Life in the Age of Corona

A Daily Diary

Sunday, April 11th, 2021

Gardening

The forecast for today was rain, so I was pleasantly surprised to wake up to glorious sunshine and the day just kept getting better with a high of 27C.

Despite having resolved otherwise, this enticed me to make a trip to the garden center. The past four years I have shopped at American Plants, not so today. EM and I went on a little outing to Potomac to a place with the appropriate name of “Good Earth” and we came back with 13 Geraniums (12 for the boxes in front of the windows and one for my flower pot one the walkway to the house), several climbing Phlox, an Asian Jasmin, another woodruff plant, a rosemary tree, a tree Peonie, a Forgetmenot and an assortment of herbs (Majoran, Dill, Chives, Parsley, Thyme, Tarragon, Basil and Greek Basil) as well as some indigenous flowers whose name I do not know.

Like most of the Geraniums, the herbs will need to chill in their pots a little longer. I have resolved on to plant them in my kitchen garden until I have the temperature forecast until Mothersday, which is the last day when frost may still hit. The same applies to the Geraniums, they do not like frost so will only be planted in their boxes in a week or so. This will hopefully given them time to adjust from the hothouse to real life.

I did plant all of the flowers in various places around the garden, some in front of my prickly rose, where yesterday I had battled the sprawling flower with its underground roots, and some behind by my much favored love seat on which I am now sitting writing this while enjoying the color of the climbing Phlox and the Forgetmenot. I do hope these perennials will take and spread to voer the ground adding a splash of color to the Ivy.

The tree Peonie has found a spot in the sun between a rose and a Camilia which over the past eighteen months has refused to have a single flower. The Rosemary has joined the existing two sage bushes and last year’s Rosemary which is still recovering from Winter.

Looking at my garden I will need to make EM pick the leaves out of the basement window cassettes and rake the lawn, which is full of little twigs and acorn shells; courtesy of the rampant squirrel population, which I love. They are so fun to watch! The birds are chirping away as if there is no tomorrow and the bees are humming, everyone is out in nature!

And then to my surprise I moved from the waitlist to a confirmed swim slot, so headed off to the pool after soaking up some sun.

On the way back from “Good Earth” we stopped at Yekta in Rockville as it is sort of on the way home, a Turkish food heaven! This afored us with a meal of Manti for lunch. On the spur of the moment I also decided to break with the tradition of making the food relevant to the book the club is reading (which I started over a year ago) and bought all things needed for a Turkish brunch, which I am hoping to serve to the ladies next Sunday - weather permitting that is. Sadly, it will be cooler than today, but so far, no rain in the forecast.

The virus is surging in the Midwest, especially Michigan State while the rest of the nation is racing to get vaccinated. Over the past twenty-four hours the nation recorded 67k new cases to bring the total to 31.9 million.

I am very glad to read that the Biden administration plans to take the lead in getting the globe vaccinated. However, this will not be through vaccine supplies, but rather strengthening the WHO.

Now as vaccinations ramp up and people expect a return to offices concerned voices discuss how this will affect pets who have become used to their humans staying home all the time. Some have been adopted during the pandemic as pet ownership has increased from 46% to 56% of the population, so have never know life without humans at home all the time. I came across this article with tips how to help furry friends transition to being home alone once more.

There are many things I think about, like what to do with the cat during a move, but frankly I have never thought about preparing Max for being home alone, but I guess I should. With Jennifer not around and EM gone after September, there will be no door opener and closer to suite his every whim.