Groundhog Day

Apple blossoms!

We are now past the 30-day mark for quarantining, and Big Ag jokes each morning that it's Groundhog Day again. The days do kind of blend each other, and the weeks even more so. This has positives and negatives, like anything else. 

There are times when quarantining around the house and yard feels peaceful, safe and very insular. And there are times when it drives me nuts and I feel I have GOT to get out and just see some other landscape, some other horizon than the one in our own yard and the street we exercise on (like pet hamsters on their wheel). 

That's usually when I head to the grocery store an hour south of here (in a county with far less COVID cases than the one I live in) or to the home improvement store for things we need. We go out a lot less than we used to; back before COVID ( Before COVID --BC?) I hit the grocery store a couple of times a week and it seems like we always were in Lowe's or Home Depot on weekends. 

Our new Cherokee Brave dogwood we found on a trip to Home Depot. Brave seems to be the goal for this season so it seemed appropriate.

Now the grocery store run happens every three weeks -- and the Lowe's or Home Depot run, once a month or so. Especially since they reduced their hours, which makes the stores much more crowded during the hours they are open.

But I've never come back from one of those trips feeling any better psychologically; in fact I generally feel worse. It's a combination of things: 

     First, the number of people who refuse to wear masks or socially distance is appalling and kind of makes me lose my faith in humanity. 

     Second, there's the disappointment when the store is out of something I need or want and I know I can't/won't come back tomorrow to see if they have it. (Although it's been fun to experiment with substitutions. And by fun, I mean 90 percent epic failure.) 

     And third, it's hard because of the tangible tension between people. You can't smile at someone when you're wearing a mask. And you can't leisurely shop when you know lingering makes you more vulnerable to a virus. 

Virtual Seder a couple of weeks ago.

Zoom and FaceTime have been godsends, because they allow us to see friends for virtual dinners or cocktail hours sans masks or any danger of contagion. Sure, it's not as good as being in person, but as we have many friends and family all over the world, it's allowed us to see people we might not normally see as much.  

There are other things that always make me feel good, on a daily basis. Starting seeds and transplanting them into the garden has been very rewarding. I've got tomato starts, baby lupines, more snap peas, plus summer cukes and zukes in my mini-greenhouse on a heated mat, and plenty of stuff already out in the garden, growing like gangbusters. My asparagus, strawberry plants, broccoli, onions, spinach and peas are already looking great.

Flowers are starting to bloom all over the property now: azaleas, forsythia, candytuft, daphne, plus apple, cherry and pear blossoms. By the way, is there any worse smell than pear blossoms, other than maybe a baby's diaper? No, I don't think there is. But I'll put up with pear blossom smell to get pears, any day.

Some new color in front of Big Ag's shop.

I'm hoping COVID cases begin to level off in the next month or two to a point where we can begin emerging  from our burrows a little more often, like sleepy, slightly shy...wait for it...groundhogs. Yes, we are the groundhogs, and these are our days -- until the time comes when we can go fully topside again, we organize our nests, we secure our food supply, and we occasionally scurry out in search of stuff we need. 

Wishing everyone some happy groundhog days, and some fruitful scurrying.