We’re at 390 days. Do I stop titling the blog post by number of days at four hundred? Do I keep on going? I’ve been thinking about that lately and I can’t decide what to do. I don’t know if I want this to go on endlessly. My question this morning…
We went to our local nursery yesterday. There’s very little there as it’s too early in the season to have plants outdoors that might not survive a frost. So far, it looks like we might skate through the next few weeks safely, but you never know. Of course, I knew that there wouldn’t be a lot of stock – I was there specifically for the pansies, which they had in abundance. I also got some more potting soil, a couple of beautiful Italian pots that I knew I had to snag while I had the chance. Don stocked up on some vegetables. Oh, and I bought my seed packets.
Still, there’s so much to be done outside! So much cleaning up. We came back and raked gravel that had been deposited on the lawn by the snowblower back onto the driveway. I cleared the culvert, which was clogged by wet leaves. That was really exhausting, as the opening to the pipe that runs under our driveway was completely blocked and I had to straddle the culvert. The county is supposed to do this – the culverts are their property. But they rarely do. We also started to prune the big burning bush in the garden. It takes both of us because some of the branches are too high for me to reach.
Today, I’m going to rake out one area of the garden bed – where the grasses grow. Better to get the dead grasses out now before the new growth gets too long. And I’m going to plant the pansies in the pots. I didn’t get to that yesterday.
We get tired out and stop. I’m determined to not push myself like I have in years past. I can take my time and I’m going to. I think, counting the trip to the nursery/farmstand, we were doing something outside for just about two and a half hours. Not all that long.
We came inside, took showers, checked each other for ticks, and took it easy for the rest of the day.
I’m thinking it will be soon be time to put the cushions on the glider and move the Adirondack chairs out of the shed and onto the porch. I’ve already moved the chairs and bench back onto the Funky Patio and today I’ll move two more chairs and a little table out to the Secret Garden.
It feels good to be getting some exercise and to be outdoors again.
Stay safe.
Happy Wednesday.
Sounds like you are spending just the right amount of time with your work outside. You don’t want to overdo because, as I recall, your back starts bothering you if you do too much! A bit of time every day will get the work done and build you up as you go.
I can’t decide about the counting titles – it is good to keep track until we feel “normal” again, but who decides what is “normal”, right?
I say stop the counting.
As I was waiting for your page to load I was feeling a sense of awe. That even with all that has happened this past year you have kept a beacon of hope out there for us. I like the numbered days.
I will be pansy shopping this weekend. They are my favorites for pots. They have such happy faces.
My patio is portable. A great big huge outdoor rug. I may wait another week before I put it down to let the groundndry a bit more. Plus, I’m ordering a new table and chairs from Wayfair this week.
Thanks Claudia for your inspiration.
How fun! A new table and chairs!
Thank you for your kind words, Trudy. Stay safe!
Thanks, Barbara.
Stay safe.
You might go on counting until July 1… keep it up for the first 6 months of the year. Surely, by then, most people will have been vaccinated and life should have gone back to reasonably normal.
Thanks, Petra.
Stay safe!
I’ve been wondering about the number title too. This pandemic isn’t over, but will it ever be? I think you could stop anytime it feels right to you.
I hate to admit that I am older and don’t have the energy I used too. I was looking at the yard yesterday and thinking that I should just do a little every day when the weather cooperates. I raked leaves off a flower bed yesterday. It still needs more clean up. I may not get to it today. We are taking the granddaughters to the beach to see the remains of an old shipwreck that has been exposed by the shifting sand this spring.
Pace yourself and enjoy your day.
Stay safe
( and when do we stop saying that?)
I’m doing a little every day, too. Gradually we’ll build up our strength.
Say safe, Marilyn.
We are still in a pandemic….
Yes, we are. But that could be the case for a long time, so the question is still valid!
Stay safe, Brenda.
Prayers…love your outside work…we are in a pandemic…count if you want…
xoxo
Thanks, Brenda!
I like the counting! It reminds me, so that I can tell people who are anti- vaxers or think that because we have received the vaccine we can act like everything is normal and not wear a mask.
It’s not normal yet!
I don’t think I can be friends anymore with anti-vaxers . That makes me sad. We have been taking the virus so seriously. My mom passed away from cancer in November and my dad in March from a broken heart. We are finally able to schedule an immediate family only memorial service and the variant is lurking. Covid has changed all of our lives so much. Our business, my grandchildren’s school and their parent’s jobs, church, the mourning process and inability to have friends and relatives grieve with us in person, and trying to maintain friendships when everyone is on a different page.
On a happier note, the sun is out, daffodils and forsythia are blooming and buds are on trees!
Take care Claudia and Don!
Yes, if someone refuses to get a vaccination, I must, I’m afraid, have nothing to do with them.
Stay safe, Betsy.
hej, betsy …
so sorry for the losses of your mother and father! i hope you have comfort in happy memories and the peace that comes with God’s promises of eternal life. hope you do something you enjoy every day. i will be praying for you and your family.
a virtual hug, if you like, and my condolences.
kathy in iowa
Thank you for you kindness, Kathy. Prayers are always welcome.
xo Betsy
will keep praying for you and your family.
take good care of yourself!
kathy in iowa
That is an interesting question you posed. For us….Saturday is the first day we can be with other vaccinated people. Hurray! We have plans to do just that. I think the answer is really up to you. When will you become comfortable resuming life with limitations, and stop the counting. As someone said….we are still in a pandemic.
Pacing yourself seems to be paramount in not wearing yourself out in the garden. We only do a couple hours at most at a time. After all….we are retired, and don’t really need to rush.
Have fun planting your pansies. I’m anxious to dig in the dirt myself. Enjoy your day! ;)
I’m not sure what the answer is. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see.
A couple of hours for us, as well!
Stay safe, Donna.
Some good ideas on the counting conundrum that I’d not considered. Whatever you decide will be right for you.
I feel like my pandemic timeline began to reset itself when I was able to schedule our vaccination, then again when we got our first jab. I think I’m most looking forward to next Monday when when my immunity will finally be at full strength! Life may not be back to “normal”, but at least I will feel better about non-essential shopping–the nursery gift shop, the paint store, the thrift shop–all places I’ve avoided for so very long. That’s my real timeline restart!
In other thoughts, I can’t recommend a heated seed-starter mat enough. This is my first year and I’m hooked! Our growing season is very short and having the warm season veggies and summer annuals sprouted and ready to set out is going to be a game changer. I have hopes anyway, lol.
Like you, I’m feeling my gardening muscles inform me that it was a long winter. I’m taking it slow as I enjoy being in the yard. Sunscreen has reappeared in my morning routine.
Enjoy and stay healthy!
No room for a heated seed starter, unfortunately, but what a good idea!
We’ll be at two weeks next Wednesday.
Stay safe, Roxie.
I say keep on going.
Thanks, Jan.
Stay safe!
I think when you have reached two weeks from your last vaccination you can stop counting. Your lockdown will be over, right? Covid is still lurking but you can start trying to live a life again.
That would be next Wednesday. Still not sure what I’ll do!
Stay safe, Rose.
For the numbering, I say stop when you are ready. Perhaps the 2 weeks after your final shot?? But there will always, at least in my mind, be an asterisk up there as a bit of a disclaimer, as I don’t think we have arrived at an “end”. I was talking with my daughter the other day and I told her that I hope we never go BACK to “normal”, but rather wish we think of going AHEAD to better. I don’t think we should go backwards to buffet tables where everyone breathes (or coughs or sneezes) upon the food, or to blowing out candles on a BD cake and then serving the cake to our guests, and can we/ should we be shaking hands with strangers? Moving ahead, at least for the time being, to smarter and better calculated behaviors really seems prudent right now, doesn’t it?? I am so happy to be fully vaccinated, but even with that, they don’t know how long the vaccines will even last. 6 months is what they are looking at now for Pfizer and Moderna. I do think we have to take that into consideration, along with the new strains. As long as you know the people you are with, and their vaccine history, we are pretty safe right now, and that is truly a wonderful thing. But I get nervous when I hear people say we are now back to normal as it seems a bit ridiculous as well. It is worrisome that there are so many who will not take the vaccine. I like to think that these nearly 400 days perhaps heightened our thought process so we don’t let our guard down to what it was pre-pandemic. Hopefully we have all actually learned something from these long 390 days.
Glad you found some happy Pansies. They always make me smile. 76* again today, and for a week that we were told would be rainy every day, we still have not had a drop. Sounds like back to more normal mid to upper 50’s for the next 10-14 days. Our Maples and Lilacs are almost fully leafed out already. And we really do need the rain. Happy to hear you are taking it slowly. When we are retired, or semi-retired, we have no clocks set to which we must answer. That is a joy!! Take care.
Exactly. There will always be an asterisk. We are at two weeks a week from today.
You’re way ahead of us – we have buds on the lilacs and buds on the trees, but nothing has leafed out yeet.
Stay safe, Chris.
Wow, Chris, your comment really hit the nail on the head. My husband and I too, as well as some of our friends, were thinking similarly of how life will be different ahead of us, and what behaviors we should leave behind. (Claudia has touched on this as well. The balance of a need to insulate; self-protect [vs being ‘of’ the larger world {did I get that right, Claudia?}].) Definitely, our routine and daily habits (husband and myself) have changed in lockdown, but some of it has turned out to be good change which has benefitted us. After this experience and past year, none of us are the same as pre-pandemic; not comparing, but sometimes I feel a similarity to 911, when we lost our innocence. In 2020, we not only almost lost our democracy, but too many people lost their lives. You don’t come off that kind of fear and not be a changed person in some way.
No, if we DON’T change and move ahead, I am afraid going BACK to that old normal is going to do us in. These 390 days should have taught us something, about our world and about ourselves. I guess that being a rather introverted person, I have been able to cope a bit better than those who are so used to being on the go all of the time. We certainly missed some special times with our very first granddaughter, but we did manage to stay a part of her life, and the lives of our kids. But it was by learning the new “rules” and abiding by what would be best for everyone. The entire country got through the flu season this year with hardly any cases. Surely we should have learned from that and figured it out so we do the same sorts of things next year. Thousands die from flu every year, and we actually overcame it in 2020-21!! I think it will be a while before we eat in a restaurant. It isn’t something we really missed. We did do take-out quite a few times, and bringing it home to eat was lovely, with no one asking if we needed anything every few minutes, forgetting us when we wanted the bill, naughty kids screaming and running around, people coughing and sneezing! We didn’t mind grocery pick up, either. We think it actually saved us quite a bit of money, as our “cart” was usually only full of necessities, (plus a bag of chips, and some cookies, and ice cream maybe). So in our lives, I see some of the newer/ different things we came to do becoming a lasting part of our lives. We will see. The winter was very hard, for sure. Now that some warmer weather is returning, and we can be outside, it will be so much easier. Thx, Vicki!! Take care.
My brother, who is the same age as my husband (65), was talking to me recently about how he needs to keep reminding himself he is no longer working. That if he wants to sit in the sun and drink coffee, that’s ok. If he and his wife want to camp beside a riverbank and do nothing for a week, that’s ok. If he wants to spend all morning designing some complex bit of something on his computer, that’s ok. We have all worked hard all our lives: he as a fitter and turner, my husband as a lawyer, so very different but still hard working! Now they are both retired, it’s time to take the time to do what they enjoy without needing to feel guilty of pressured…I guess what I’m trying to say is enjoy slowing down, taking your time and the garden will still be there tomorrow!
Well, we’re not retired yet, thought it sure does seem that way since there is nothing happening right now in the theater. Sigh. I guess we’re semi-retired.
We are slowly down and taking our time, Denise. It’s the only way I can do it!
Stay safe!
This is ‘you’, Claudia; when Spring is heading toward summer; your gardening. I love hearing about your adventures’ out’ yesterday; want to see those Italian pots! Today’s photo is so lovely. Thanks for always giving us a photo to gaze upon.
About your blog post headings. If you want to keep numbering them ala pandemic, it’s okay with me, because I personally don’t think we’re out of the woods yet; I’m trying to keep informed but it’s not sounding too great for the un-vaccinated; we’re hoping the vaccinated can stay safe against the variants, but there are still many unknowns. We have a community college near us that was poised to open the campus on April 20 for the first time since the start of the pandemic but they’ve pulled back and may (?) do some summer school but that’s a big ‘if’, too. My Calif is ‘opening’ but not everybody is choosing to be part of it. Yes, as a vaccinated person, I feel more protected, but I fully expect to have to have a booster come September. Who knows what’s going to still happen with Covid and its replication? Dr. Osterholm (Minnesota; noted epidemiologist and infectious disease expert) was saying that until the vaccination effort is a global success, we’ll continue to fight these variants. As long as the virus is out there, it will keep morphing into these other strains. And they will come to America. And I guess we’re a long way off yet from vaccinating the whole world. Calif of course now has the one from India but the UK variant is I believe the biggest concern right now.
Yes, I suspect we’ll have to get boosters. Sigh.
Stay safe, Vicki!
wow! thanks for sharing that beautiful photo of even-more-beautiful flowers!
glad you are going at a pace that feels right for you with the outdoor work. and hopefully no ticks were found!!
for what it’s worth, i say do the same with numbering or not numbering your posts … do what feels right to you. while the numbers are rather depressing to me, they are also part of our reality right now. if you think about stopping with the numbered titles, perhaps stop when you reach what is to be full immunity for you and don, two weeks after your second shots …?
i should probably wait until after the first physical assessment (this friday), but can’t help it … i am feeling down after the initial physical therapy interview yesterday where i was told i will never get medical “permission” to ever run/jog again due to the four very-slow-healing vertabrae with compression fractures and ongoing osteoporosis. very, very dispiriting to me because running has always been an enjoyable thing for me to do, a guaranteed very free-ing time for me and it is a part of who i am. i want to prove them wrong, but right now i just have more sadness.
going to head out of here (office) and drive in some rain to (socially-distanced) visit with some family members so there are those bright spots. :)
hope you all are having a nice night and stay safe.
kathy in iowa
I’m going to pray that you heal and can run again, Kathy.
Two weeks will be next Wednesday. Still not sure what to do!
Stay safe, Kathy.
thanks very much, claudia. means a lot. :)
i keep you, don and everyone else here in my prayers.
kathy in iowa
kathy, I can hear how sad you are in your words re: running again. I am going to say maybe it is God’s way of telling you it is that time to keep moving, but perhaps by walking now. Maybe there is more you will see by slowing down and walking instead of running, and it is His plan. This getting old surely isn’t for sissies!! I’m not sure who started calling these the “golden years”, but with aches and pains and disconcerting medical diagnosis, they seem more like “tarnished” to me. But we do what we can. Take care!!!! ♡
hej, chris …
yes, i am very sad about the likelihood of no longer running … it’s been such a part of my life, enjoyable, beneficial and free-ing to me that i am crying now just thinking about it … so your insight and support are much appreciated. will see how physical therapy goes. thank you very much.
hope you and your family are well and safe. happy thursday.
thanks again.
kathy in iowa
…kathy, I’m so sorry you got the bad news about (not) running/jogging in your future; it does seem too jostling for a tender, recovering back … but it is so hard to have to sometimes let go of what we’ve enjoyed and which has helped us; I watched this happen with my mother, who’d become a ‘victim’ of rheumatoid arthritis; she was so artistic and loved a whole range of art projects including watercolor painting, then came to a point where she could no longer use her hands (damaged joints) to do the art, crochet, hold a hardcover book, or a heavier ceramic coffee mug, nor play the piano or drive a car; she also couldn’t write with a pen for any length of time … and then her eyes went bad, which robbed her of her ability to read, and she was such a big reader … but she summoned her grit to find new things that she COULD do, like audio books or softcover large-print books; a lighter-weight and dainty cup for morning java; she had her ears and could listen to music on the turntable; and there was always the speaker phone to keep connected to others (it is difficult, though, to see things being taken away from a person; so I can try to imagine your disappointment, kathy) … my former dermatologist was an avid runner who developed a ‘bad’ back and he too no longer could run; my friend’s husband was an avid bicyclist who developed ‘bad’ knees which has caused him to find some different athletic activity; another friend’s husband was a diehard weightlifter but developed ‘bad’ hips … how, I’m not sure … and he too has had to find a different sport; my friend, Shirley, is a dedicated hiker and walker but she has shin splints which don’t improve which makes it particularly hard to walk uphill/downhill, so hiking has had to take a backseat (it’s not easy; they all miss their former exercise choices) … but I know you will figure this out, because you’re such a strong, good, intelligent woman … I have every faith you will find acceptable alternatives to things you once enjoyed, and you also have my every prayer for good healing and encouraging medical news!
thanks, vicki, very much for your kind words and support. :)
really sorry that your mother went through such losses due to health problems, but glad she found other things to enjoy. same with friends you mentioned.
for the past fourteen months or so, i’ve thought a lot about the messages God is sending and what lessons we are to learn from this pandemic. and over the past five months of having a back broken in four places, i’ve thought about the expression “when God closes a door, he always opens a window”. i don’t see a “window” (hobby, health practice) i like as much as the “door” of running right now (which is sad, frustrating and kind of scary), but that’s where faith comes in, right? i just need to trust God. He uses all things for good. we get beauty for the ashes. i can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. :)
hope you’re doing well and stay safe, can do more fun things now.
thanks again. :)
kathy in iowa
We have been doing tons of yardwork, too. Brian’s been putting in many hours of outdoor work on his days off. And there’s still much more to do. It’s amazing how much yard work there is to do in the spring! We got our patio furniture set up yesterday, but since the furniture is wicker and is under tarps all winter, it still gets dirty. So it still all needs a good power washing. The outdoor work feels so good though, doesn’t it? Both of us are used to the exercise and movement – I walk most every day, even in the winter and I do yoga…and Brian works out in a gym at work – but there’s still nothing like the feeling of working in your own yard in the fresh air and sunshine.
xoxo
I think Don and I are several years older than you and Brian? -Not sure exactly how much, but Don will turn 70 in June.
We’re loving being outdoors and even if we’re tired and not quite in shape yet, it feels so good to work outdoors!
Stay safe, Melanie.
I will be 59 this year and Brian 61, so yes, we are a bit younger than you and Don. I just hope I end up being like my mother, who will be 81 this year. She still tries to get in 10,000 steps a day and does most of her own yard work. She even lugs those huge bags of mulch from her car trunk and into her yard and spreads all the mulch herself. *I* can’t even do that, lol! She’s an inspiration, for sure.
I’m far from being in shape – I need to work out much harder…put in some more walking and work on strength training. Brian runs on a treadmill and does a lot of weight work too, so he’s in great shape.
Have a good evening, Claudia!
Your mom sounds like my grandmother. She was painting her porch and gardening in her eighties! Good for your mom!
I definitely need to be in better shape and I’m going to work on that.
xo
Parallel lives, with nurseries that have little but pansies (but glorious ones and plenty of them) and outdoor work on beautiful days. You can’t beat it. I know April is terribly fickle but I’ll take every good day I can. I applaud your productivity!
And yours!
Stay safe, Jeanie.
Claudia — glad you are able to enjoy warmer days — we, too, have had 3 glorious days in a row — so many blooms, the Ky bluegrass is an unbelievable shade of green, our fruit trees–peach, pear are so beautiful filled with bees. Mr mowed everywhere today — this is his ‘happy’ time. So thankful he can do it b/c my allergies already giving me fits !! love springtime. your sheep flock is impressive as are the egg cups–such variety. hope you/Don stay safe and healthy.
My allergies are kicking in, so I understand!
Stay safe, Linda!