I just took this picture the other day – they’re still blooming. Everything is a bit late this year. These daffs were planted by a previous owner. There’s a mound of them just beyond the back of the shed, as well. I think they’re so delicate and beautiful.
I took it easy yesterday. Basically I just hung out inside the house, except for a brief watering session with the newly sown seeds. It’s quite lovely right now; another gorgeously sunny day. Don has been making trails up in the woods, clearing out the paths we already had established. It looks good up there and it gives him a satisfying project.
Now if he could just learn some building skills so I can have a greenhouse.
That’s been a dream of mine for a long time, and it’s not helped by all the photos of greenhouses I see on Instagram or on Gardener’s World. It sometimes seems as if every British gardener has a greenhouse of some sort. My dream planting area would be surrounded by a brick wall with beds full of flowers and plants and vegetables and a greenhouse tucked in the corner. It also seems like every other garden I see on Gardener’s World has a beautiful brick wall, the perfect background for vines and climbing roses and clematis.
But, really, all I want is a modest little greenhouse. But even modest ones are pricey. Highly doubtful that will happen. Still, it’s always nice to have a dream, don’t you think?
Can you tell I’ve been watching my favorite gardening show?
Don received a letter from his agent the other day, updating all her clients about what’s going on during the lockdown. The future looks bleak. Broadway is officially closed until September but she said that it’s quite likely that nothing will reopen until 2021. It’s now May of 2020. That leaves at least seven more months of no work. And if that’s the case for Broadway, then it’s most likely the case for regional theaters. Maybe television and film could start up earlier than that, but how to film with social distancing? Don has been on plenty of sets in his 50 years as an actor and he says there is no way you can distance. Neither of us will have the opportunity to work until next year, at the earliest. Extend that same timeline to prop artists, set designers, lighting designers, technicians, sound designers, crew, stage managers, directors, composers, front-of-house crews, ushers, box office staff, house managers, production companies and all of their staff members, rehearsal studios, marketing, publicity, artistic directors, administrative staff, costume designers and crew, production managers, television and film studios, grips and every other worker you see on the list of credits at the end of a film – and there are thousands. This list is just off the top of my head, but there’s more. We know of a few shows, one of them directed by a friend of ours, that were just about to open on Broadway when the lockdown occurred. Will they ever open? What shows (that are already running) will not be able to sustain this long break without an audience and box office sales? What regional theaters will go down? What agencies will not survive?
And then, extend this scenario to opera companies, dance companies, symphony orchestras, museums, cultural organizations of every kind…and you have a nightmare scenario for the Arts, which, let’s face it, are always just getting by.
Even though Don had certainly been thinking about it, seeing it in the email really threw him. He had a delayed reaction. He’s not ready to retire and was worried about commuting to the city for auditions, having already made the decision to put his auditions on video – what is called self-taping. But nothing for at least the rest of the year and beyond? It’s really devastating. We are grateful for Don’s pensions and for Social Security – it’s tight, but we can survive. Imagine how hard it is for those who have no other source of income.
So that’s the reality at this house right now. Neither of us has or will have any work for the foreseeable future. We saw it coming, of course, and I’ve mentioned it here before, but…wow.
Stay safe.
Happy Wednesday.
