Last Friday was our friend Lee’s 70th birthday and her daughter organized a surprise drive-by of friends with banners on their cars, honking and waving to her as she stood in the driveway. It was great fun and a way for us to get out and “see” friends if only for a minute. Such excitement seems to becoming the norm during these weeks.
On Easter Sunday the old bent bunny arrived at Abigail’s and Darcy’s homes ringing the doorbell and leaving a basket, the quarantine rules evidently causing some confusion with May Day. Not much time in our garden areas this week as the weather gets sunny and 40-45 then plunges to 23-25 in the night. We arise each day to see if our tender things like peony shoots, Hosta and rhubarb survived the constant freeze thaw cycles. We have been binge watching the final episodes of Season Two of “Killing Eve” as the new season dropped this week and we need to catch up before heading into the new. Also, “Harry Bosch” drops on Friday, so we have plenty of watching to do.
We are doing a lot of reading - Mark is starting number 15 of the 18 Nevada Barr National Park mysteries; Deb is into number 10 of the 38 Anne Perry series. Not to mention the Kenji Alt-Lopez cooking tome and weekly New Yorker, monthly Vogue, Fine Woodworking, and the ever arriving mail order catalogues.
Also much baking continuing. Deb decided on peanut butter cookies, and managed four variations: plain, covered with chunks of peanuts, chocolate chips on top, and the new favorite, strawberry jam topped peanut butter cookies - a PBJ cookie. Baguettes were baked again as were two great loaves of ciabatta bread. We are going to have to start a lot more walking if this keeps up much longer.
Monday, John and Lynn Covert stopped by our house for a social distance chat. Lynn was showing off her fancy red cane and her ability to go up and down steps pain free. She is talking about a half marathon I believe. It was great to see them, even if it was from afar, they on the driveway and us on the front porch.
Tuesday afternoon, Mark went over to the Josie Harper House Gardens to check on the progress of the Master Gardener crew. All clean-up has been completed, but, given the weather, everything is now on hiatus for a few weeks. That is the problem with these early spring warm weather snaps - we get all excited, slap on the shorts and tee-shirts and then get face slapped when we step out side. Sunshine can be a tricky thing.
At least Deb’s orchids in the north window are looking good and bringing some color to the interior.
Wednesday was shopping day again, so Deb gloved up sporting a snazzy new plaid cloth mask, and Mark drove her to the stores, only three this time and all grocery. We are learning to shop on line for other items. We need to log onto Penzy’s spices for some updates on our spice rack and salt supply. On Thursday, Deb baked another 98 (but who is counting) peanut butter cookies; it takes practice to get a recipe down just right you know.
Wednesday morning, Nebraska set a new all-time low of 21F; Thursday afternoon a snow storm moved in, eventually dumping 6” of wet, heavy snow on the Omaha area. Spring in the Great Plains is sure a crap shoot. Our 12” high peonies are going to have to really struggle to survive this. Friday’s high is expected to be in the mid 40’s and the snow is rapidly disappearing as this is written. Next week in the 60’s and 70’s, maybe this is the last of the white stuff, but the old Nebraska adage of not planting until Mother’s Day is seeming to hold true.
A quiet week has passed - the big news in the local (slim) newspaper is that the owner of a large, local outlet mall is going to open next week as a “test case” to see if we can get the economy rolling again. Assume he is a Voldemort voter, but really want to watch the news when people show up, get sick all over again, and the attorneys start filing suit against him. Stay Safe, Be Careful and Keep washing your hands.
