Covid Photos Five Years Later

Most of you know that this month marked the fifth anniversary of when Covid was diagnosed and forever changed the world. In early 2020, Steven and I had just begun what we'd hoped would be a four-month trip through much of Asia and the Middle East. When we first heard about Covid in our travel bubble in Kochi in southern India, we naively thought we might be able to continue traveling. Thanks to the advice of two of my brothers in my native Canada and our second daughter, who impressed upon us how serious things had become back home, we flew home just a couple of weeks into the trip. 

Here are some photos I took to remember those scary days from home in Littleton and further afield after we began traveling again. 

3/13/20: Kochi, India: Even in the first days of the pandemic, in a small gallery in southern India, we were required to have our temperatures taken, use a squirt of sanitizer, wash our hands, fill out a lengthy questionnaire about where we had been, where we were staying, and many other personal details. By contrast, there was a complete absence of similar regulations once we returned to the US a few weeks later.

5/1/20: Littleton, Colorado: This was one of the first painted rocks I saw on walks near our home. I didn't realize how common they would soon become.

5/6/20: Littleton: Words of wisdom during the pandemic, but just as apt now.

Mid-May 2020: Littleton: It was heartwarming to witness the support for healthcare workers across the country. 

6/18/20: San Francisco, California: Support for the city's workers ran high.

7/4/20: Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming: 

 

9/21/20: Greensboro, North Carolina: This sign outside an optician's brought a smile to our faces.

9/21/20: Hillsborough, NC:

9/23/20: Asheville, NC

9/23/20: Carl Sandburg's home near Flat Rock, North Carolina: G.O.A.T. in case you're wondering means Greatest Of All Time. There were goats in this image because Sandburg's wife raised goats on their property!

9/23/20:  North Carolina Arboretum in Hendersonville:

This was another cute sign from the Arboretum!

9/24/20: Near Cherokee, North Carolina, on the Blue Ridge Parkway:

9/25/20: Great Smoky Mountain National Park, North Carolina!

9/26/20: Cherokee, North Carolina: Museum of the Cherokee Indian

10/18/20: Springfield, Illinois' Old State House: Do you recognize President Abraham Lincoln's image?

I really appreciated Springfield's Catholic Church of Saint Paul's humor during the pandemic: Say your Prayers, Wash your Hands, Share Toilet Paper!

10/14/20: Wicker Park neighborhood of Chicago: This is one of my favorites!

Another fun take on the pandemic from Wicker Park:

5/21/21: San Francisco:

6/13/21: Minneapolis, Minnesota: Minneapolis Museum of Art:

6/14/21: At the Minnesota state capitol:

6/16/21: Madison, Wisconsin Statehouse:

6/15/21: Middleton, Wisconsin's National Mustard Museum

6/17/21: Milwaukee, Wisconsin's Mitchell Domes

'Steve' was a Bearded Dragon at the Conservatory.

6/22/21: Cleveland, Ohio's Rock and Roll Museum:

9/18/21: Steven had to show his COVID-19 card in Frankfurt before being allowed to sit down and eat his currywurst meal. 

9/19/21: Brussels' Royal Museum of Fine Art:

9/21/21: Antwerp's printing museum, Museum Plantin-Moretus

10/17/21: Sign of the times: a Covid-19 testing center in downtown Luzern, Switzerland.

12/10/21: Raiatea Airport, French Polynesia:

12/11/21: Grocery store sign in Vaitape, Bora Bora, French Polynesia:

12/15/21: Moorea, French Polynesia sign:

1/18/22: Joshua Tree National Park, California:

2/28/22: Phoenix's Desert Botanical Gardens: I liked the 'sticking together' take from the cactus shape.

3/23/22: Lihue Airport, Kauai, Hawaii:

3/25/22: Kilauea National Wildlife Refuge, Kilauea, on the island of Kauai in Hawaii:

3/28/22: Waimea Canyon, the island of Kauai, Hawaii:

4/6/22: Kailua, The Big Island, Hawaii: 

June 4th, 2022: Alexander Graham Bell Museum in Baddeck, Nova Scotia:

Next post: Western Malta & Gozo Island.

Posted on March 27th, 2025, from our home west of Denver. Please take care of yourself and your loved ones during these very scary times. 

Life & Art During Covid 19 - The Finale!

A few weeks after Steven and I came home from our very abbreviated trip to Asia and the Middle East in the middle of March because of the advancing coronavirus, I began daily walks with friends in our and adjacent neighborhoods. It was very evident that the virus had brought out some people's creative talents in the form of painted rocks and inspirational sayings on sidewalks to help us all get through the pandemic as best we can. I began 'chronicling' the best of them and also of spring's emerging beauty by taking photos. I hope these last in my series of photos will help lift your spirits if they are flagging.

May 29th: Pretty pink peonies and an unusual variety of Columbines:

Ghoulish humor in the age of the virus:

May 30th: Since Steven and I normally leave Denver in mid-May to stay at a state park down in Florida's Panhandle for six weeks, we never see our own poppies in bloom. It was a treat, therefore, being home unexpectedly at this time and seeing them flower.

Oh, to be a kid and swing your worries away!

My friend and afternoon walking buddy, Gail, and I saw these lovely white peonies at a home in the southern part of our subdivision.

What a fun way to welcome friends over!

May 31st:

I took this photo of the Foothills in the foreground with the snow-capped Rocky Mountains in the background while on my weekly Sunday afternoon stroll with Karen at Writer's Vista Park halfway between our homes. Steven and I live too close to the Foothills so we never see the mountains unless we drive east to get a panorama view or drive west into the mountains themselves.

June 1st: When Gail and I explored parts of the Columbine West neighborhood a month ago, it was intriguing coming across these large horse sculptures at one house.

Look carefully at the decorations under this nearby mailbox and you can feel how much the homeowners must love their 'vino'!

How often are we encouraged, or encourage our children, to 'Be Different'?!

June 3rd: My friend and morning walking friend, Darlene, and I appreciated the thoughtfulness people in her neighborhood expressed so publicly acknowledging the 'helpers' during the pandemic.

This had nothing to do with the pandemic but wasn't our local county's sewer design a work of art that Darlene and I came across at Clement Park near the end of our long walk?!

If you can't grow flowers, buy flowers!

This was good to remember at all times and not just during the pandemic.

How fun for children all across the country to go on 'teddy bear walks' since people have been encouraged to cheer kiddos up by placing teddy bears or stuffed animals in windows.

June 4th: A storm cloud looked pretty threatening as I walked home through West Laurel Park after my afternoon walk with Gail.

June 5th: I had never had any appreciation for 'lawn art' before I began strolling up and down streets through neighborhoods. I really began liking whirligigs and outdoor glass art like this and hope that one or the other might be my birthday gift next year if Steven doesn't object! 

Sounds like this saying came from a hippie from the 60s!

Almost every time Darlene and I would pass this same bench in the open space west of Pierce, it was decorated with something different to brighten everyone's day!

That same afternoon, Gail and I wondered why someone had thought of collecting this fuel pump and also placing it in such a visible position for all to see. I had never seen anyone have one before in a suburban home.

As one of our children had years ago donated a kidney to an unknown recipient, this plea to be organ donors hit very close to home for me.

I wish my phone's camera could have done justice to this vibrant purple salvia plant that thrived in the xeriscape garden.

June 6th: Guess you know by now I really love poppies, huh!

I wish someone could explain to me what so much of the world's fascination is with roosters and chickens as stores almost the world over sell their likeness on everything imaginable!

June 7th: The area around this mailbox must have the perfect soil and growing conditions for this climbing clematis.

Having walked around Clement Park for years, springtime is such a fun time to watch mummy and daddy ducks make way for their ducklings. (Thanks to Robert McCloskey, who wrote a book with about that same title!)

June 8th: From ducklings the morning before at Clement to a turkey strutting itself the next afternoon in the front yard of a homeowner a few blocks from us! I read later on nextdoor.com that several turkeys had escaped from a turkey farm over on Platte Canyon a week earlier and this one had somehow found his way a couple of miles west to our neighborhood! I wonder what unusual animal we'll see next.

June 9th: I only learned recently the thin blue line in an American flag represented law enforcement and showed support for the officers who put their lives on the line each day. This 'flag' was at a garden on Canyon in Columbine West.

June 10th: The entire yard at this home had a nautical motif, including this great white shark!

Five days earlier, I had noticed a home with the fuel pump. I shouldn't have been surprised, then, at the coincidence of yet another home having its own fuel pump, too, nearby! Are they a collectors' item and I only now am finding out about them?! The pump did sort of go with the retro camper, though.

As Steven and I left the next day, June 11th, for our road trip to see our new granddaughter, Max, in San Francisco and then return via some of the national parks in the Pacific Northwest, this is my last post in this series. I hope you have enjoyed this often quirky look at life chez nous during the pandemic.

Posted on July 2nd, 2020, from Kalispell, Montana, near Glacier National Park. Please take care of yourselves and keep safe.