In the dark of a deserted office block devoid of the sounds of its usual worker drones, a lone figure cuts a practiced path through the rows of empty desks and chairs.
Careful not to linger too long in this curiously quiet place, the disruptor of silence makes her way from A to B, bringing life to Canberra's all but forgotten victims of COVID-19.
Outside life has returned to some semblance of normality for the office workers, some whose faces the girl has come to know in passing, during the welcome distraction from their work her quiet presence has provided.
Inside the buildings they've left behind, the woman and her team has tended to hundreds of the city's office plants, left waiting out the pandemic in the dark.
Headquartered on the outskirts of town, Pialligo based nursery, Living Simply, provides plants on loan to between 300 and 400 businesses in the ACT.
Their Dracaena Massangeana, Epipremnum Aureum and Zamioculcas Zamiifolia are contracted out to public service departments, hotels, restaurants and newspaper publishers across Canberra.
When many ACT managers issued the memo in March to work from home, Living Simply's plant-hire man Jasper Catchlove began entering negotiations to rescue the city's plants.
"It was a bit of a logistical nightmare at the beginning of COVID," Mr Catchlove said.
"Nobody was quite sure what was going to happen with it and I think everyone's fear and loathing takes over."
Having gained approval and access to the forbidden buildings, Mr Catchlove said it was an eerie experience for the team in those first few weeks, the unpredictability of the task ahead weighing over them.
"It was quiet frightening those first initial weeks and we weren't quite sure what exactly was going to happen. But it all panned out in the long run," the humble plant man said.
Affectionately dubbed "the plant nannies", the nursery team have kept all but a few plants thriving throughout the pandemic, as they've sought access to some of the city's the most secure spaces.
"We did have a few fatalities unfortunately but that was bound to happen with a number of businesses unable to give access for a longer period of time," Mr Catchlove said.
"It was nothing like we envisioned though."
Of the hundreds of businesses with foliage on hire from the Pialligo plant people, just 15 contracts were cancelled during COVID-19.
"We did remove plants from those premises but most of those clients have gotten in contact with us now and are looking to reinstall all the plants in as prior," Mr Catchlove said.
A sign the economy is growing again, between 95 and 100 per cent of his Canberra clients have some staff back behind their desks, with most offices operating on rotating shifts to ensure social distancing.
For the nannies it is a bitter-sweet victory - as many ponder the plight of plants caught in a second-wave in Victoria.
Hesitant to hang up their hoses, a whisper on the wind reminds the weary plant protectors that while this battle might be done, the war won't be won without a vaccine.
