Good afternoon!
And what a beautiful afternoon it is at 72 degrees and sun shining. We suddenly went from chilly to the 70s. If I weren't scared of the unpredictability of the weather up here I'd be tempted to do some planting when I hear we're supposed to be in the 70s for the next week. My marigolds are too little, as you can see (top row).
But did you notice some itsy-bitsy teeny-weeny coleus sprouts peeking out of two peat pots in the center row!
I most certainly didn't get fresh seeds through Amazon. I have 18 marigolds (2 still questionable survival) out of 60 seeds and now 6 coleus from a double planting of about 50 seeds. Not very good odds. They may have been old seeds. You never know what you're going to get. But if these coleus do manage to survive I plan to keep these as indoor plants.
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I also planted Annie a small container of cat grass.
Spring fever must have gotten ahold of Annie. She's been racing through the apartment like a kitten, following me everywhere (if she's awake)...just plain restless or exhausted from the exertion of said restlessness--LOL!
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I got a long letter from Ian! Took him weeks to write he told me.
It's all about the Easter Bunny coming while they were taking a bath in the morning and the hunting of Easter eggs.
I think his printing was improving by the end. He did miss copying the "...ys" in our "Love always and forever" but he really did well.
This time he had to look at what Mama printed and then copy it on his own. No highlighter.
If Gramma can read it right off the bat...he did quite well, I think. :)
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Mama put a note on the back. "Ian left this out and Liam cut it with his scissors".
Leah saves the washi tape I put on letters to her and reuses them back on letters to me. This time they went on Ian's letter.
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Plus--those of you who have been around for a long time may remember my bookcards. When I was talking about making a book for Ian I was wishing I had some of my handmade paper left for a cover. Well, Leah dismantled a bookcard I had sent her and included this handmade paper cover in with Ian's letter!
Can you see the holes down the center fold where I stitched the bookcard together?
My bookcards only have a single 3-5 page signature--so 12-20 small pages. I have been thinking about making bookcards again this summer to use for letter writing. Even if I don't use handmade paper for covers, I have used printed scrapbook paper, too. They are fun to write in for a change.
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Sure! Let's add that to my endless list of projects--ROFL! Be much easier if I use pretty paper for covers. Regardless, I am thrilled to send Ian a little book with a handmade paper cover. :)
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This is what was left of the cat grass after 24 hours with Annie!
Looks like a grass explosion! LOL!
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Leah went on huge grocery shopping trips to CashWise and Costco on Wednesday and then went again on Thursday because of the limitations on some items. So Wednesday was spent cleaning and repackaging two hauls Leah dropped off for me...and then she came with another smaller haul on Thursday (some things were back in stock, too!). We are hoping to be able to go another two months again! Whoohoo! :)
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At Costco Leah picked up some starter plants for me!!
I have coleus, red geraniums, and some kind of light green draping type of plant. I never thought--there might be a label stick in there....YES! Lysimachia/Goldilocks it says. Perfect!
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They are doing well. I set them up under the window in the studio. All the calligraphy supplies are gone and flowers have taken over. :)
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The marigolds look pretty tiny under the bedroom window, but they are hanging in there.
After I took this picture I decided to move all the empty pots to one tray and the pots with something in them to the other tray. Easier to water.
Turns out I have 13 peat pots with 18 marigold plants and the 2 peat pots with the teeny coleus...and 13 empty peat pots where nothing came up. I'll leave them for a few days and see if any latecomers arrive.
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Regardless of my meager harvest in the seeding department...I will have lots of plants out on the patio thanks to Leah and Costco...and probably some marigolds!
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Leah and I had a short video call on Thursday night--we were both really tired, but satisfied. We got just about everything on our lists. I know my frig, freezer, and pantry are packed full--nice!
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Funny--someone asked Leah if she was going to the lake. So many people have lake cabins in Minnesota...and ND, too, apparently. They thought she was stocking up for the summer, I suppose--LOL!
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Speaking of summer...my summer clothes bins only got moved into my bedroom. Since it has gotten quite a bit warmer (LOVE having the place wide open!) I will have to start purging, washing, folding, hanging, packing, sorting--so that I can do the switcheroo this week.
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In other not-so-good news, my brother forwarded the letter from Mom's residence again. The week before you may recall it was 1 employee and 2 residents. Last week it was 5 employees and 9 residents. So it went from 3 to 14 in a week. They've been so very diligent in their covid battle that the staff has to be so terribly disappointed. Fingers crossed and say a prayer for my mom...and all the seniors who live there.
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Saturday was Gramma Day. Leah knew I was pretty shot from two days of sorting groceries, setting up the plants, and doing a load of laundry, too, so she suggested Ian and I synch up a nature show so we could watch together and still be on a video call at the same time so we could see each other and make comments to each other while we watched. It was almost like our Gramma Days here watching shows together! So cool!
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Then Dagan took a video call outside later so Ian could show me his rocket launcher (burst of air with a foot pedal). Plus, there was a quick Toad and Frog bedtime story that night, too.
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Annie is sleeping in her chair next to me. As soon as I took the cell phone up to take a picture...eyes popped open--LOL!
Used to be Miss Karma's spot.
I still miss Karma, but Annie has become a good companion and shown more of her personality as time goes by. She was meant to be an old lady's cat...and Man, O'Man...does she ever love isolation. She thinks it is the perfect life. No visitors at all make Annie one happy girl--LOL! Total introvert!!
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Well, another week starting. Every week I keep hoping I'll get so much more done, but I guess I did okay. I'm surprised at how fast the days fly by in isolation. Today is day 68 and I think another week will fly by so quickly. Maybe they go so fast because I am always thinking I'll get more done--and...poof!...the week is over--LOL!
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I worked a lot on letters this past week. Was quite behind but am slowly getting caught up. (When I am doing so much more physical stuff I have very few spoons left over for much of anything but chair vegging with a good show.) I may be slow by I am a faithful pen pal. ;)
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Been exploring BritBox...watching Prime, Netflix, and Acorn. Have had less noise from the lady and her kids so they must be going elsewhere now that things have opened up in ND. We now have this sunbather lady and sometimes her hubby is with her--but silence! She wears ear buds!!
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Anyways, I'm curious. Are some of you venturing out and about with the loosening of the rules or are you staying put? We are staying put. Dagan's working from home and the company said that will continue until the end of June. We're very, very happy about that. I'm still using a mask and hand scrubbing whenever I go to the mail, dumpster, or garage...but the one place I won't will be my little patio. :)
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That's it for this time.
See you next Monday!
Stay safe and well.
Virtual hugs!!! :) :)
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"The flower is always the buds undoing. Let go then. Step into the river lean into the wind let the strength of the earth rise through you. Watch your fingertips burst into bloom."
Pavithra K. Mehta
11 comments:
My comment to get your sweet comments! :)
I never realized how important it is to have fresh seeds. I had a LOT of old flower and vegetable seeds, and when I planted them NOTHING grew. The only place to get seeds around here is Walmart and they're nearly sold out.
This has been a crazy spring - freezing one day and very warm the next. Today it's near 80 and pouring rain.
Sending positive thoughts and prayers for your Mom.
Coleus take a while to grow they start out so small. So glad you got your supplies and pretty flowers too! Ian is quite a letter writer! WE are staying in but outside parts of the day...no one else around in our yard just birds:)
Maybe with more warm weather coming those seeds will take off and start growing much faster! I love the Costco flowers - beautiful. We have had the strangest Spring this year. Once in awhile we will have a few warm days and then it goes back to cold and rainy again. It's not usually cool in May here. I'll keep your Mom and her friends in my prayers. It is a scary thing for sure. We are still staying home here except to buy groceries. We have gotten take out food a couple of times but only recently did that. It's hard to know what is safe to do these days. Most places around here are opening up but we won't go to any unless we have to for something we need. It's going to be a long time before we really get back to normal.
We are testing the waters... but back off if we feel uncomfortable in a situation.. I still want my space and we wear our masks even though most people around us don't.. We did eat at a restaurant... It was so nice to go in and have a meal.. they had good spacing between tables and everyone wore masks until the drinks came to the table .. My only complaint was the waiters wore gloves.. Now i'm of the opinion that i would rather they didn't wear gloves but instead washed their hands or sanitized between customers.. What good does it do to wear the same pair of gloves all day? Your still spreading germs around... We go to Lowe's alot as we are still working on the house.. We try to find balance.. not staying home completely but being careful and taking precautions.. definitely not your everyday normal.. Hugs! deb
So lovely to hear you are doing so well. And yes, you are very busy for someone who doesn't think she does much every day. What a sweet letter! Take it slow and easy, and everything will get done eventually. Sending you back some virtual hugs. :-)
We are staying put unless you count going for walks or to the park. During the 8+ weeks of isolation I have been in 4 small stores for maybe 10 minutes total.
There are a few stores that I would now be brave enough to visit if need be, but so far the need hasn't arisen.
You are certainly doing an impressive job raising those plants. I tried seedlings once or twice with some but limited success.
Finally, our cat, Lacey has been a little more antsy than usual lately, but I still have never seen her truly run. lol
Lovely to see your flowers shooting up.
Hi Rita, while you may think you are not getting much done, after reading this weekly update, it is really a lot! While more things are opening up here in Nashua and throughout NH we are not venturing out to more than a usual few, grocery store, post office, bagel shop, CVS. It’s not a long list. Starting this week, restaurants have outdoor dining and we will venture out to support local ones as all our dining has been at home, like so many others.
Your planting looks impressive and hopefully the seeds will bring colorful results. You never know with seed packets if they will sprout.
Kudos to Ian on the letter writing. He’s starting early and it is a good experience for all as I speak from experience.
Sending positive thoughts for your mom and the others.
Hoorah for the coleus! I'm excited for you! All your plants will be fun to have on the patio. The letter writing is going well. Very good handwriting, isn't it!
Retirement communities and nursing homes are having a hard time of it during this pandemic. I'm sorry your mom's place didn't have better success considering the efforts they made. Discouraging, I'm sure :(
We are still staying put. I go to the grocery store every couple of weeks, and I may increase that to weekly, and I pick-up food we've ordered from local restaurants every week or so but no outings for me yet.
You are going to have a lot of colour around you this year! It's a good feeling to have your shopping organised for a while I'm sure! We are still lucky to get a weekly delivery slot - even if it means that we have to stay up after midnight to get it!! Ian's writing is coming on too - I still have a few little notes from my grandchildren that I can't bear to part with! It's a great age! Annie certainly does look contented - and you will both benefit from better weather! As for venturing out - we're not going far at all. We walked to the post box the other day and we have had a couple of walks around the grounds here but no plans for going further yet - will be making masks before that though! Take care, hugs, Chrisx
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