Claudia — Page 580

Day Fifty-Five

May 7, 2020 at 9:42 am by Claudia

I’m in a somewhat surly mood – just being honest with you, my friends. Yesterday was cold and cloudy all day long and both Don and I were rather down. We were also restless. The new puzzle is impossibly hard and I got very frustrated with it. The temps are going down to freezing Friday and Saturday nights. And now, we might get some slushy snow on Friday night into Saturday.

What’s next? Locusts?

This means we have to haul in all the potted and hanging plants, including the very heavy vintage pots, and keep them inside for at least two days. I’ll have to cover the geraniums in the barrels as they can’t be transported. And I’ll move the pansies to the porch and cover them -they’re cold weather plants, but I don’t want wet snow to fall on them. All of the trees are leafing out. I feel like I’m going to be out there at midnight shaking snow off the trees and plants.

It’s not that it never happens but according to my local weather, the last time it happened here was once in the eighties. The average temperature here for this time of year is 71.

Anyway, I’m over it. I’m over Trump (of course, that happened long ago). I’m over protestors who haven’t the sense that God gave them. I’m over this virus and the tragic loss of life. I’m over governors who are too ignorant to understand (or simply don’t care) how dangerous it is to open too early. I could go on, but you get the picture.

Don and I are fine, though we sometimes get mildly irritated with each other. It’s only to be expected, after all, we’re together 24 hours a day. The good thing is that we laugh at our irritation and then it disappears.

The freezing temperatures and the potential snow just sent me over the edge, that’s all.

In the meantime, it’s going to be in the sixties today and sunny. Go figure. So, we’ll finish mowing.

I’ll be better tomorrow.

Stay safe.

Happy Thursday.

Day Fifty-Four

May 6, 2020 at 9:34 am by Claudia

Yesterday was a beautifully sunny day. We mowed the front of the property, tag-teaming some of it. I love mowing so I was in my element. Later in the day, when I realized we had a frost advisory (!!) Don helped me haul in some of the porch plants. We also moved the secret garden pots (with coleus and vines) back on the porch until this week of nighttime lows in the thirties ends. Honestly, we’ve lived out here for 19 years and I’ve never seen temperatures this low in May. Kudos to my husband for moving the heavy antique pots after mowing and moving tarps full of debris and leaves in the morning. We were sore at the end of the day, but all in all, it was a satisfying day. Today, we’ll take it easy. Tomorrow, we’ll mow the rest of the property

I didn’t have much spare time, but I did do this:

I truly loved doing this one because I adore these original book jackets.

The period clothing and hats, the beautifully rendered work of Russell H. Tandy, are right up my alley. And I own every one of these after collecting them over the course of a few years.

Then I pondered how I was going to save this since I’d assembled it on the breadboard. I went upstairs to the office and found a piece of foam board that I used to use as a backdrop when I shot photos for my Etsy shop. With some trepidation I aligned it with the breadboard and gently pushed the puzzle off the wooden surface and onto the foam board. It worked! I guess I’ll put it on my desk upstairs until I glue it and have it framed – or make a frame, which would better suit my budget.

Next up:

This beautiful work by Kano Yoshinobu – Peonies. I’m wondering if it will be more of a challenge. Having the book titles to assemble on all the previous puzzles helped enormously in finding the structure.

It’s all good. I’m up for it. I have two more puzzles on the way that should be arriving toward the end of the week.

Today is cloudy and cool. It sure doesn’t look like we’ll see the sun today.

Happy Birthday to my brother Dave who died in 1991. He would have been 73 years old today. It is also the birthday of his son Eric.

Stay safe.

Happy Wednesday.