Yesterday we worked outside, E mowing (after I mowed my small areas), and I gardening.  I planted two kinds of corn, two kinds of pole beans, two kinds of zucchini, and cucumbers, all heirlooms.  Now I just have a few more warm-weather seeds to plant, and all my homegrown tomato, pepper, and eggplant transplants.  The latter have been sitting on the back porch, getting blasted by weather extremes for about a week.  I have additional herb and flower seedlings coming along under lights, in peat pots made from TP rolls and seed starter mix.  The white flower is dill.

You learn all kinds of sustainable gardening behaviors when you’re quarantined during a plague.  I can’t just run out to Lowes for garden amendments, so I have to make do with what little I’ve generated myself.  I raided the compost pile to add organic material into my latest veg bed, and mulching is a thing of the past, other than all the leaves I’ve left in place.  I can’t go buy trees and plants, so I’m just working with naturally occurring ones.  E’s home repairs generate plenty of scrap lumber for bed dividers and stakes.  And so on.

These gorgeous irises, which came with the property, keep spreading, which is fine by me.  These native columbines volunteered from one little plant I grew from seed, which self-seeded all over my shade garden, which I’m very pleased about.  You can never have too many of all the above.

After that extreme storm last night, I’m feeling fortunate.  We still have a roof over our heads, and can keep paying for it.  Many states just south of us got slammed with tornadoes and flooding, on top of being in economic hardship in lockdown.

Some places already had long lines for food banks, like in some developing nation, whereas we have adequate supplies for now.  In fact, we just got one of those one-time IRS stimulus/relief deposits, which will go straight to savings.  We’re retired, so we get our small monthly fixed income, which pays the bills.

We’re still symptom-free, and intend to stay that way, unlike some.  Other than emergency runs every few weeks, we can stay at home and stay busy.  Things that would have seemed like a big inconvenience before, now seem manageable.  We’re your basic introvert loners, so we’re used to not socializing.  It is doable.

Sometimes the anxiety and surreality get to me.  I imagine the worst, and not being able to go deal with it.  I see our inept, negligent “leaders” denying reality and science, having no intention of serving the needs of their constituents.  I know in the long run, history will expose their self-serving crimes, but maybe not in my lifetime.  I see the extremes of disaster and loss it takes to shake people out of their complacency and delusional thinking.  More immediately, I miss my son and wonder if/when I’ll see him or my grandkids again.

So, I just throw myself more into facilitating natural beauty and habitats around me.  I watch as more of my native wildflowers and trees come up and thrive with some help.  Surreal as it is, the natural world just goes on creating, with or without us.  We can choose to live with science, or die in denial.  Maybe when we get too self-destructive, nature has to reset the balance of things.  I like to think in my minuscule way I’m helping to restore some balance.

Anyway, here are flowers.  The last photo is the “R&B” dogwood, courtesy of “the Bobs”, which happily bloomed for the first time this year.

For all you easter celebrators in lockdown (which you should be), I did these for E, from natural edible dyes–blue curaçao, red grenadine, and yellow turmeric (all items I normally stock).  Just something whimsical and cheery on a dark, rainy holiday during a plague.

It’s threatening floods, t-storms, and even tornadoes tonight.  Hopefully we’ll survive this, too.  Here are some flowers in the rain.  They seem so unfazed.

Between all the matzah this and matzah that, I feel like a ton of cannonballs are piled up in my nether region.  Plus the constant news dirge is a real drag, too.  Thus I’ve finally dragged myself to my blahg to catch up.

Here is the supermoon setting the other morning.  And here are some of my famous (no two alike) radish flowers, and our erev meal yesterday, complete with matzah cannonballs.  Not bad for a siege.

Outside, flowers are going crazier.  It was actually cold and frosty this morning, but now back to pleasant and sunny, which means we’re about to get a scary weather front across the south, featuring lots of rain, wind, and possibly worse things.  Time to batten down again.  But we’re already doing that.  When it’s over, I’ll plant all the rest of my warm weather veggies and flowers.

It’s erev seder #2, featuring the usual pyramid construction materials, cheap wine, many leftovers, and…salmon!  (Frozen, but still.)  Thinking outside the pyramid!  One gets creative during a pandemic.  We’re not starving, unlike some, for which I’m thankful.

Somewhere nearby, the plague is taking its toll of stupid peasants and their innocent victims.  This sadist-in-chief needs to go.  Where’s real justice when you need it?  I have to believe it will catch up with him soon.

Still, nature unconcernedly proceeds in rainbow colors.  Early this morning I caught the blush-yellow supermoon just setting behind the treetops.  My camera couldn’t do it justice.  The lavender and yellow irises have multiplied since yesterday.  There are more than enough flowers for bouquets to keep some of the melancholy at bay.

It’s a strange Passover, with its very own new plague, but one tries to make the most of it.  I was pretty resourceful with the limited raw materials at my disposal.  So what if the “lamb shank” is really chicken bones–my charoset is still the best, I grew my own parsley, and I had even obtained a horseradish root before this all got going.  I made a traditional apple matzah kugel, and did not neglect the small details like radish flowers.  I managed to score fresh asparagus, and a rare commodity these days, some chicken.  My afflicted ancestors in bondage would be proud.

Last night there was an impressive supermoon, which I caught to the best of my camera’s ability.  This morning the lovely lavender bearded irises were in bloom.  Up north I used to scavenge and scrape together a bouquet for Pesach, but down here that’s one thing not in short supply this time of year.  It’s a big deal to be surrounded by natural beauty, when the rest of your world is in chaos.

Not that we normally entertain, but somehow Pesach feels especially isolated this year.  Even if I had hordes of family or friends around to invite, I couldn’t.  I can just imagine how strange it will be for folks for whom it’s usually a major gathering, as it was meant to be.  Nevertheless, time to go slave in Egypt, making my superior drunken Charoset and so on.

I planted marigolds, zinnias, and assorted sunflowers this morning.  I hope to be able to look out my office window one day soon and see masses of flowers.  For now, I’m always pleased to find any new specimens, however tiny or common.  I’m especially excited about my native columbines reseeding and blooming this year.

Well, we took our lives in our hands early this morning, donned our hazmat outfits (masks and gloves), armed ourselves with antibacterial wipes, and entered the danger zone (Kroger) for supplies.  I was pleasantly surprised by others (though not all) wearing masks and keeping their distance.  But unsurprisingly, we again found all toilet paper, disinfectants, wipes, etc. completely decimated.  No accounting for ignorance.  The employees were tired but trying hard to stay upbeat and avoid conflicts.

We thoroughly decontaminated ourselves and all purchases, surfaces, clothing, etc. when we got home.  It’s a strange world out there.  I won’t deny we were nervous to venture out after weeks of sheltering at home.  Hopefully all our precautions paid off.  The numbers of deaths keep escalating by the thousands.

And now back to less menacing nature.

It’s 80º out!  It feels like summer.  So I decided to transfer my tomato, eggplant, and pepper seedlings to the back porch to acclimate.  Pretty soon I’ll transplant them to the garden, and direct-seed the rest of my veggies and flowers as well.  I notice more people are suddenly discovering grow-your-own-veggies for the first time!  I guess sometimes it takes a deadly pandemic (or war) to return to basic survival skills.

I was gratified to find more native wildflower seedlings and trees coming up, some for the first time, out in the field.  Not much is blooming out there yet, just perennials around the house.  I was excited to see the first bearded iris of the season blooming, a lovely pale yellow.  Lots more to follow.

I just want to say to anyone bored enough to be reading this, try not to get too discouraged or hopeless.  Part of the reason I keep this journal is to chronicle our attempt to maintain some semblance of normal, healthy life during this traumatic time.  Getting outside is very hygienic as well as therapeutic, if you are able to do it.  It reminds you that the natural world, though sometimes destructive, goes on living and breathing, as will we if we continue to stay home and stay safe for the sake of all of us.  One day this too will be behind us.  Hopefully we will retain the lessons learned and incorporate them into our lives.

I’m also trying to psyche myself up for tomorrow, when we must leave our quarantine to pick up necessities.  You take your life in your hands, literally, just going to the store.  We’ll wear face masks, gloves, and disinfect ourselves and everything.  We’ve made it this far, I’d hate to get sick now.  I’ll let you know how that goes.

It could almost be an innocent spring day, if you don’t watch the news.  It’s a sunny 75º, and more flowers are appearing, including some native wildflowers I think.

I started my Pesach spring cleaning, and the obligatory consuming of hametz (non-Pesach foods and drinks).  Such a hardship!  E is making yummy oatmeal/nut/raisin cookies, and somehow I must bring myself to drink more beer and bourbon!  (To make up for the coming week-long deprivation of living on cardboard matzah and crappy booze; what we sacrifice for tradition!)  Still, it beats the alternative–dying of a deadly virus.

You’ll notice Misu is doing her part, “supervising”.