Reaching for the new normal

Most of the state I live in has cautiously re-opened.  There are differences though.  It is not a return to what we had before.  I am not sure it ever will be.  For instance my bank is still in person by appointment only.  Most transactions are by ATM or from a remote teller during the day.  They are still not open extended hours and my son has to use the night depository for his paychecks as a result.

My beloved yoga studio is opening for two months only with severely limited numbers in the class and a requirement to wear masks the whole time.  I have thought this over and I can not see me successfully doing yoga with a mask on. So I will revert to my home exercise program with Beachbody.  I can't do yoga successfully without someone really watchng my posture for me.  What feels straight to me is not, because I have scoliosis and am always slightly off kilter as a result. But I can do barre, I can do a lot of strength training, those things I can do without issue here so I have to resign myself to that being my only official exercise.

Today Elisabeth is at a social distance birthday party for a close friend. They are having dinner for 5 girls at a local restaurant. The restaurant has social distancing.  You wear a mask till the food arrives.  The wait staff are masked. The menus are disposable.  After the dinner they are returning to my friends home where they will sit on the patio and watch the present opening and have cake.  Is it perfect?  Probably not.  But I let her go because as worried as I am about Covid (and I do worry) I also worry about my kids emotional well being.  For Elisabeth particularly, the need for some in person socialization is very evident. And if this thing is going to be around for the long haul, my gut feeling is that hiding in our homes is not going to save us.

Today I decided to go raspberry picking.  I have always picked a lot of fruit. When the kids were little I had 2 helping me pick and one strapped on my back and one I dragged along beside me in a car seat type gizmo.  We would do strawberries, raspberries, blueberries peaches and apples.  This year our state did no pick your own strawberries, but they are doing raspberries.  Like everything, this is a familiar experience with unfamiliar guidelines.  We used to ride a wagon down to the fields, the benches filled with laughter and chatter as groups of us became acquainted and talked about our plans for the fruits of our labors.  We'd have cold water in water bottles with us because this is thirsty work and the sun is hot. We would wander through the rows of produce looking for the biggest berries or the juiciest ones.

Now you have to make a reservation to pick (unless you show up super early like I did!) You must wear a mask the whole time you are in the field.  There is a mandatory handwashing station.  You have to walk down to the fields, no more tractors pulling a wagon of eager pickers. And just like the grocery stores, the rows of fruit are one way rows with arrows to show which way to go.

It was definately not as pleasant--picking with no hydration in a mask will never be something that could be called comfortable when it is 85 degrees and humid.  But it felt like at least in some way I was doing something that I was able to do pre-Covid. There was something important about that for me--especially as I keep in contact with my sister in AZ who has the virus and is trying to get healthy.

(note: I actually picked four containers but didn't think to snap a pic until I had the first one flash freezing!)

Garden glories

The most intensely purple hydrangea!

Early in the spring our side yards are so sere and bare.  The land looks depleted and I despair of it looking nice.  Sure I know there are a billion hosta that will come up. But it is my wife who loves the hosta,   Me?  Not so much. I love color. I crave it like some people crave chocolate when they have PMS!  LOL  And the reality is that we have precious little time to really garden.  Weeding is at best hit or miss.  And a lot more miss than hit.  Yet somehow, this happens!  A riot of blooms. Color for weeks!  Stunning phlox, hydrangeas and sunflowers.  The echinecea plants had a spectacular year too.  Ferns made a verdant soft counterpoint to the color. Spirea bloomed with abandon.  I have a couple of rose plants and they did well.  My trumpet vine decided it was not dead after all and bloomed its heart out!

I am storing up all this colorful goodness. I know that we are on the ever darkening side of the wheel right now.  So I share these pictures and memories so that I will be able to look back in the depths of December and remember summer.

A riotous display of phlox

Sunflowers are one of my faves!

Catching Up

I've been busy packing for our next camping trip. The kids and I set off tomorrow around 10ish.  Tonight will see the last of the packing and the baking in advance (muffins, cookies etc) done.  I am so excited to go and the kids have been getting antsier by the day.  Luckily camping for a larger family requires a fair amount of packing and prep so there have been things to do to keep them occupied.

In the midst of all of this we have been changing up the kids bedrooms a bit.  Lissa has  a bunk bed now and sleeps on the top bunk. She adores it. KC is going to have a loft bed, that we scored off Craigslist and which my wife will hopefully put together while I have the kids off camping.  If you think they are ansty for camping--well anythiing that changes their room is even more of a hype factor.  KC's bed will hopefully give us room underneath for some of his stuff but K is also going to go through stuff of his while we are gone.  We never get rid of true momentos but KC is a hoarder and can't get rid of a piece of paper. Any paper. So we have to help him out or else he would have filled the house three times over by now.  And the weird thing is, the more cluttered his space gets, the less he likes being in it. But yet, removing the clutter himself is something he can't do.  I worry that he will be the star of a hoarding show when he grows up!

KC and Lissa have been deeply committed to the library's summer reading challenge this year.  They have both maxed out on the prizes they can earn and are pushiing onward to have the honor of their name in a book. So proud of them.  Reading has always been something that came easy for KC but that Lissa had to work a bit harder to get.  She is not a fluent reader yet but has improved so much. Her confidence in herself has also blossomed with regard to reading and that is a joy.  Last night, 30 minutes after lights out, I caught her on her bunk with a flashlight and a book.  I confiscated both but truthfully, I was happy!

My wife's been making hosta and shade gardens in the front side yards of our home for a few years now. They are really starting to mature and look beautiful.  When I take the clothes off the line at night, I can hear the crickets, sometimes if I am lucky, I can see a bat or a nighthawk.  Life is always full but it is most wonderfully, joyfully full to me in summer!

Serenity on Saturday

It's been a real peaceful--and for us--real quiet day here today. We slept late, both KC and I waking up at 6:40, sitting bolt upright in our respective beds, shocked that we had overslept.  I never use an alarm clock--maybe I should start?  Probably not, though.  I hate waking up to those things.  Maybe because when I was in college I was also working 3 part time gigs.  I was so sleep deprived I had 3 alarm clocks set around the house so that I would not fall back asleep and miss a work duty or class.

But back to our day. . . Somehow we all were in a peppy enough mood to get our shopping done before dance class. Usually we are out the door for shopping by 7 so leaving at 7:15 was pretty good when you consider when we all woke.  I had written my list the night before after Rob and I inventoried the pantries and cleaned the fridge. That helped too.  Came home and unloaded, setting aside the donations for our church food pantry.  I read on the news that food stamps are being cut.  I have a hard time with our food bill and we are not pricey eaters--I just have a boatload of hungry kids.  How can our country take away something as basic as food for families?  I know our food pantry at our church serves 60 to 100 families every month.  I greatly suspect this number will rise.  I will attempt to stop this particular rant now and will save my vitriol for another blog post. LOL

After dance class we headed to the library and then came home.  Made lunches and got laundry out on the line to dry.  It was a glorious day here weather wise, and we took full advantage of it.  The littles played outside most of the day. They asked about watching a movie at one point and I just gave them "the look."  We don't waste good weather days.  No discussion!  The older boys did leaf blowing and bagging.  I made banana bread for fellowship at church tomorrow as Lissa's class is in charge of that.  Also made pumpkin cinnamon breakfast rolls for tomorrow morning. Those are cold rising in the pantry.

Cleaned the house, took down the rest of the Halloween decorations, made cookies to have with tonites supper.   While I cleaned up the littles and my wife planted tulips and daffodils in our front garden. I'll dream about those all winter long.

Work Day Fun

Those are two words that are typically mutually exclusive!  (laughing)  However today is going to be a different kind of day.  The place where I work has the dubious distinction at present of not having a budget that will allow us to have a landscaper plant flowers.  Last year I suggested that we buy the flowers and have a staff planting day.  We tried it and it was very successful. The area looked so much better for our efforts.

This year, with finances again tight, we are having the second annual staff planting!  It is gorgeous outside today.  Sunny and bright and the temperature is just right for working out there.  I will get to spend HOURS outside today and get paid for it!  Usually my outside time is only on weekends or in the evenings after supper.

Also last night, Fiona called. She was very upbeat and gave Jane an excellent re-cap of our day together on Saturday.  She and Jane also said that they have written a letter to DCF asking that I become her guardian.  I have all ready written what I need to for that.

Fiona then asked about a belly piercing.  I have had one, though I stopped wearing jewelry there about 6 years ago.  I was able to explain to her that it was not the safest  choice for her. I confess to using a mythical conversation with a doctor but it seems to have worked.  My concerns regarding it are Fi's on again off again hygeine.  That particular area can infect easily and it is extremely serious if it does.  Fiona is also diabetic which makes the risk of infection higher in and of itself.

She then asked about a tattoo. LOL  I said we could try a henna tattoo and see how that works.  Fiona has an almost constant fidget. I think it is along the line of a tic and is something she can not stop.  Her body sort of moves a bit at all times.  I am hoping the henna art would fill her need for self adornment.  They can be really elaborate and they last for quite a while also.

She also remembered that I had told her that when she moves to a new home that we would get her a cell  phone and pre-program it with our number.  Sometimes what Fiona  remembers and what she does not astounds me.  That cell phone talk was easily a few weeks ago and she recalled it perfectly.  Yet so many day to day things are truly forgotten, lost in the mists of trauma and brain injury.

Jane loved the idea and said that perhaps we would even get the phone before she graduates so that she can practice being responsible for it and making calls to us herself on it.  Cool!

Fall Frolic

 We've been blessed with warm temperatures the past few days, but fall is here.  Because it is apple picking time!

 Finding the perfect apple requires an eye to detail.

 And careful bagging to avoid bruising.  (look at the drops, the deer must love this orchard!)

Our garden plot is up at the orchard. You get a feel for my Rob's young man height with him standing next to our corn!

It's summer now!!!

OK I know it has been summer for a while but the thing is that morning glories are a huge  part of summer for me. And ours (and most of them in our neck of the woods have been very delayed in blooming this year.  I love to look out my back door at morning glories blossoming all over the lattice that we put up each year for them to twine about.  This year luckily our tall zinnias and our nasturciums have given me spots of beauty as I sip my morning tea.  Because until today, the 18th of August, not a "morning glorious" as KC calls them, had bloomed. 

When I saw it blooming this a.m. I had to take a picture and all the kids had to come out and admire the flower. Truly a bit of beauty that was a gift from the goddess just before I went to work.  Things have been so busy and stressful there lately that the memory of that flower brought me moments of joy all day.  Easy to please aren't I?

Turning of the season's wheel

There has been a decidedly September feel to mornings the past few days this week. That crispness that gives way to summer warmth again by mid day.  And the light is different in the mornings in our work room where I write and read on the computer.  It is more golden and slants into the room so differently from just a week or so ago. 

I am never truly ready for this. I am a creature of summer and heat.  I even love humidity.  Flip flops, sandals, shorts and fresh veggies from the garden. Corn so fresh that it does not need butter or salt. Fresh tomato sandwiches.  Morning glories on our lattice.   But this year the growing season has been odd.  A few things have yet to come to fruitition.  I have yet to have a tomato sandwich from a home grown tomato plant.  and our "morning glorious" have yet to flower.  They have done lots of vining--but no blooming. Thankfully the whiskey barrels of nasturciums have provided tons of color and the zinnias we grew just outside the back door as well. 

I decided to take this as a sign that summer is far from over. Despite the back to school posters. Despite the loss of daylight. Despite hearing geese fly over head two nights running, summer is not yet done.  And the morning glories will bloom!

Fried Green Tomatos???

It has been a hard year to get our tomatos ripe!  We grew awesome plants from seed and got them in the community garden the very day we were allowed to plant.  This time of year we are typically picking tomatos aplenty.  Making salsa to can. Making marinara sauce to freeze or can.  Instead, I have a garden full, literally chock full, laden. . . with green tomatos.  It isn't anything we did; all our fellow gardeners are in the same boat.  It is just one of those years where the growing season was just not optimal for tomatos. Not a lot of sun and heat.  Lots of clouds and rain, especially in the spring which made for later flowering.  On the plus side, the kids pumpkins (2 white ones and 1 orange) are looking great.  Our corn is tassled. As the wind rustled through the shocks last night KC and Lissa were trying to imitate the music made by the shocks and the breeze.  Then, while K trimmed the tall grass near our plot, the kids and I played games in between the plots, keeping them well away from her sharp tools but enjoying the late summer night.  This may not be the most productive year veggie wise, but I would not trade the times we are there for anything!

My Mother in Law

I was doing yard work today, trimming the hedge, tidying things up in preparation for a BBQ we are having tomorrow, and hanging laundry.  The beauty of our hydrangea plant stopped me in my tracks.  It is one of those bittersweet things to me, this plant. 

It was given to my wife 13 yrs ago by our then neighbor Marcia when K's mom passed away. Actually she gave us two hydrangeas but we managed to kill one accidently!  They were teeny tiny when she gave them to us.  I knew nothing about hydrangeas before then.  They had never been in any gardens I had been part of,though I had noticed them in others, they had never really commanded my attention.  They are sort of an old fashioned looking flower though and they really suit our old victorian house.

It didn't bloom for years though.  There was just this lump of greenery next to the house. Every year we would cover it in the fall with a nice blanket of leaves and put chicken wire around it so that the boys would not demolish it when they shovelled snow.  We'd awaken it each spring and it would get bigger and greener. But it took years for the blossoms to come.  Now they come yearly, deep blue beauties that look like we'd played in paint they are so intense.

And I love them. But I think of my mother in law every time I look at this plant.  It was so appropriate that K was gifted a plant at her passing.  Mom could make anything grow.  Give her a plant on its last legs and it would be lush and ready for dividing into two plants when you next saw it.  She died so young, just 58.  She never knew  most of my kids--only Chet.  She was an amazing grandmother to him. Accepting of his uniqueness, seeing his gifts, all without judgement or question.  She would have loved the rest of the brood too, and they would have so benefited from knowing her.  Truly, she was gone to soon.  I really love this plant, but I'd rather my mother in law was still here with us.

Green and Growing

I've been wanting to post pics of our community garden plot for a while now. But we kept forgetting the camera when we were up there.  This has not been the greatest growing season on record for us--though the apples in the apple orchard are loving this type of weather and that crop should be amazing.  Still the garden looks good and I think ultimately we will get a decent if not spectacular harvest. 

We have a plethora of tomato plants.  Most are roma "paste" types as we can a LOT.  Mostly sauce and salsa.  We also have one mortgage lifter for general eating.  They are my all time favorite heirloom tomato.  Sliced and put on a sandwich of homemade toasted bread, with a wee bit of Russian dressing and lettuce. Mmmmm, I have died and gone to heaven on a hot summer day eating the like of that!

We have squash, pumpkins and corn as well.  And one lone serrano pepper plant because we were at the garden store tonight that is up the street from us and they were $1.99 each.  I adore hot peppers and  was powerless before those shiny glossy leaves and the promise of fire on my tongue! So that is a late addition to our garden.  The rest has been in for ages now.

I love the garden center that is near our home.  It is a small family owned business. No big box store plants for me.  While we grow most of our plants from seed there are times when I like ones that someone else has done all that leg work on.  Tonight we were actually there because I wanted a hanging plant for my mother in laws plot at the cemetary.  Her plot is small and narrow and it is hard to plant it up with as much color as I would like.  I have found that a shepherds crook and a nice hanging plant give that extra punch of color.  Neil had enormous hanging plants on sale for $14.00 each and we got a spectacular one. The garden center  owners also homeschool their kids and the whole area is very kid friendly. There are animals, chickens, ducks a goat and a burro that wander the environs. My kids adore going there because they hang with the critters when they get tired of looking at plants.  And their kids make friendship bracelets and sell them for .50 a piece The kids picked out one for each of them and one for Rob as a welcome home gift.

This is one of those rambly, not really going anywhere kind of posts.  I typically hit delete when I write as badly as this but tonight I can't because I smile everytime  I look at the picture of the tomato plant!  LOL  Sorry guys!

Sunday Service

Not being like "regular" church going folks, my church officially closes for the summer. (I am a UU pagan).  However we have a large and thriving community and summer services, all lay led ,continue all summer long.  I usually take in a couple of these and today was one such.  I am still sort of tired from yesterday's trip to the Big City and my migraine ,but my friend Raven who is a shaman was leading the service.  He has an amazing choir from his own church that he brings.  And Raven and I have been friends since Chet was in 6th grade and we began homeschooling.  Back in the dinosaur days of the internet when all I used was the computer to chat with other homeschooling families (there being not a single, non secular homeschool group in our region), I "met" Raven.  In one of those odd twists of fate he and his family lived not far from us and we used to buy eggs from he and his wife on our way to and from an Audubon sanctuary where we spend a lot of time.

Raven's daughter is long grown and Chet's homeschool years have passed,but the friendship remains.  It fascinates me how the warp and weft of our life threads evolve. But this is a long way of saying i went to church to see my friend!  And as usual, came away with so much more.  It was special to me also because my middle son has declared he is an athiest--which I remember doing around that age so I am not overly concerned--BUT what excited me was that he chose to come to service with me.  The little kids had all ready chosen to remain home so it would have been no big deal, but both Rob and Chet chose to come .On the way home we stopped at our community garden plot and harvested another 30 or so pounds of tomatos so we are now getting ready to can up some salsa.  I do love having food put by!  And it was so unexpectedly appropriate since our service focussed on Lammas and harvest time.  I have a rich and bountiful life in so many ways and I am so very grateful.

Morning Glorious

I have always loved morning glories. When I was little, my mom who is not really a plant person, grew two small pots of them and hung them on our clothesline. It was one of those clotheslines that twirl around and they had one side to use to send their vines out on.  We had a couple clotheslines so I guess that was why she dontated that side to the plants.  It was my job to water them.  They were just so beautiful and my morning glory love was born.

We have had morning glories almost every year at our house since K and i started gardening many years ago.  Some years we have opted for sweet peas instead but usually my morning glory obscession prevails.  This is a shot of some of this years crop and they are really lovely.  One of the things I love about them is that KC calls them "morning glorious" never "morning glories."  And he is right.

Settling in to Sunday

The kids are starting to adjust to big brother being away at camp.  We have only had about 52 comments on the lines of "I miss Rob" and "I wonder what Rob is doing now."  But no tears and I have just focussed on the things we can share with him when he gets home. 

I took Lissa's braids out and re-did her hair.  She was good about sitting and i was done in maybe an hour or so.  Right now she has two pigtails that i then divided into two twists for each pony and then hitched together with a ponytail holder at the bottom.  Hard to explain but looks really cute.

We got Lissa new shoes today, which is always interesting.  We always get great service and I can't decide if that is because in this economic climate customers are more highly valued or whether my noisy little tribe so disturbs the ambience that they do all in their power to move us along.  Whatever the reason she is now the proud owner of a pair of very glittery pink and orange sneakers.

We weeded up at our garden.  It is looking great and we are very proud of the fact that all our plants were started from seed.  Well all plants start from seeds but most people buy seedlings.  We are the only folks who community garden who can proudly proclaim that our 36 tomato plants started as seeds in our house.  Likewise we direct planted our indian corn, KC's pumpkin, and our squash.  Our plants look every bit as big as the folks who bought seedlings at the big box stores. 

We bought fabric for the kids for their 4th of July ideas.  And at the same store, KC found some popcorn boxes that he wanted for his carnival next month.  I also rounded up the addresses of his friends so that we could send out invitations this week.

Lissa and I made lemonade as it is really hot today.  And KC and Lissa and I then made peanut butter cookies because--well life is just better with a freshly made peanut butter cookie!

Garden time!

Gardens gardens!  tis finally the season in our corner of New England to do serious planting.  To be sure, I have planted the brave things--pansies and violas to brighten our kitchen garden.  KC amazingly threw some sunflower seeds in the kitchen garden and they grew too.  But tomatos and such have been growing under growlights in our upstairs bathroom. This is partly because we have had unpredictable weather.  Warm, then hot, then amazingly cold with frost warnings.  Very strange.  But it is also because we grow our veggies at a community garden plot and one can not plant there till they give you the go ahead.

This morning when i opened my email we had our plot assignment at last and the go ahead to plant.  Tonight, hopefully after Fiona's call we will head up and start to prepare the plot.  As we never get the same plot each year, this is not the organic garden of my dreams.  It seems silly to do lots of soil amending when I know i'll have to go through it all in another plot the following year. (we have been doing this for 4 yrs now and have never gotten the same plot) 

So we cheat. We use black plastic landscape cloth to smother weeds.  We use some organic fertilizers but also some of the dreaded M*racle Gro.  And we typically have a great harvest.  We tend to grow lots of tomatos.  We put up sauce and we can salsa.  We don't grow the peppers as the growing season is too short for us to get enough yield to make it worthwhile.  We grow Indian corn for decorations. (cornshucks for our light pole in the fall and we bundle the corn into decorations for our shed and back door.)  We, or I should say, KC and Elisabeth, grow pumpkins.  We usually do a late lettuce crop right near the end of the season.  At home, we container grow herbs and also sunflowers for the sunflower science project and cucumbers that KC planted at church.

I love gardens.  I am not really good at gardening.  K has the garden gene.  Also KC.  Either of them look at a plant and it grows an inch just in happiness. I am more the grunt labor in this endeavor but I still love it.  I feel close to the earth, I know where my food is coming from and it is all good.