live alone! We have our meals delivered to our door and here’s the most alarming thing – the amount of Styrofoam we are accumulating! A fellow environmentally-conscious resident has found a place that recycles it (which is rare), so we are now collecting the containers instead of throwing them away. I suppose she’ll take them to the recycler when quarantine is over – hopefully the end of May!