William and Kate say the kids are out of control. Kurt and Goldie are fighting in public and have called off the wedding. Mutant wasps have arrived in the country via Washington – the same as Covid-19. Hillary has just six months to live. Ted Cruz’s father linked to JFK assassination.
Where was I?
I figured that being furloughed would be like practicing for retirement. So it’s been surprising to me that I’m struggling. I’m not as happy as I thought I would be and some days it’s felt like time is stretching out endlessly in front of me. Last weekend I sat myself down (well, figuratively) to try to grapple with my problem.
It didn’t take long to realize that furlough during shelter-in-place is NOT like practicing for retirement, so my expectations were out of whack. Although I had never actually planned my retirement, I did have some things that I wanted to do when I had the time – volunteering was big on the list. I want to volunteer at my neighborhood library, the Crisis Nursery, Feed My Starving Children, maybe the Arboretum or even one of the zoos (although I expect there is a pretty good waiting line for these spots). I know I wouldn’t be a good Humane Society volunteer; not sure I could pass the training and even if I did, I’d probably end up with six cats and seven dogs by the end of my first week. For now, volunteering in person is off my table.
After some thought, I decided that I COULD contribute by making and sending cards. Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve seen few card-making opportunities online in which organizations are soliciting card donations to send to sick kids, folks in essential services jobs and medical personnel and decided that this is right up my alley; I have a passion for it AND I don’t need to leave the house for supplies – I can easily make cards for months without having to get anything (yeah, I know, kinda sad)!
I’ve sent off two packets so far for essential services folks and also a stack of medical personnel cards as well (see photo). When it rains next, I’ll spend a day doing cards for kids. It’s not exactly a new lease on life but I find that I’m feeling a little better this week. I also decided to make garden thank you cards – for letting people know that I appreciate their gardens on my daily walk. And, of course, if anybody needs any cards – I’m your gal – just let me know!
Do you have any favorite volunteer gigs when we’re not sheltering in place?
Yesterday I added my eggshells to my bales. I use a high nitrogen fertilizer on the bales and somewhere in the past I must have seen something (probably on the internet) that suggested added calcium in the form of eggshells to counteract that. While I was setting the crushed eggshells around each plant, some of them were blowing away in the stiff wind. This made me think about my friend, LeAnne. I’ve known LeAnne for over 30 years and from the beginning I’ve known that she believes that if you get wind in your ears, you’ll get sick. I’ve never even tried to talk her out of this belief, because you can tell that she’s not willing to believe anything else. In fact, just last week, she mentioned how she had felt bad all day because the day before she had been gardening and it had been quite windy.
As I stood there in the wind, watching some of the eggshells blow away, I realized that I am the same as LeAnne. I know what I know and it’s not just about adding eggshells to my bales. Snakes. I didn’t want YA to have an irrational fear so whenever we were around snakes (zoo, children’s museum, etc.) I made it a point to “pet the snake” in her presence. So my brain KNOWS that snakes are dry, but my brain also knows that they are slimy. Airplanes. I travel for a living; I’ve been on plenty of planes. I have even researched lift and airplane engineering. But I still know in my heart of hearts that on every single take-off, when the plane tilts for lift off, the tail of the plane is going to scrap the runway. The fact that this has never happened, not even once, makes no difference. I know what I know.
Do you “know” something, despite evidence to the contrary?
Nimue has always been fascinated by trickling water; I understand from other kitty owners that this is something she has in common with other cats. Up until her surgery last week, I never let her drink from the faucet like this, but between the cone of shame and her banishment to the dog kennel, I was feeling sorry for her yesterday morning. I know this is probably a bad precedent to set and she’ll want to drink from the faucet forever!
Why do kitties like to drink from the faucet? All ideas (silly or not) entertained!
Caveat: The following observations are only representative of my neighborhood and cannot be reliably applied to other areas.
On my daily walks with Guinevere, I’ve noticed that the Adirondack chair is the most popular chair in my area. There are lots and lots of them, in all colors from natural wood to bright yellow and reds. While there are plenty of Adirondacks in back yards, there is actually a pretty high percentage of them in front yards and on front stoops and porches. Cushions can be found as well. In the backyard of one house on our route there is a beautiful double Adirondack in a dark pine green. There is even a house over on Penn with a whole row of Adirondacks across the front yard of a house – one in every primary color of the rainbow.
This is interesting to me. YA and I have two Adirondacks in the back yard – bright aqua (YA’s choice) and I don’t find them to be all that comfortable. You’re pretty much forced to lean back in the chair. Except for closing my eyes and taking a snooze, I prefer to sit up. For keeping up with conversation, for drinking a beverage, for reading, I need to be sitting up. And, of course, when it’s time to exit of a chair, an Adirondacks is not the easiest chair to get out of. Although for snoozing in while YA messes with a fire in the fire pit, they are quite nice!
Do you have a favorite chair or snoozing spot?
Like a lot of folks, I am spending a bit of my time each day walking the dog. I live in a great neighborhood for walking, lots of yards, a creek, the parkway. I try to walk by a certain house each day, as I love the garden. The tulips there have bloomed and I can’t wait to see how the garden is blossoming day by day.
Then we walk back, taking a different route each day. Yesterday morning we walked by a house with the most amazing azalea bush out front. As I was taking the photo, the owner came out with her dog so I was able to tell her how beautiful the bush is. She agreed and we went on our way. It was just a few minutes in the day, but I’m still smiling when I think of it.
Have you had a moment the last few days?
Yesterday Husband and I did some outdoor garden work, starting with trimming some lower branches from a spruce tree that shaded the front vegetable plot too much last year. I also gave the spruce trunks a shave, trimming off the “whiskers” that were sprouting from where we cut branches off the lower trunks in past years. Now they look neat and clean, like tree trunks ought to look in a Dutch woman’s yard.
The vegetable garden is not visible, and is to the right of this picture. I think we should plant ferns directly below the spruces, but Husband wants to keep filling it in with mulch.
The irises are greening up, so I raked out the beds. If you wait too long to rake out irises in the spring you run the risk of damaging the new growth and you won’t have as many flowers . There is lots more raking and trimming to do, but it can wait until next week.
Our last task was to thin and transplant the pepper seedlings into larger pots. Our grey cat was happy, as she loves to eat pepper seedlings, and I gave her the ones we couldn’t use. She gobbled them up. She wouldn’t touch the tomato seedlings, though.
It really makes a difference that Husband is home during the week, and we don’t have to do all our garden work on the weekend. He has taken on the task of planning our church’s vegetable garden. The produce goes to the local food bank. It is also a contemplative garden, so it has to look nice. I think a well tended vegetable garden is very beautiful, and he and the youth group member who is helping him will have a busy season.
What is your yard and garden update?
Today we broke the rules, at least some, of the social distancing rules. Two dear friends, a married couple of licensed addiction counselors from the Rez came to town to sign their wills at their lawyer’s office, and we had them over for cheesecake and a nice visit over lunch. We hadn’t seen them since the summer. We didn’t hug or shake hands as we normally do (shaking hands is a really big deal with the ND tribes), and we sat about four feet apart at the dining room table, and we had a good talk. They brought a jar of tribal produced honey, and we gave them oatmeal bread, French Bread, and lefse. They showed us videos of their newborn Kiko goats, and we showed them photos of our grandson. It was nice, but odd with the lack of contact and the distance we put between ourselves. We were all very self aware of our coughing and took care to shield the others from our exhalations.
I am a pretty rigid rule follower, and this made me somewhat uneasy, but it felt like the right thing to do.
What sort of a rule breaker/risk taker are you?
I was tickled to read about the Kashmiri goats running wild in Wales. during the COVID-19 lockdown there.
There are more than one hundred of them wandering around town. They were described as “quite naughty” by a local. I gather they have come to town on other occasions, but the lack of people has made them even more curious to check things out. And oh, my, those horns! Fiber for cashmere comes from the neck region of such goats. I have several cashmere sweaters, and I love them.
What is your favorite sweater? What are some bright spots in the news or in your life over the past several days?
I spent last week in a part of Minnesota with which I was quite unfamiliar. My friend lives in Howard Lake, and we spent our time pre and post surgery there and in the environs around Hutchinson, Cokato, Waconia, and Winsted. There is an arm of Howard Lake behind my friend’s apartment, and I noticed a pair of swans there amongst a flock of Canada Geese. I also noticed many swans in other ponds around the area and flying around over head, and I thought “Where did all these swans come from?” I hope this is an indication of improving environmental health. I don’t remember swans anywhere in Minnesota before. They are gorgeous, although I understand they are nasty and aggressive. I saw one once in Stratford, Ontario, taking a nap, standing up on one leg in the middle of a sidewalk right along the river. It was huge, and had its head tucked under its wing.
Sibelius has written some lovely music inspired by swans. Check out his 5th symphony as well as the Swan of Tuonela. I think Saint-Saen’s cello piece is beautiful, but doesn’t reflect their aggressiveness.
What are your favorite birds? Have any swan stories?
Trail Baboon 