When I realize I am missing hearing from friends and family it reminds me it is time to reach out. We are well over 100 days and counting in self-quarantine. I watch the news and I feel like everybody in the world is open but us. I know that isn’t true but I have been feeling a bit lonely. We reach out and text and call and we have even done a couple of drive by visits. We have also had a few ‘house’ visits.
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Lane's Family
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Those have been really special and fun but something is just missing, like real hugs. On Mother's Day both Tamara with Hannah and Christopher came by during the day. I was so excited and surprised I forgot to take pictures.
I would really love to be able to put a mask on and go to Fred Meyer and buy some plants and I think the “odds” of me getting Covid are very low. But the “odds” of my body against Covid are not good at all. I have tested this body a few times now and the damage is real. I can stay healthy and entertained (most of the time) and wait for successful treatments or vaccines that no one argues about whether or not it works. I want to be perfectly clear I am not cowering with fear I am sheltering with gratitude and joy that I actually have the choice not to get out right now.
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| Anne Nielsen with Savanna & Luke Neuman |
Savanna graduated high school this year and hopes to go to Gonzaga University in the fall. She is hoping to row with the women's team there and study teaching like her mother. She seems to be thinking about what she wants her life to look like later and the summers off seems pretty appealing. Luke is enjoying being a teenage boy he would already have his driver's license, except for Covid. Hannah is working for Bank of America in Phoenix. She and Halie both dream of being beauty salon owners doing eyelashes and nails. We are happy that Hannah has been able to work during the pandemic from home. Halie graduated from Western Washington University this year with a degree in communications has been working at Home Depot while she decides where she is going next and what she wants her life to look like.
I have read several books on plaques of history and they don’t just go away. Looking at history one year is not really realistic but because we are ‘so much more knowledgeable’ than previous experiences and I say that with my tongue in my cheek. I think we have a long way to go in our knowledge gathering in the scope of science and medicine and for that matter weather. The stuff I think God is in control of. Even medical doctors and scientist can't agree on how to handle this pandemic. Bill is very encouraging that something will happen sooner than later. He tells me about lots of new things he reads from all over the world. Right now we have committed to no contact outside our own bubble.
All I have to do is social-distance. I get to see people and visit with friends. The things I miss are: music performances. Bill and I did that at least a couple of times a month and he went out almost weekly and listened to jazz or blues or sing karaoke. I haven’t liked grocery shopping as much as I once did and I had all ready used delivery and even curbside pick-up before Covid but I do like to pick out my own fresh fruits and vegetables.
I am really missing wandering through garden departments and nursery’s this time of year. I had great cucumbers last year and I started from a package of seeds this year that I got from Amazon that came from Russia. The seeds sprouted and grew to about 2 inches and were looking good and then they started to die and shrivel up now I am down to 3 plants. I had been hoping to get as many cucumbers as last year or more because I was thinking of trying to make bread and butter pickles and I wanted to use stevia. I ordered stevia seeds too. They never sprouted at all but I think it is because Bill baked them in the oven. He bakes the newspaper and the mail at 180 degrees for 20 minutes. He is really good at thinking of new and different ways the virus might get us. One girlfriend wanted to bring me flowers but she was afraid Bill would bake them another friend did bring us flowers and afterwards he gave it some thought. Sometimes Bill and I do social distancing of our own.
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Just outside the back door
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I love this house and gardens. There are so many places to be and things to do. We have both sorted and organized our offices. The other day I was missing Bill, it had been quiet for too long. I went for a walk. I checked his office and the shop. I checked the laundry room and the store room. He wasn’t in the TV room either. Then I followed the light down the guest wing hallway and there he was reading a book. He had even turned on the electric blanket under him. Did I mention it has been a very cold and rainy June? I have a fully insulated attic above my office and I store all of my yarn and arts and craft supplies up there. I have some crafting space in my office but I wouldn’t have any space at all if I had to store all my tools and supplies in the same room. I have the space for 1 or 2 projects to be going at a time in my office if I keep things reigned in and organized. I have spent lots of hours at a time in that attic space. I even have a desk, two chairs and computer up there also. Last year my little great nieces were eating strawberry shortcake up there. I might have brought the treats up to them and watched carefully as they climbed and descended the ladder but they thought the room was magical. I do too.
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Projects makes for clutter
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New masks for David
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I have been learning to sew for a couple of years now. I started with knitting projects bags because I wanted some myself. I have gone through a mask making phase since Covid arrived and I am sure I have made 100 masks by now. All of this sewing was done with fabric I had purchased before the lock-down and I had stored around. There is not much fabric left. I have used more than I ever really dreamed I would use. I am running out of thread and it has been unavailable online at Joann’s and Michael’s. I have another couple of piles of bags cut out and when those are gone I think I will put my sewing machine away for a while.
I have been knitting. I have finished several projects that I started over the past few years that had been pushed aside for one reason or another. One project was a sweater I had started in June 2016 while we were traveling. When we got home we got ‘the offer’ on the old house and had to move. I packed that whole project into a box and didn’t get it out until about a month ago. I love it. It is a hoodie - cardigan and it has very interesting and challenging architecture. If you look at the back, I started by making a triangular shawl that comes to a point in the back. The rest is made section by section and it was tricky and interesting.
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| Check
out the v-line construction in the back and the cute little hoodie. |
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Front view
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I have finished several other projects that have been sitting around and I have made a few hats. I got tired of hats for a while but I was just looking today and I have a lot of hat yarn in storage so I will make a few more soon. I also want to start knitting some toys again. I haven’t knitted any toys for a few years now. I have been in a “knitting zoom meeting” every Thursday night since early lock-down. It has been really good for me in lots of ways but one of them is that I have gotten to meet some new people and make new friends. This weekly time together has really bonded me to these women and I hope to stay “in touch” with each one of them even when this period of time is over. I am 15 years older than any of them and I think they are so nice and sweet to me. They are all really special women.
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My happy place
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When I get up I make a cup of coffee and walk through the yard. I see what it blooming that wasn’t yesterday. Where are the new weeds? What do I need to trim? How are the vegetables doing and what is slow to grow? I am excited about an area under a Japanese Maple where I planted 3 different Heuchera, also called Coral Bells. They are doing really well this year and I am thinking about trying to collect a variety of species. They all have such beautiful foliage.
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Heuchera garden
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The ‘wild life’ has been entertaining also. I have had several run-ins with some persistent little Juncos. They built 3 different nests in our garden shed. They abandoned 2 of them and one outside the shed got attacked by a stellar jay but one of the nests in the shed was successful for them and they produced 2 baby birds. We got to watch them fledge and they stayed in the back yard for 4 or 5 days afterwards, hopping on the grass and the raised garden wall and up to the top of the cages around some of the plants. It was fun to watch this drama for a few weeks.
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Three birds nests equal two baby birds.
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We also have raccoons. They really live in the trees across the street, near the house with the chickens but they have come to visit before. I had a rubber ‘yard ornament’ that we had from the old house. It was about 12 to 15 inches tall. One night they discover this thing and 3 raccoons ripped the ornament to shreds. We found the ears and the tall separate from the body and the stuffing from the body was scattered all around the yard. Bill has 10 security cameras around the yard so we went back and looked at the footage. Those three raccoons had the best time rolling and playing and tossing that thing about. This week I had spent several hours cleaning our ‘pond’ and getting the pump in and the fountain working correctly. We were having friends over the next day for a socially distancing picnic in the back yard and I had it all looking very nice. The next morning there was no water in the pond. The pump had been pulled out. The foam filter around the mouth of the pump was gone and it was in a hundred pieces in the back yard. Bill says he can fix the pump….. I think we will need to put it on a timer that shuts off in the night time. The sound of the water flowing was what attracted the little buggers back to our yard.
Every Friday I zoom w Nic. Nic is the director of the Senior Living Community where my mom lives in Austin Texas. Nic is doing a fabulous job of keeping his people alive and healthy. He acted very early in this pandemic to close down that facility to outside guests and put into place as many protocol as he could to keep his residents healthy and mostly happy. The lack of haircuts and dog grooming seems to be the most repeated requests. Every Friday he gives an update to family members that want to know what is going on. I talk to mom every other day or so and her spirits are good. I do most of her online shopping as the touch screen is very difficult for her hands to navigate now. She has had a couple of falls and she has other challenges but all in all she is still glad to be alive.
I have a new obsession with YouTube. Nova, tiny houses, knitting, cooking, gardening, different lifestyles; a day in the life of…… YouTube has a lot to watch and while I am knitting I often watch something new. If you have any favorites or recommendations just let me know. It is a great way to learn something new while I am working on a project. Bill is learning Spanish. He started around the first of the year and he spends a good amount of time every single day working on it. He has several different sources he is working from. Someone told him ‘senior’ brains can’t learn new languages. What were they thinking? Bill and I both have that thing in us that does not sit well when someone says, no you can’t do that.
I am doing the work to renew my dental hygiene licenses this year. I don’t know if I will get to work anymore but I am going to make the effort to get the continuing education I need for this year. I renew on my birthday each year. If I haven’t worked any by next year I will not renew my licenses and I guess I will be officially retired.
I guess that is all the general news for right now. I will sign off until next time.
