We are in for a cold snap, with nights as cold as -9C, and snow on the way. Only for a few days though, so not so bad really. The rain tank has collected about 800 litres of water over the last few days. Since that will freeze and possibly damage the tank, Attila is transferring all the water into plastic garbage cans. It will be used on the garden and in the compost bins over the next little while. That is 800 litres of water that won’t be coming out of the public water supply, and dollars that won’t be coming out of our shallow pockets.
This morning, before the temperature began to fall, I grabbed my hot cup of coffee and headed out onto the porch. It was lovely, cool, but lovely. The birds were happy, mostly Grackles, Woodpeckers, Mourning Doves, and Robins at this point. The fresh air filled my lungs, after a long winter in cozy Mist Cottage.
The grass is turning lovely and green. In the garden the only growth is the garlic, it is about six inches tall now. The stalks on Granny’s Rose are taking on a very green tinge, always a good sign. And the rose bush has put out a sucker! This is so exciting. Eventually it would be nice to do a row of rose bushes, all descending from our original Granny’s Rose.
I am feeling tip top now, much refreshed from having taken it easy for a few days. I even made organic 100% whole wheat hot dog buns, which we enjoyed for supper tonight with nitrite free wieners, topped with homemade relish, with home-canned coleslaw on the side. A quick and fairly nutritious meal.
As the yard has been tidied up this spring, Wally Ball was discovered deflated and deteriorated against the fence. I’ve watched that wayward little purple beach ball wander around the yard for a few years now, I will miss it! It wandered into the fenced yard during a wind storm, found the location charming and to its taste, and never found its way out.
Pandemic Related
Well, I’ve been isolated for one year and two months now, and the Pandemic situation is heating up again as we enter the most extreme wave yet, the third wave. The only thing I mind about it is that Attila still has to go to work, in an area with serious outbreaks of the variants. We have our fingers crossed that all will go well, and that he can avoid contracting the virus.
The worry of Attila having to go into the workplace, which puts him, and me, at risk, is quite substantial. Most of the time I can just carry on, but there is an underlying worry that never goes away. Over the last few months, my mouth has been sore. I mentioned this to Attila, and he pointed out to me that I have been grinding my teeth. Yikes, I hadn’t even realized it. I hate paying attention to the news, but since vaccinations are so important, I’ve been following it diligently to optimize our chances of timely shots. Paying attention to media is stressful enough to cause me to grind my teeth. I’ve tried to stop but wow, once a habit is formed, it is very hard to break. I’ve finally come up with a partial solution. When I find myself grinding my teeth, I start to deep breath through my mouth, and blow each breath out slowly and carefully through my lips. So far I maintain the deep breathing of up to ten minutes after deliberately starting to do it. It is helping, as my mouth isn’t as sore, and the slow deep breathing helps to relieve the inner stress I am feeling. Win/Win
It seems likely our Province, Ontario, will go into a lock-down tomorrow, I hope so, as our ICU beds have more occupants than they have had in either of the first two waves of the Pandemic.
Worldly
Weather
Updated on Wed, Mar 31, 7:05 PM
8 °C
FEELS LIKE 7
Partly cloudy
Wind 6 W km/h
Humidity 73 %
Visibility 25 km
Sunrise 6:51 AM
Wind gust 8 km/h
Pressure 101.5 kPa
Ceiling 9100 m
Sunset 7:33 PM
Quote
“There is properly no history, only biography.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
1803 – 1882
Keeping you and Attila in my prayers that you both stay well. We got rain today but it held off long enough for me to get outside and get a bit of yardwork done and enjoy the fresh air and the birdsong. Was wonderful. Your supper sounds delicious!
Eileen
(aka Cookie)
It’s good you can make good use of all the rain. I hope the deep breathing helps.
Stay safe!
Eileen, what a delightful aka! The garden would have loved not only have enjoyed your attentions, it would have relished the rain afterwards. Birdsong is such a wonderful part of being out of doors.
Thank you for your kind prayers, ((hugs)). We do our best to help fate along.
Stay safe dear friend!
Joan, the garden loves the rainwater, it actually makes a difference, and is much preferred to municipal water. The rain tank was a big investment last spring, and it will have payed for itself by the end of this growing season. The deep breathing does seem to be helping.
It is snowing outside as I write this, not a morning to sit on the porch, but a lovely morning nonetheless.
Stay safe dear friend!
Dear Maggie, and my new “Maggie friends”…. I am writing this late on Easter night. I was unable to attend Ryder’s soccer game yesterday, but Mike went. The kids thought Ryder had the coolest grandfather since he drove his 3 wheeled Cam Am motorcycle. And, I missed Easter dinner with Jeremy and his family today, but Mike went and brought me back “ meals on wheels.” My doctor changed one of my medications on Friday, and it has thrown me way off the loop…so badly that I have actually used the danged walker to get around the house. I do not like assistive devices, and I will only use them when I absolutely have no other choice. I am so glad that you are feeling better….headaches worry me. I have had the yard helper over, and nearly have the garden beds cleaned out and mulched. I never plant new plants until nearer Mother’s Day…the nights are still too cool for the plants to get a good root system going, imho. I am managing to cook good meals a couple of times a week….Mike helps with dish duty. Not a lot of news from here…I think Texas has opened everything up too quickly with the COVID virus. We will continue to mask up, and we are not increasing our visits to stores or restaurants. Everything just seems “ out of sorts.” Take care everyone. xxoo margarett
Margarett, sorry to hear your health has takena dip. I do hope you bounce back soon! I’ve used assistive devices when I needed them, I had a wheelchair for about six months once, and was so grateful when that experience ended! It would be so hard to miss all those family events!! Getting the meds right is a process, one step forward, two steps back, and hopefully three steps forward!
We didn’t buy any plants last year, the whole garden was started from seed. Well, we did buy three things, a Horseradish plant, a Currant bush, and a High Bush Cranberry bush. Those went in after our last frost date, mid-May, and they are doing very well.
The sees Attila is planting are in the ground, and he has planted dozens of seeds in germination pots that are happy in one of the little greenhouses he built over my raised bed garden.
Ontario is just starting a four week shut down, the increase in cases is frightening about 3000 per day. We don’t produce our vaccines in Canada, although we used to, and the countries that do are vaccinating their own populations first before shipping much out, so the vaccine shortage here means a lot of vulnerable people can’t get vaccinated. Where I live we have a very competent Chief Medical Officer in charge of the Health Unit, and he has managed to get all people in long term care vaccinated, and all of the front line health staff that want vaccinations as well. In addition our adult aboriginal population have been eligible for vaccines since the first shipment arrived in Canada, and our remote aboriginal communities are up over 50% of the entire population vaccinated, and a much higher percentage of the adult population there. My youngest daughter is a front line health worker, and was vaccinated more than a month ago, then was exposed to Covid at work, and is in quarantine with her little family. She has tested negative twice, and if the next test is negative they will return to their normal life. Attila’s brother and his little family are in quarantine, our nephew was exposed at a soccer practice. So far we haven’t had direct contact, but our ONLY contact with the outside world is Attila going to work, and that is plenty dangerous enough. Things are definitely off here. I am heartened by the reports out of Isreal and England, where the vaccines and lockdowns have worked their magic and there are fewer cases in England than there are in Ontario, Canada!! So we are hanging on, hoping to make it through to the end of this global misery. Of course it will not be over until we have our population safe, and then provide safety for all humans, all over the world. These variants can erupt and spread wherever people are suffering from Covid in numbers. I don’t want to buy the world a coke, I want to give the world vaccines!
Enjoy your beautiful garden! Stay safe dear friend!