The End

L received her 2nd COVID vaccination today!  Everyone on our hill has now been vaccinated, so I am declaring the Pandemic on Poplar Ridge over, effective today!

The Light at the End of the Tunnel...

 It's been a really long and tumultuous year for all of us, from that fateful Friday the 13th in March last year, when all the kids were sent home from school.  We have all had struggles, some more than others.  We are lucky that we haven't lost anyone that we know and love to this virus.  Lately though, it seems that there may finally be a light at the end of the tunnel of a pandemic.

Today the CDC has announced that fully vaccinated people no longer need to mask or social distance unless it is a requirement of the state they live in.  Also this week, the FDA approved the Pfizer vaccination for adolescents ages 12-15.  Luckily there is a vaccine clinic this weekend locally where L can FINALLY get vaccinated - that means that in another 5 weeks, ALL of us will be that much safer.

breathe a sigh of relief

One step at a time though!  Prom is this weekend too .  J missed it last year, but jumped at the chance to wear her gown this year.  I made her a coordinating mask to wear with it...here's a sneak peak.  I'll post more pics this weekend.

It has been cold and rainy since JP tilled my garden.  I was hoping to plant today, my first opportunity since then, but it didn't happen.  Instead, JP and I travelled north to the Apple Store to replace my phone, which died last night.  Sigh.  Tomorrow the seeds will go in the ground!!

Last weekend, for Mother's Day, the girls and I made our annual pilgrimage to the nursery to buy a trunk full of plants.  I usually get herbs, annuals for my outdoor pots and hanging baskets, and sometimes a house plant or a perennial for my flower beds.  On the way home, we stopped at the Humane Society and picked up Toad, the cat, who has been neutered, vaccinated and checked over by the vet.  We released him on our veranda, where he promptly chased Ernie under the table and kept him trapped there by pacing and growling in front.  Lizzie took off for the woods at the first sign of conflict.  Eventually Toad could take no more, he hissed at and took a swipe at L again and then took off for the woods himself.  I'm pretty sure he came back later that evening and ate all the cat food, but we haven't seen hide nor hair of him since.  The vet estimated his age between 5 and 7, so it is unlikely that we will make a pet of him.

In other news, my mother is also seeing her own light at the end of the tunnel.  She is being discharged from the skilled nursing facility on Sunday.  She has not been home since her surgery early March, and is anticipating this highly!  She is no longer having the chronic pain that she had pre-surgery, and is getting stronger all the time.  The thing slowing her down for the foreseeable future is the hard neck immobilizer for the neck fracture.

For my foreseeable future, I need to quickly plan and then execute a delicious and nutritious meal!  Last night I made Pasta Puttanesca - I thought all of the prepped ingredients looked interesting:

From left going clockwise:  parsley, olives, anchovies, red pepper flakes, parmesan, oregano, capers and garlic.

Here's to life without masks you vaccinated herd!

Normal

 I realized as I was cleaning downstairs today, that last year at this time, I was furloughed, JP was quarantined, and the girls were home from school.  How different it is this year!  We are all fully immunized, except for L, who is too young.  The girls are back to school 4 days/week.  I am working again, and doing many telemedicine visits.  The girls and I have masks to coordinate with all of our outfits.

This is our new normal.  We are going on with life.  We did our annual Easter Egg hunt outside on a beautiful April day.  J said that she wanted to continue to do this as long as possible because "I always win!"

Even Stella got Easter Eggs!

The girls are currently at their first dress rehearsal this afternoon for the Spring play, which opens in 10 days.  I am worried that things are opening up too much and too soon.  JP is seeing a huge increase in the numbers of positive COVID tests every day he works.  J is planning for prom.  I typically work at one vaccination clinic per week, and I see shots going into the arms of hundreds of people, but I don't see the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow yet.

But we continue on - what else can we do?  J has been accepted at YSU (#goGUINS) and I am effectively blocking all of the emotions that go along with that - at least for the time being.  She recently sent in audition recordings for the theater program, and had a virtual interview with the director and several instructors of the program last weekend.

I keep cooking and baking, with many successes and several fails - such as this Angel Food Cake.

Spring keeps advancing - the tulips that we transplanted from raised beds in the garden to my flower bed by the house are in bloom.

The peeps were racing across the feed trough that we started them in, flapping their tiny wings ferociously, so we moved them into the hen house.  It didn't take them long to settle on the next-to-highest roost!  Unfortunately, I found one dead this morning of unknown causes.

The redbuds and the dogwoods are blooming in the woods.  The grass is growing.  JP will soon have to get the mower out!

My seedlings are going crazy in the house.  I am hoping that we can soon till the Rye cover crop in the garden so I can plant them because I am going crazy in the house too!

So embrace the new normal.  Keep going, because giving up is not an option.  Be careful, because the virus is still raging out there.  Dig in the dirt because it is good for the soul.

February is Coming!

I am not a fan of February.  It is the coldest, darkest and longest of winter months in my opinion.  As we creep ever closer, we have managed to settle in to our winter schedules.  Luckily, we have had several nice snow storms, which left plenty of lovely snow to play in.  We built this ferocious snow woman, Samantha...

...along with a crowd of tiny snow people whom she seems to be terrorizing.

The cold snap lasted for quite a while - long enough for me to slide down the driveway in the car on multiple occasions!  As the sun slowly returned, Samantha took an icicle to the heart, and seemed to die a slow and painful death.

The snow has been beautiful.  I thought it was gorgeous, covering my Moravian star in the evenings!

I received my second COVID vaccination, and have felt safe enough to spend some time helping my mother over at her house.  Unfortunately, I felt pretty crummy for a day and a half after my jab, but I'm fine now.  JP got his 2nd shot 2 weeks later.  I spent 4 hours helping at a vaccination clinic at the Hospital yesterday - we gave over 200 shots, one of which went into the arm of J.

While it is cold outdoors, we work on indoor things.  I celebrated a birthday, and have a new sewing machine ordered, so one day I can finish some of my projects!

I have finished some new puzzles:

I have been cooking and baking.  I made this pasta last weekend.  I tried Crème Brule again this weekend!

I have been perusing the seed catalogs, dreaming about planting in the spring.  In the meantime, I have this little "pumpkini" plant in the library to nurture.  It grew from sprouted seeds that we removed from a pumpkin from our garden.  Apparently it crossed with a zucchini, and is growing long, striped fruit!

Another snowfall overnight inspired J and I to build a "Baby Snowda" from the stump of Samantha.  Awww!

Back to school (still at home) and work for the girls and JP tomorrow.  I have plenty of chores to do as well.  I hope you all are staying warm, healthy and safe!

Left-overs

 JP is back to work today, so the girls and I have done a "Hunger Games" movie marathon.  We had left-over Thanksgiving dinner this evening.  It was nice to not have to do anything today, since I ended up working in the kitchen from 9 AM until 5-ish, with small breaks for breakfast and dinner.

It is hard to scale down a feast for four people, and even harder to scale down a turkey when there are only 2 meat eaters in our house.  Hence, we have plenty of left-overs to enjoy in the next couple of days.  We had 2 kinds of pie, because I wanted to try a recipe for Cranberry Custard Tart.

It was beautiful...

and delicious, but I will never make it again - way too complicated!

We had pumpkin pie too, of course.

We all worked hard last weekend.  We moved and stacked wood to the lean-to by the barn to use for heating our home this winter.

Last weekend was also my Grandma's 105th birthday.  We were hoping to make a quick trip to OH to sing and hold this sign up outside of her nursing home room window, since it is closed to visitors, however, our states have closed their borders and are requiring quarantining for those who travel - something I am unable to do because of work.  Instead, we mailed her the sign.  I hope she got it, because we just learned that she has contracted COVID.

It's absolutely crazy how fast the COVID case count is growing in our county.  I had a ZOOM call with my friends on Wednesday, which was absolutely lovely.  I wish things were different, but here we are - hunkered down and trying to stay safe.

I saw this rainbow on my drive to work on Wednesday - I think it is a symbol that this too shall pass.

Vacationing During a Pandemic

 Up until the day we left, I wasn't sure we were going to be able to take a family vacation this summer, and I expected JP to not come with us.  He had been self isolating here at home, due to the fact that he is seeing a couple COVID positive or presumptive COVID patients every shift that he works.  The schedule happened to work in our favor, however, as he had 2 weeks scheduled off (asked off MONTHS ago) and had several days off prior to the vacation days.  It ends up that he was EXTREMELY close to the 2 weeks of quarantine recommended after known exposure, and NOT having symptoms the day we left, so he came along!  It was the first time we've done anything as a family in close to 5 months - haven't been in a car together, haven't eaten meals together, haven't hung out within 6 feet of each other for MONTHS.  It was wonderful!

We took our yearly trek up to Lake Erie - I figured this was relatively safe as we weren't going out of state, so no quarantines on return.  We wiped down all the surfaces in the (very clean) house that we stayed in before moving our things in.  We got all of our meals (that we didn't make ourselves) as take out and ate at the house.  We went to beaches that were not crowded so that we could maintain social distancing.

We rode around Presque Isle again on our bikes - it's a 13.5 mile loop.  This year I wasn't sure that I was going to make it!

We picnicked by the lake, and rescued these 2 dehydrated raccoons from a dumpster.

We visited one of the lighthouses (none of them were open to the public this year.)

This year we tried out the Aqua Cycles on a pond - pretty fun!

The owners of the Air BNB house that we rented had this gorgeous 1946 Jaguar in the garage and promised us a ride in it, but sadly it never worked out.

Unfortunately, JP was back to work this weekend, and back to self isolating downstairs.  J goes back to work tomorrow, and I head back on Tues.  L is finished with her job, but is planning to see a friend tomorrow that she hasn't seen since March.

It was lovely while it lasted -  Pandemic Vacation 2020.

Full Speed Ahead

So this past week has been for reals the beginning of Summer Vacation.  It really feels like more of the same - just like the rest of this pandemic ordeal - except the girls aren't on the computer as much as they had been.  I have been trying to do some pre-summer prep work, to get things up and running before hand, but it didn't work out so well.

We uncovered the pool, and I hooked it up, added the appropriate amount of water and chemicals and vacuumed it the middle of May.  No matter how many bags of chlorine shock I added, the water was registering 0 chlorine.  I googled the issue, and apparently it is known as "chlorine lock," and can be caused by a fungal or bacterial infestation.  Most places recommended emptying out 1/3 of the water and refilling it.  However, I knew that the filter wasn't working well starting last year - it kept blowing diatomaceous earth back out into the pool.  So, I decide to try to replace the filter, which was a whole thing - took 2 weeks and a lot of dead ends to actually get it.  It arrived last Saturday, and I had to do a plumbing act and move all the valves from the old one to the new one - took about 1 1/2 hours, but I got it installed and running, and added more shock.  2 hours later, lo and behold, the water was crystal clear and registered chlorine!  **Pat myself on the back.**

The girls had gotten their bikes out of the garage a few weeks ago, and J noticed an issue changing gears, as well as a flat tire that wouldn't stay filled.  L had stuck brakes.  I took them down to WV about 2 weeks ago for repairs, and they were ready for pick up last week.  The girls went along with me to pick them up, and we had our first fun outing in MONTHS!  We had afternoon tea at a Tea Shoppe, complete with individual pots of tea,

a tower of tiny sandwiches, and a scone - piping hot from the oven!

JP was working this weekend, so yesterday we girls decided to take the bikes out for a ride.  We went to the local rails-to-trail bike trail, which is about a 30 minute drive away.  It was an overcast day, so not too hot, and the ride was very pleasant,  We rode over 14 miles through the wooded, honeysuckle drenched trail.

L was having some issues, so J got way ahead of us.  We stopped for a pic with the walking man on the way.  

I woke up last night in terrible pain - my low back was throbbing and I had severe sciatic pain all the way down my right leg to my calf.  Thank goodness for the adjustable bed that JP & I got right before he left to self isolate downstairs!  I was able to get in a semi-comfortable position, on a heating pad and dosed myself up with Ibuprofen.  I was horrified that a bike ride caused me that much pain, and I hope it doesn't mean the end of biking with the girls!  I woke up this morning feeling stiff and sore and 80 years old, but that is my baseline.

I've been spending quite a bit of time in the garden too.  The strawberries and asparagus need to be picked every other day.  Everything is planted now, except some more sweet corn next week (I like to plant it a couple of weeks apart so that it isn't all ready to eat at one time.)  There is lots of weeding to be done in there now, and I need to mulch things, but I am at a loss for mulching material.  The asparagus is now finished, and I have it all weeded (again) and I hauled all the straw and wood shavings from the chicken house to put around it - it covered all but the last 2 feet!

JP and I spent several hours last weekend repairing the bird netting around the blueberries, which will be the next crop to harvest...can't wait for those blueberries!

In my flower beds, the Oak Leaf Hydrangea is actually blooming this year!  I've had it for 3 years now.  

I also FINALLY have a Red Hot Poker flower blooming (Kniphofia) - I have planted probably 7 or 8 of these, the last 3 being last spring.  

Many of my flowers have white spots on their leaves (it's a bit hard to see in the photo) - this is from the dew freezing on the leaves when it got down to 26* in early May.

Well, enough rambling.  Stay well!

Going Green!

This morning, our county went to "green", meaning that we can now meet in groups up to 250, stores and restaurants can open at 50% capacity, and things can begin to return to normal.  According to my count up calendar, it's been 83 days and change since the Governor closed the schools.

It's a bit too late for some things - J's voice and guitar instructor closed his studio in town.  He will still be teaching down in WV, but the trip is too far to make on a regular basis.  She also missed prom and her show, "Seussical the Musical."  L missed her last year of Middle School Track and Field.

JP is still self isolating down stairs in the guest suite, and there is no end in sight to that bit of pandemic life.  I feel very alone.

J will be able to finish up her pottery from her class in the spring soon, and I have been given the green light to return to work at the end of June.

I am feeling something like Edna St. Vincent Millay describes in another section of her poem, "Renascence."

...And all at once the heavy night

Fell from my eyes and I could see,-

A drenched and dripping apple-tree,

A last long line of silver rain,

A sky grown clear and blue again.

And as I looked a quickening gust

Of wind blew up to me and thrust

Into my face a miracle

Of orchard-breath, and with the smell,-

I know not how such things can be!-

I breathed my soul back into me.

Ah! Up then from the ground sprang I

And hailed the earth with such a cry

As is not heard save from a man

Who has been dead, and lives again.

About the trees my arms I wound;

Like one gone mad I hugged the ground;

I raised my quivering arms on high;

I laughed and laughed into the sky...

Sewing

I stayed fairly busy this week.  I did get my sewing machine out again and made some more masks using a different pattern.  I think they fit better, but I think I will alter them a bit in order to get a tighter seal around the nose.

I also got the paints out again and painted this cute caddy that Lauren made for me LAST Mother's Day.  I put all my seed packets in it, so when I head down to the garden for planting, they'll all be together.

The garden is finally ready to start planting.  On Monday, JP started rototilling the upper part that the girls and I cleared last weekend.  The tiller died after about an hour out there, and not much to show for it.  We were able to reserve a rental rototiller for today.  While JP was tilling at the top, the girls and I were tearing out the last 8 raised beds and ripping up landscaping fabric at the bottom.  JP was able to go over everything twice, and the tiller is ready to head back in the morning.  I can start sewing out there anytime now!

The girls and I also uncovered the pool last weekend and dumped chemicals in.  I was able to vacuum it this week, and get the solar cover on.  The water is still VERY COLD, but I'm hoping that we soon can get in.

On Friday we had the last Drop Off/Pick Up day at the schools.  The work for the next 2 short weeks of school is all for enrichment and does not count towards their grades.  This sign was out front of the Middle School, and there was a similar one on the hill to the HS and Elementary Schools.  L is a bit sad that she will not see her teachers again, as she moves to the HS next year. 

Next week they must don gloves and masks to go in and empty out their lockers and return books.

In other news, the baby birds under the deck are getting big and have plenty of feathers now.  The tiny nest in my weeping cherry tree now has 4 diminutive eggs.

I'm exhausted!  Over and out from Poplar Ridge.

Another Fail

I heard of the idea of banana peel bacon on a podcast that I listened to recently.  I thought that it might be something that would appeal to J, my vegetarian daughter.  And besides, I'll try most anything once.

I found this recipe on line and amassed a couple of brown-enough peels by last weekend to give it a shot.  The intro to the recipe post states "Yes, you read that right, this is banana peel bacon. A vegan bacon recipe made from the banana peels that you would otherwise toss away. Am I crazy? Maybe a little. Does it taste good? Yes, it does. It really, really does!"

Well, please believe me.  This stuff is basically inedible.  I know, I know, this is not a big surprise.  We are all grasping at straws here for some amazing discovery to make life stuck at home a little more interesting.

Go ahead, try it for yourself.  Maybe I did something terribly wrong?

Highlights

Things are looking up in our neck of the woods!  The Governor has relaxed the Stay-At-Home Orders in our county and surrounding counties as of early this morning.  We are still to maintain Social Distancing, but are allowed to meet in groups of less than 25.

We invited our friend, C, over for a Social Distancing Picnic.  (L moved closer momentarily to be in the picture!)  We haven't seen her since Christmas, since she was out West for college until they sent her home to do on line classes.  It was wonderful to see her again.

Unfortunately, several of our hives of bees did not make it over the winter.  Sometime in the past several days, the Apiarist brought us several new hives, some of which are a cheerful yellow.  It makes me smile when I see them!

I was able to Zoom with a bunch of my girlfriends yesterday, and it was SO good to see everyone again.

I received a message from my supervisor, giving me a possible return to work date in 4-6 more weeks.

There may be a glimmer of light at the end of this Corona tunnel!

Mother's Day in the Woods

After another night of frosts, Mother's Day dawned warm and sunny.  The girls and I donned our masks and ventured out to the nursery -  the first outing the girls have been on for many, many weeks.  We arrived fairly early, and luckily there were not too many other folks there, but by the time we hade made our selections of annuals, herbs and plants for the garden, it was starting to get busy.

We all went for a hike in the afternoon.  J and L led us down the hill to an area they had been exploring recently and where I had never been. 

 It was gorgeous - mossy and shaded, with a tiny stream running through steep walls.

 

The clearings were studded with wildflowers, and we finally chanced upon the elusive Trilium, that I had been searching for in vain this spring.

I slid down the bank at one point, and landed on my knees on sharp rocks in the stream (which I paid for the next day.)  L too slipped into the mud, but it was overall a lovely expedition, and allowed me to forget about COVID for several hours (which is glorious in its own right.)

JP ordered dinner from Bob Evans and picked it up so that I didn't have to cook. 

I hope that all of you Mothers had an equally wonderful Mother's Day!

Frost

We had a deep freeze warning overnight.  This is one moment when I am thankful that I don't have the garden planted.  The blueberries and strawberries, however, are in full bloom.  We really look forward to those 2 crops every year, so we don't want to lose them!  The asparagus and rhubarb are also spring crops, which I've already been harvesting.

Yesterday afternoon, I cut all the asparagus that was above ground, hoping that anything still under the ground would be saved...time will tell on that one.  Yesterday evening I brought in all of the hanging/potted plants and the hummingbird feeders.  I also covered the strawberries, the rhubarb, my herbs, and 1/3 of the blueberries.  L helped me move her rabbit closer to the house and hook up the heat lamp again.  When he got home from work, JP helped me cover the rest of the blueberry bushes.

You can see the frost on the grass in the foreground this morning!  It got down to 26* by my thermometer.

In the meantime, we have tried another couple new recipes.  I made "Dole Whip" which is apparently sold at Disney theme parks - basically a pineapple soft serve ice cream.  I thought it sounded incredibly refreshing, so gave it a whirl:  vanilla ice cream, frozen pineapple and pineapple juice blended together.  It ended up being...meh.  I'm not a huge fan.

Yesterday morning, we had pancake cereal for breakfast.

I put the pancake batter into a squeeze bottle, and made hundreds of tiny pancakes...

Which we then ate with butter and syrup (and bananas and blueberries) out of a bowl.  It was pretty fun!

J and I took turns creating shaped pancakes out of the remaining batter.

This is supposed to be one of her favorite teachers!

I find myself craving caffeine lately.  I'm not sure if I'm simply craving stimulation, or what the deeper issue is.  I'm trying to limit myself to 2 drinks daily.  Yesterday morning, while I made my Butterbeer Latte, this little heart appeared in the caramel.  How fitting!

Another new recipe in the works for today - AND a trip to the nursery, it's our Mother's Day tradition.  Yeah - stimulation!