First of all, the email versions of my posts have not been going out at the normal time. They’re scheduled to be sent during 11 am – 1 pm EST. But for the past couple of days they’ve gone out after 1 pm. Yesterday, I noticed some of them went out at 4 pm and others at 6 pm! What the???? Anyway, there’s nothing I can do about it. I use Feedburner, which is free. I’m not about to pay for yet another item in regards to this blog. So…I will advise what I always advise: come to the blog directly. Bookmark it in your browser. I always post before 11 am. Always. And if you come here directly, you’re helping to support this blog. It costs money to keep this blog going, money I have to put out every year. This pandemic and the lockdown will also have a negative impact on my ad income, so I’m told, and coming to the blog directly will help me through this time.
Thanks.
Yesterday, in the pouring rain, we went to our local nursery/farm stand.
Masked and ready to go. (Meredith made these masks.)
Despite the rain, there were several people wandering the aisles in the nursery, but everyone had masks on and all of us were good social distancers. Amazingly, everything on my list was there, including impatiens. There are a few other items I want to get eventually, but for now, I’m thrilled. What a difference a week between visits makes.
Don got lots of produce, I got the plants, we met back at the car, used our hand sanitizer, and drove back home. We did the usual washing of hands, produce, sanitizing of packaged goods, washing of hands again and again, etc., etc. etc. All of the plants were brought to the porch, once all signs of impending thunderstorms had passed.
Exhausting, but that is a given.
I’m so looking forward to potting all of my plants but first we have to pick up the other groceries we ordered and go through the sanitizing ritual yet again. Then – I really hope – we’re through with it for a while.
It’s a sunny day today. The temperature is going to reach 70 degrees! After this past week of rain and more rain, we are very grateful.
I started on the new puzzle but I haven’t done much on it yet. Updates to come.
Have a lovely day today and stay safe.
Happy Saturday.
It’s a beautiful day here and I was thinking of you eager to get out in your garden. So glad you hit the farm at the right time. The plants are wonderfully colorful. Also, the masks that Meredith made you look attractive and like they fit well. I’m having a problem finding good-fitting masks, but have assembled a small wardrobe of them. Not that I ever go out. A good friend just invited me to go to her favorite coffee spot which now has take out and a small outdoor seating area. I’d love to see her and doesn’t it seem like the perfect day to socialize? But I turned her down because I’m terrified of being outside. It’s a shame and I know it and I still can’t bring myself to do it. Enjoy your day and stay safe!
You have to do what feels right for you, Nora. Don’t feel guilty! Stay safe.
Can you do a free blog like the others I read? I didn’t realize you paid for the blog use. Glad you were able to get plants. Day 50 since my car has moved. Family will get my food this week. Family in south in even longer…this state is opening, but seniors supposed to remain in…two of my grands are delivering food for restaurants and being safe about it…they are college students…who knows what will happen in the fall? Return or online. The one who was in U. K. this semester has taken it well-her semester ended abruptly over there…one grand will be fifteen in May-she will put learner’s permit on hold. One in college won’t get to do internship this summer or work her library job-she has volunteered to help library with curbside checkouts they may begin…the other will not have her summer job and will volunteer…these are the times we must get through…thank goodness they are getting to deliver food. I would like to encourage those who order to TIP…which means tip if pleased with service…keep writing Claudia…love the pictures…love them…
I started out with a free blog 12 years ago. I made this move to a paid server because I have more control. I can block hackers. I can design the blog the way I want it to be. It’s worth it. I won’t ever go back to a free blog – they’re easily hacked, by the way.
This is impacting so many of us in so many ways. Stay safe, Brenda.
good to hear and see that your trip yesterday was successful. and that people were keeping a responsible social distance. hope today’s outing is is the same. the trips “out” and disinfecting processes are exhausting, but soon you can enjoy tending those beautiful plants. :)
that photo of you two shows well the nice masks your sister made and that you and don have kind eyes.
i need to do some grocery shopping for three households this morning so will close this with a wish and prayer that you all are safe, well and have what you need.
kathy in iowa
My wish and a prayer for you, too. Stay safe while you’re grocery shopping. Not to appear nosy, but why are you the designated shopper in addition to everything else you have to do? Can’t you all take turns doing that? Stay safe, Kathy.
thanks very much, claudia.
that’s not being nosy! my brother and i are designated shoppers for the six households of our family here because we are the only two who must be around other people at our jobs (his videographer job is shut down right now because all the big sporting events are on hold. he’s had a part-time job delivering prescription medications to nursing homes for the past couple of years and is still doing that. thankfully he is met at the door and doesn’t/ won’t go in the facilities, always wears a mask and gloves). we take that risk so they don’t have to … especially with four young kids and so my sister can go over to visit with and do things for our father+. that wouldn’t be possible if she was shopping for them. even if they could go grocery shopping right now and even when they can, i am glad to do this for them. plus they do things for me so it’s all good. :)
hope you’re home now with everything sanitized and you can take it easy!
kathy in iowa
Ah, that makes sense. I’m glad you’re careful, Kathy.
thanks, claudia.
we are all being very, very careful!
wish everyone i see at the store and my job would be so careful, too.
hope you and don have a nice weekend!
kathy in iowa
xo
I find it most comforting to put my hands into the ground. I planted 6 root beet before the rain started. So happy. I’m sorry to hear that shopping is such a task with masks and all. Don’t you get claustrophobic under it? Do you have enough oxygene?
All the best!
Regula
I feel a bit claustrophobic, but yes, I can breathe just fine. I’m sort of amazed that you don’t have to wear them in Switzerland.
Thanks, Regula. Stay safe.
Hi Claudia,
The masks look good. Mine is 3 or 4 layers thick and feels hot and hard to breathe. I have a friend making me a two layer mask…Hoping that will be a bit better.
Perhaps going plant shopping on a rainy day is a good strategy. Our favorite greenhouse is huge and usually packed. I won’t go til after Mother’s day and it shouldn’t be as busy.
It is a beautiful day here and I should go out and enjoy it. Instead I am motivated to clean the house…I’m going with it. It doesn’t happen often enough!
Take care, stay safe
We’ve found it to be a good thing – shopping on a rainy day. Normally, I wouldn’t. But rain tends to keep the crowds away. Stay safe, Marilyn!
The new routine. It’s what we do.
And everything loos lovely and so healthy! Sounds like a perfect outing. Have a splendid weekend.
You, too! Stay safe, Jeanie.
I’m glad to see your trip to the nursery went well. The flowers and plants look absolutely wonderful….I am so jealous. While it was nice yesterday and today…hopefully tomorrow too, next week is cooler and rainy, so I’ve yet to go plant shopping. I think I better wait til after Mother’s Day.
We dug up quite a few hostas yesterday for a friend of ours. We’re delivering them tomorrow, and will help her plant them Covid style. (Masks and gloves, 6 ft apart…us not the plants!)
I like your masks…they look good, and appear to you fit well. I’ve had a dilly of a time getting masks that fit, or that don’t scrunch my ears. I may attempt to make some, but I’m not skilled with a sewing machine, or a needle and thread.
You’ve had quite a full day ….have fun planting. Stay safe! ;)
The new planting style: Covid Style! I like this mask, too, but it keeps riding up and hitting my eyelids. Either I’m wearing it wrong or I need to find something else!
Stay safe, Donna.
You had a very successful day, your new plants prove it!
Just letting you know – I appreciate your blog! It is a constant in my world and it lifts my spirit just when needed most. Today was chugging along – husband and son cutting next year’s firewood and me fixing a nice lunch for them. I spilled some melted butter on the floor and without thinking, knelt down to get it with a paper towel; my injured knee remembered, and oh wow, the pain! Yikes, the ibuprophen and ice weren’t much help.
Then this afternoon, I dragged all my plants out of the glass house and gave them a nice drink thinking we might get some in the garden when husband finished cutting the grass. Of course, Tony, my son, came out to ask me if I was using his shower! What??? Well there was a few inches of blue water in his tub. I was doing a large load of jeans in the laundry. Sooo… we, the do-it-your-selfers ended up digging up the septic tom access where the line from the house enters the tank and using this cable/wire thing, unclogged the drain from the house. Toward the end of the digging, my shoulder let me know it had enough, I felt it pull or tear or whatever it did that caused me to run to the ibuprophen bottle again!
Tomorrow I am going to rest. I keep forgetting that 67 year old women need to pace themselves and work cautiously when doing manual labor!
l think that just typing this our made me feel better!
Thanks, I’m glad to read that you are being safe!
Kelly
hi, kelly.
first, i hope you feel better soon!
and second, i think it’s great that you all could fix that septic tank problem by yourselves! just too bad it was necessary.
kathy in iowa
stay safe and well!
Thank you Kathy! That was a very kind thing to say. Happy Spring!
What a day for you! My goodness, Kelly! I hope your knee heals easily and quickly. But bravo for all you did!
Oh yes, ‘pace themselves’ – that’s a big problem for me and I’m doing better with that challenge this spring. Stay safe.
I hope I can find impatiens when I finally brave the nursery. They are one of my summer favorites. I’m hoping for some delicious tomatoes too–I think it’s finally warm enough to plant them!
Meanwhile, all the lilacs are blooming in my yard and it’s almost time to start harvesting rhubarb. I love springtime–it’s the (much-needed) season of hope and promise!
Stay safe
My lilacs haven’t bloomed yet, but now that we’ve had two days of sun they should be well on their way.
Spring is the best, Roxie. Stay safe!
Well, you’ve had a VERY good couple of (productive) days, Claudia! I’m so glad your weather was nice today for you. You got all your nursery items, you’ve got food in the house; take Sunday for relaxing and enjoying the beautiful color of the lovely plants you bought! A good sigh of relief and satisfaction, and you’re due for it! Winter is OVER; yay.
Love/want your masks! So much more comfy against the face than what I’ve got; that soft, washable cotton. I know how to make one. I’m just trying to find the bandanas. Somewhere in my mess of storage, I know I have a dozen of them and, for the moment, most anywhere I’ve looked online, you just can’t find a cotton bandana to buy now (so, I’ll keep trying on both fronts). You two look cute in the photo; a keepsake for quite a time in America you’re living through, although I don’t know how much any of us are gonna want souvenirs of this epidemic after we’re all vaccinated and DONE with it. (Our local historical societies are doing oral histories and gathering written material so that they will have a big archive of Covid; they’ve done this, too, when our area has suffered the horrible wildfires and so many people have lost their homes. History is history; we need to preserve it.)
Just spent about a half hour talking to a neighbor from a distance. He’s in his 30s; still thankfully has a job. Sharing some stories; him telling me what it’s like ‘out there’ every day in The Time of Covid. He has finally seemed to get the physical distancing down; and, when he comes home from work every day, since he works with the public in retail right now (his regular job is as a field rep but they’ve pulled everybody out of the field and reassigned them to individual stores/this is automotive-related, which is essential business), he peels off his shoes and clothes in the garage at the laundry equipment and then goes in and immediately takes a shower to protect his young family. I was glad to hear that all of his brothers and his sister have also, so far, been able to keep employed. His younger brother has just finished his training to be a truck driver and will be starting a run tonight that takes him from California to North Carolina. It will take four days. He’s a young one, just turning age 30. God Bless him; what would we do without our truckers, keeping the goods delivered and transported, helping us all. Heros! (When I was a kid in public school, first grade, age 6-7, one of my favorite periods of study was about transportation/commerce, with trucks and busses, trains and ships and cargo planes. I’ve always remembered some of what we learned.)
So my neighbor did a really, very, incredibly-generous thing which just made most everything I’ve been annoyed with him about over the years, simply go away; he had me in tears because it was such a giving thing, really inspiring, and I feel proud of him (he has been in the neighborhood since my parents were alive, when he was just a young pup to be buying a home at age 21 and single; so, I’ve known him awhile now; I just love his parents, who used to live with him in the earlier years). Anyway, his wife heard of a need for temporary housing for nurses on the front lines, so he-himself trucked up, to a city 80 miles from here, his almost brand-new (he has BARELY used it; just twice!) deluxe travel trailer, which sleeps ten people (has air conditioning; full bathroom; kitchen, etc.), in order to give the hospital nurses a place to sleep and rest when they’re not going home to their families for an undetermined period of time yet (because they do not want to risk infecting their loved ones with the virus).
Unbeknownst to me as well, he is checking in weekly with our mutual neighbor who is alone and very old, mostly homebound in general, getting her whatever she needs at the store or helping her with her city waste cans on ‘trash day’, etc. He also offered to help my husband obtain anything we need; any shopping he could help with, no matter if it’s something from an auto-parts store, the hardware store, the grocery store, the pharmacy, etc. That’s the third of our immediate neighbors who’ve offered to help us, and I’m not ever going to forget such wonderful gestures of kindness. (We feel like we’ve barely even known anybody in the neighborhood to start with; most of the time, on weekdays, pre-Covid, it’s been a ghost town because all of them are at work. And then they disappear into their homes. Busy lives. It’s my childhood block but, of course, in so many years, the houses have turned over a few times and there’s nobody left with whom I’m well acquainted. Until now. With people reaching out.) I have a bad tendency to sometimes bad-mouth some of my neighbors, like an old biddy might do; I guess I’m, as a rule, just home too much; my world is too small. What I see is clearly not always the case of what a whole story might be; but, now, the denigrating stops. Covid has changed things; I’ve seen a diff side of people and I want to see a diff side of myself as well. It feels so much more positive and good to not criticize and instead appreciate. Much more healthy direction of energy!
All in all, a good day, you & me both, Claudia! Low-80s temp in advance of really hot weather upcoming again in SoCalif for Mon-Thurs of next week but, today, breezy & sunny. My husband worked a lot in a part of the yard that needed it. Gave him a good physical activity. I’m worried about my too-low level of same, so I dug up a pedometer today and I’m going to start counting my steps in the house and yard. We’re gonna move a car off the driveway so I can walk a continuous wide circle (we have a somewhat-long, curving driveway). Just have to get inventive with necessary exercise. I can’t keep up with my husband’s long strides when he walks the dog. And I don’t always like the time of day in which he chooses to walk. So, my new plan empowers me. I’ve now heard of FOUR people who are clocking the miles …miles!!!!… within the confines of their own homes so I figure I can try to do the same.
My husband made a delish veggie stew the other night, so we’re sharing the leftovers tonight, stretching what remains with some rice. ‘Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.’ It makes me feel better to learn to be less wasteful these days. It’s a whole new way to live. I’ve never been as careful; most of my life, I’m extravagant (nothing of which I’m too proud, to say the least). I’ve done SO much reading lately about how people lived in The Great Depression; World War II, both America, Canada…and Britain. (Of course so many countries had such difficult times; I just recently was reading also about Scandinavia [Norway, Denmark] having been invaded with the Nazis in World War II and I was ignorant of this; I’ve usually always wanted to bury my head about the world wars because it’s so disturbing.) I have so much admiration of how people conducted their lives amid food/supply shortages and fear of an enemy. (Has really been making me miss my Greatest Generation parents; wish I’d asked them a thousand more stores about it.) I want to be more like them, and this is my chance. I can strive to be noble in a difficult time although I can never attain THEIR levels of courage and can-do attitude. But again, to aspire is a feel-good.
Totally an aside: Claudia, you’ve got big, expressive eyes. I’ve noticed this before; it’s such an attractive facial feature! We’re near the same age but what a diff, because my eyes have become little slits. Whereas I used to wear eye shadow, it would now disappear. It’s as if my eyes have sunk into my face bones and the skin is hanging over my eyes. Sounds horrible; but, yeah, I don’t like it. My dad had the same thing and he had to have surgery in his aging years where they technically did a brow lift (plastic surgery procedure; was sort of a big deal at the time) to pull up his skin so that he could SEE (as the recessed eye with the skin hanging over was blocking his vision). See how lucky you are?!!! (I am so hoping I don’t get to the point where I have to have that surgery!) I don’t think you and Don look or seem the ages you are; you’re a young-thinking, young-acting, young-looking couple. Kudos!
I will try to make sure I come here very day to support your blog and help out the income angle. I usually do anyway, but I’ll make a point of it. Question: Even if I don’t comment, and if I only read, does that hit benefit you the same as if I do NOT leave a comment? Does it help if we click on the ads? Interested in how it works; I know nothing of what it means to be a blog owner. Just want to help, in massive thanks for MHC blog.
What I said doesn’t make sense. What I meant was, if I don’t leave a comment but just read, do you benefit the same for when I DO leave one. Is it all about the clicks; do the comments even matter for your income? It’s just about how many visits?
What a wonderful guy your neighbor is! A true testament to the goodness in our fellow man. I must admit, Vicki, that I need to do better with ‘make do.’ But we’re working on it. Next year, we’d love to install a high fence (deer) and plant a raised bed vegetable garden. I feel more and more that we have to become more self sufficient. Stay safe!