Projects and pursuits

Scored some new insulators BC (before Covid). Had plenty of time to put them up AL (After Lockdown).

I don't know if any of you feel this way, but I have good days and bad days right now. Yesterday, for example, I was depressed. These times are difficult in a way that closely resembles grief, and I do seem to bounce between denial, anger, depression, bargaining and acceptance, sometimes on a minute by minute basis. Kudos to Elizabeth Kubler-Ross for nailing that process all those years ago. It happens with the death of anything, from a loved one to a job to, in our case right now, an entire way of life. 

I felt this way after my dad died, so I know there's an adjustment period where the New Reality sinks down into all the levels of my consciousness, but since none of us has any idea how long this is all going to go on, the uncertainty is challenging as well.

But then I have other days when I wake up, am still aware of the situation, but feel good about my little world, even if I don't feel the same about the world-at-large in general right now.

Mother Nature apologized for last weekend's snow by sending us warm, sunny days this week. Big Ag is working from home -- although I am having a bit of trouble getting him to not "run into the office for just one thing" and then staying there all afternoon long, pretending it's still business as usual. He's doing better lately, but again, it's an adjustment for us all.

Our escape day to the coast. Seven mile hike. 

These beautiful yellow lilies are blooming all over Oregon, anyplace near water.

Social Distancing, en extremis. 

We took off one day last week and went hiking, up to Cascade Head trail on the coast. It was a wonderful day, filled with very few people, and a whole lot of nature. What an antidote for an anxious soul. Nice to know that those things will all still be with us, no matter what this COVID crisis brings. 

New rhubarb coming in bigly. 

With spring also comes planting and growing, and so we've been busy planting seeds and even picked up a few transplants for immediate planting. I figure the sooner we can have food in the garden for ourselves, the less we have to visit the supermarket, which lately has been filled with worried, anxious people (including myself). So the usual pleasure I'd get from shopping for the week's groceries is no more, for the time being. These days you just want to get in, get out and get the hell home. 

CA Olallieberries seem comfortable here.

We planted four kinds of blueberries; we'll see what we like.

Before things got bad, I was doing some landscaping work, and so have some lovely new daphne plants, some forsythia, candytuft and other ornamental beauties, which should be blooming later in the year. Maybe I'll post of pics of those soon. Got to remember the importance of what soothes the eyes as well as the stomach.

Hope you and yours are well in the midst of this new reality. Remember, if you are an introverted gardener and food grower, you have literally been preparing for this for years.

 You've got this.