Life in the Age of Corona

A Daily Diary

Sunday, May 2nd, 2021

Kitchen Garden

I slept in today and still woke up exhausted somehow. Maybe due to last night being rather late.

EM and I watched the final episode of the last season of "The Crown" and then spent some time chatting about our chores for today, her decision for IE Madrid and what this means in terms of applying for financial aid, finding housing, and sadly packing up here. I have a sense this will be the first of many such conversations.

Given school is winding down I decided she might want to get a head start on Spanish. While the university teaches in English, she will be living in a Spanish speaking environment. Of course, she will be taking Spanish classes as part of her course work at IE Madrid, but it may give her comfort if she knows some basic phrases already before she arrives. The grammar should be less of a challenge given she studied French for years.

Anyhow, I put out a note seeking a Spanish teacher on the listserv and got some great responses. A Spanish teacher from the local middle school expressed interest and there were a number of referrals. There were also some heart touching emails from neighbors who have spend time in Madrid and wished her all the best, expressing their love for the city. Best of all, one of our neighbors has a condo in Madrid and invited us over for tapas to share their experiences, which I find very generous.

Today is a gorgeous summer day with temperatures around 29C. I had not managed to book a lane yesterday, so exercise wise it became a rest day, but by no means an inactive one.

I have this plant I bought a few years back which is taking over the flowerbed in front of the house. Its subterranean roots make it spread out. EM joined me on an outing to American Plants, where I had purchased the plant and was now seeking advice on how to deal with it. I now know it is a Japanese Anemone prone to spread if it likes its spot, which it clearly does. I guess I should have ringfenced it when planting. Had I only known.... There is apparently nothing I can do to stop it from spreading in the bed, other than pysically pulling out the shots or killing the entre fower-bed with a herbicide, which I shall of course not do. The next owner of the house is welcome to tackle that project if the plant bothers them; especially since they may need to rebuild the retaining wall, another project I shall not address anymore (unless it keels over in the next few months).

On the lawn the monster can be contained through mowing it regularly. As a result, I did not spend the remainder of the morning ramming dividers into the ground but pulled out my expansive plants with mostly at the root and planted my kitchen garden. I also distributed the flower bombs mum had given me for Christmas around the back. I am assuming there will be no more frost or else everything dies. I shall need to remember to water them though if it does not rain. Fortunately the area in the back is shaded by a large oak and various Azalea shrubs, so on the damp side.

I also ran around trying to find blue flowers (unsuccessfully) to join the yellow Chrysanthemums I had acquired at Trader Joe yesterday. I have now settled on blue wrapping paper with yellow ribbons to recreate the school colors. The four plants will go to the National Mall on Friday to brighten up the scene. I also picked up two banners, one blue, one yellow reading "Congratulations Class of 2021". They may look nice when attached to the canopy tents.

EM and I spend the early afternoon lizzarding in the sun before and after enjoying a lunch of Sokeye salmon and Terragon glazed carrots.I needed to rest my back. I am clearly not cut out for physical labor. She then rearranged her art exhibition and took some photos, an exercise she will repeat tonight with artificial lightening.

Today was also the day post decision. Apparently it is a tradition of Seniors to take photos in their future university T-shirts in front of the school and share them on social media. They then congratulate each other for getting into whatever uni they end up in. Now she is back home, which is a surprise as I had expected her to be out and about with the BF. He had however picked her up for a brief errand and is no MIA for the rest of the evening. Not sure what we shall do now, maybe another movie night.

Most of the virus news from the developing world is depressing. The USA reported only 42k new infections to bring the total to 33.17 million. Inoculations have declined from 3.6 million per day to 2.5 million and are now on par with the EU, where vaccinations are finally ramping up. In the USA it may be time to change the vaccination strategy as almost everyone who wanted a shot has availed of one. The challenge now is to reach the more reluctant and those unable to make it to the mass vaccination sites. In Germany distribution is general practitioners is a great success, but many American do not have a GP.

Maybe pop-up clinics in churches and community centers are a way to reach those still undecided about or uncomfortable with a shot.