I made the choice not to go on Twitter yesterday. So I remained relatively calm. But near dinner time, Don came to me because he had been doing the opposite, reading too much news, and he needed calming down. So then I got stressed. And so it goes.

It’s a battle, isn’t it? How to stay informed yet maintain a healthy distance. There’s so much going on, the devastating fires, the hurricane headed toward Mississippi and Louisiana, shootings, protests, OM holding indoor rallies in a state that has prohibited them, (we won’t go into his vile speech.) I’m sure I’ve missed something. As my friend Caroline, who is Australian and was in the cast of Anastasia  says, I can’t watch the news from America. It’s imploding.

My anxiety is rearing its ugly head again.

So I took a walk around the property yesterday afternoon, taking photos along the way. I’ll share them with you this week. It’s a good reminder that taking photos of nature calms me down.

The coleus is sending up purple flowers.

I counted 5 or 6 orb weavers.

The limelight hydrangea is turning pink.

Our monarch chrysalis is still intact, still green. We’re coming up on 2 weeks since I discovered it hanging from the bottom of the birdbath. That will be on Thursday. But it very well might have been there for a few days before that. So I go out there and check on it several times a day. When it begins to turn dark, the monarch will be getting ready to emerge. I sure hope we can sit out there on the funky patio and watch the whole thing. Wouldn’t that be amazing?

Stay safe.

Happy Monday.

Our search for more of the doll/figurine produced exactly nothing. I keep reminding Don that early spring is a great time to find things. There’s not a lot of vegetation yet and bits and bobs come to the surface as the ground thaws.

We invited Rick and Doug over for an impromptu socially distanced get-together yesterday afternoon. Don knew just the spot; Maple Grove (a clearing he created) up in our woods. He carried our four vintage white chairs up there and then I helped him arrange them at a healthy social distance.

You can see them off in the distance.

To orient you – you can see the path on the left that ends in our neighbor’s meadow. The stump on the right was cut from our fallen maple.

We wore masks, we talked for two hours – it was heaven. I really miss those talks with our dear friends. And oh, how I wanted to hug them! I miss hugging, though Don and I hug a lot, thank goodness. But my natural instinct is to embrace my friends and family and that’s a no-no right now.

Rick and Doug. They brought their own beverages.

It was just what we needed, time with our friends up in the woods. The great thing about having it there is that the noise from the road is much less intrusive, though our neighbors were using their chainsaw to cut up all the trees that the utility company dumped on their lawn. Still, it wasn’t bad at all.

As Doug said, it would be a great place to read. There was a lovely breeze and it was quiet.

Why didn’t I think of that?

Anyway, after wondering what to do with that area, we now see that we need more of the vintage white chairs and we’re going to place them in Maple Grove. Next year. Or maybe this year if we come across some!

Seeing that splash of white in the woods is really neat.

I’m reading All the Devils are Gone  by Louise Penny. I’m deliberately reading slowly so I can savor it, knowing I’ll have to wait another year for her next book.

A photo from the day I met her at a book signing in NYC.

I was thinner then. Sigh.

I’d say my hair had less gray but truthfully, there’s still a fair amount of brown in my hair. It just looks different according to the light. Overhead lights and sunlight makes it look very gray – almost white. It’s ‘evolving.’

Louise’s longtime editor, Hope Dellon, was sitting right in front of me at that event and we became Twitter pals. Hope passed away several months ago. I knew she had been ill; nonetheless, I was shocked when I realized she had died. Louise speaks movingly about Hope in her Acknowledgements. Make sure you read about her. She was something else.

Last, but not least, Kathy sent us a little package which Don picked up at the post office the other day.

Whoo hoo! We LOVE them!

Thank you so much, Kathy!

Stay safe.

Happy Sunday.

183 days since we went into lockdown. Exactly half a year.

Don was doing some digging yesterday. It was just light work because, frankly, the bottles and things he’s finding are not that old and they’re not worth anything, which means they’ll be recycled. Most of the little treasures I’ve found on the property over the past 15 years have been spontaneous finds; something coming up from below the surface, some clearing of leaves that reveals a little object, or digging for something specific, like a new garden bed, which results in a discovery or two.

That being said, he found something interesting yesterday on top of an old foundation that is on the edge of our property. It’s now in my little Dish of Curiosities.

Do you see the little hand? And, to the right, a piece of a limb? There are touches of red on the finger nails. So it either comes from a doll or a figurine of some sort. They were just lying on the surface of the foundation. That might be my second favorite find, right after my antique red transferware plate.

You can see the green teacup handle I found a few years back. A couple of ironstone shards. Another piece of pottery with a blue stripe. Shells, feathers, colored glass, fossils, pods, part of a robin’s egg, and an old hose nozzle. All of it on top of a beautiful brown transferware plate, which I just cleaned the other day.

We may go over and look at the foundation later today.

Don’s already made a quick run to the store for a few items. I finished The Starless Sea  this morning (because I had plenty of time, waking up at 4:30) and I’ve just started All the Devils are Here  by Louise Penny. Best cover of any of her books, in my humble opinion, and the endpaper art is gorgeous, as well.

I have mixed feelings about The Starless Sea. I really loved The Night Circus. This one, however, wasn’t as compelling, it was harder to navigate and understand and, in the end, I found myself rather confused and just slightly underwhelmed. Morgenstern has a magical and vivid imagination and the worlds she creates are wondrous. Her stories are fascinating. But this one didn’t quite do it for me, though I enjoyed the read and have no regrets about tackling it. If you’ve read it, I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts.

Normally, I deliberately put off reading the newest Louise Penny until about November but I find that in this year – which has been unlike any other in my life – I desperately need to read her words.

We’re laying low this weekend. The world is too much with us (a nod to Wordsworth) and we need to take some time for peace and a bit of healing, if that’s possible.

I hope you are able to do the same.

Stay safe.

Happy Saturday.