garden — Page 59

Day Thirty-Five

April 17, 2020 at 10:11 am by Claudia

Day Thirty-Four. Governor Cuomo has extended stay-in-place, lockdown, self-isolating – whatever you want to call it – until May 15. At least another month. This isn’t a surprise, of course. But it does overwhelm.

I’m not in a very good mood today and it is what it is. I’ve been feeling under the weather for a few weeks and though I’m much better now, it was a pain in the tush. The weather has turned cold. Tonight, we might get 2 – 3 inches of wet snow. That little bit of news sort of set me off this morning. I started to worry about my plants that have buds and flowers, I felt resentful (how dare Mother Nature?!!) and the ‘Overwhelm,’ which is the best thing I can call it, took over. The temperatures around here are 20 degrees less than normal for this time of the year. This is the time of year I love to be outside working and the combination of the cold weather and not feeling well has kept me from doing that. And then, of course, there’s the self-isolating.

Anyway, I’ll pull myself out of it. I’m a strong believer in letting myself feel whatever mood I’m in, not apologizing for it, and then moving forward. I’m betting we’re all battling this kind of thing, especially during this pandemic.

Life seems to be reading, eating, doing dishes, doing the laundry, trying to grab a slot for grocery delivery, watching old reruns – on repeat. I know I’ll feel better when I can get outside and accomplish something. Don mowed the front lawn for the first time on Sunday, which is something I always look forward to doing.

Okay. No more feeling sorry for myself. It’s very cold out there but it’s sunny. I can hear bird song. I have to clean the bathroom. We ordered a few more groceries – we start a new list as soon as we’ve had a delivery – and couldn’t get a delivery date, but to my surprise we did snag a pick-up opening, so we’ll drive to the store tomorrow with masks and gloves on and pick up our groceries. And then maybe we can take a break from it for a while.

By the way, I called the main number for this grocery chain to ask a question about our bill and in the course of the conversation was told quite firmly that drivers are not allowed to take tips. Hmmm. I suggested that, given the circumstances, it would be nice if, during checkout, we had the option to add a tip, as we all know we are not dealing with “business as usual.” He said he would pass on that suggestion.

Then I called our local nursery to see if some sort of protocol was in place for plant shopping. The nursery is connected to the farm stand I mentioned earlier. There is a protocol in place for the farm stand, which is indoors, but not for the nursery, which is primarily outdoors but is also in three different greenhouses. So far, plant buying traffic has been quite low, given our crazy weather, but in a couple of weeks it will increase. Since I don’t plan on buying anything for at least another week, she suggested I call back as they will probably have to come up with a plan by then.

Obviously I’d go there in a mask and gloves, with hand sanitizer. (Governor Cuomo has an Executive Order requiring anyone who is out in public to wear a mask.) I’d be armed with a list and would only get those items on my list, with no wandering around looking at things. That makes me sad, as it’s one of my favorite things to do. But efficiency is a must. Both Don and I would take our cars, so we could load everything at once. I’m very clear on what I need, having done pretty much the same thing for years – plants for pots on the porch, the funky patio, and in the secret garden. Two big bags of potting soil. Three hanging plants.

If I can make my porch the haven it usually is for us, I’ll feel much better about things. I’ll feel a bit more free and certainly more at peace.

Thanks for being patient with my clearly meandering thoughts today. Stay safe.

Happy Friday.

Day Twenty-Five

April 7, 2020 at 9:45 am by Claudia

We’re heading toward 30 days here at the cottage. It doesn’t seem real, does it?

More of eggcups-on-parade: my second Snow White, a bunny, two lustreware egg cups (I have a smaller one somewhere with a thin strip of blue at the rim), another lustreware cup with a brown bear, an Emma Bridgewater cup from London, Walking Ware from Carlton/England, lovely motto ware cup from Devon, a Holt Howard rooster, blue and white transferware, a tiny bunny cup and an art deco plastic cup from Paris, a flowered egg cup from Paris, a rooster cup, a face cup, another rooster cup, a brown Mason’s Vista transferware cup, and a chick emerging from an egg from Portugal.

More tomorrow.

I cleaned out two of the garden beds yesterday, raking out the leaves and debris. Then Don raked all of it onto a tarp and made several trips to the refuse pile (very helpful.) I’m going to do two more today, as we have some rain coming on Thursday. It felt so good to be out there working – to finally get a jump on all the cleanup that must happen before I can do anything else.

I felt my shoulders relax. Those endorphins kicked in.

Then I came in, showered, ate some lunch and watched more of the 2019 episodes of Gardener’s World. I’ve mentioned this before, but I’ll say it again – that show is so calming. My blood pressure must surely drop as soon as I hear the theme music and Monty Don’s voice. Heavenly. I’m almost done with all the shows I never got to last year and then I’ll start watching this year’s episodes – only 3 so far.

Here’s a question for you. How are you getting plants, soil, mulch, etc., for your gardens? I must admit I’m not sure how I’m going to handle that but it needs to be handled soon – in the next week or so. Any suggestions? I’m thinking our local nursery – which is the same farm stand that Don went to last week (they were highly organized) – might have some new protocol in place for plant shopping. I’d love to hear what you’ve encountered in your neck of the woods.

Still reading and loving This Rough Magic. Still watching old Cheers episodes. Let’s see, what else? I ordered stamps online yesterday. Everything that was routine now has to be handled differently. I have a sneaking suspicion that we’re spending more money than usual in our efforts to make sure we have everything we need on hand. I can’t say that for sure. Since we can’t just drop by the store for a few items, we tend to buy a lot in one order, trying to anticipate anything that might be needed. Sigh.

Happy Tuesday.

Day Twenty

April 2, 2020 at 11:04 am by Claudia

A sure sign of early spring, these tiny little grape hyacinths that spring up out of the rocks. There are a couple more coming up from the gravel by the porch railing. Such a little miracle!

Another sunny day today, but rather windy. Nevertheless, I’m so grateful for sun. Right now, it’s shining on the roof of the folk art dollhouse, as if a spotlight had been turned on.

We got our groceries yesterday, though several items were not included as they weren’t in stock. The way this particular store set-up goes, there’s no altering the order once it has been placed and, even though I believe the ‘make substitutions’ box had been checked, that didn’t happen. So we didn’t get salad greens, or an alternative size of coffee, or another kind of whole wheat bread, or, we thought, potatoes. Disappointing, but I was able to see all of that online before the order arrived, so Don went to our local nursery/farmstand, after first calling them and finding out exactly how they are handling all of this. Only ten people in the store at the same time, social distancing – Don never had to get within 6 feet of anyone, including the cashier. He got some bread, some potatoes and sweet potatoes, some bananas, etc. When he brought them home (which was before the grocery delivery) we washed all of the potatoes, and put them on the counter to dry.

The delivery itself was handled very professionally – they called us when they were about 10 minutes away from the house, Don told them where to put the groceries on the porch and we talked to the guy through the door. We also left a tip on the porch railing (held down by a rock). We wiped everything down before we brought it in the house and washed all the produce.

A lot of washing and hand washing and sanitizer, but we’re okay for now. We do need more items that we left off our original list and I can’t seem to get a delivery appointment. I think now that people know this will extend through the end of April, more and more requests for home delivery are being made. Don’t know what we’re going to do about that. It was so good to get some fresh vegetables again! We almost never eat canned veggies, though we are perfectly prepared to if necessary, and we have several cans on hand.

Thought you might like to see our pantry extension, which is in the office upstairs:

Boxes of canned goods – that green box is full of them even though it looks like it only contains potato chips – extra bags of potatoes, paper towels, oatmeal, etc. We have far more potatoes than we need because it looked like they were ‘unavailable’ on the original order, which is why Don went to our farm stand, and when the grocery order arrived, there were two bags we didn’t expect! From no potatoes to an overabundance of potatoes.

Every time Don has to go upstairs for something, he says he’s going to our corner store.

Crazy times we’re living in. We keep saying that to each other. Absolutely crazy and, a mere month ago, unthinkable.

I’m still reading Wildfire at Midnight, though I should finish today. I must mention this about Mary Stewart’s writing. She writes so beautifully and descriptively about place. This particular book takes place on the Isle of Skye amidst mountains and crags and waterfalls and her descriptions are so vivid, so evocative, that I am completely there in my imagination. I can see it.

This is something I didn’t appreciate as much when I was a teenage reader of her books, but boy, do I appreciate it now. She was an exquisitely gifted writer and it’s such a pleasure to read her books again – this time as a much older reader.

Happy Thursday.

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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