Frogs Emerged

Wednesday: On yesterday's farm walk the frogs were chirping. They've re-surfaced from the mud and decomposing 2020 pond growth. Happy sounds. Lots of eggs floating. Even a tadpole spotted...

So, I'm emerging from the pandemic slog and slowly, carefully expanding my individual universe to include a trip or two to shop for stuff and food right off store shelves. All masked, distanced, and mindful. I can plan a few things with greater confidence of actually doing them when I decide on a good time for something to happen. The hours spent trying to score online stuff with time-consuming computer research and guesswork, or an elusive curbside pickup time slot is already being replaced by a bit of actual reality shopping!

The apartment I moved to in the early summer of 2019, has begun to fulfill one of my hopes I'd just started to experience before the pandemic--meals and visits here with family and friends. Aidan's 17th  birthday in 2020 was the last such get-together. On Monday, Pat was here for lunch, a walk, and a nice long conversation on a beautiful spring day. I guess we're vax-mates now.

Several Days of Distraction: DIY shelf cube unit in a box...

The middle horizontal shelf had a mishap when a connecting dowel snapped off, the remaining part glued inside. I took the panel to the farm and John reamed it out for me and honed a new dowel to a size to re-fit. Thank you, John! It only took the rest of the next morning to finish construction.
Whew!
Remind me not to do this again.

Now I'm behind on everything else but satisfied to have this unit put together and functioning.

Egad. We had Palm Sunday. Easter! is next. I'm so unready.

Wendy, John, and I got as far as a plan that we'll be together on Easter Sunday thanks to vaccines putting us into a low-risk category though the second shot is forthcoming (soon) for Wendy, John, and Aidan. Keoni's second is finished as of a week ago. But our Easter planning was set aside yesterday so the family could take care of dear old Fancy's demise and mourning a beloved pet. From our welter of text photo-sharing, there is now a new section above titled Electric Attic (see the upper right column) and click on Fancy. 

A counter to our sadness was the happiness of a new little goat kidded at nearly the same time as Fancy's worsening decline. This one is X. His mama is Ophelia, his daddy is Legolis. I could not think of a name to go with X other than Xavier. We'll see what the family comes up with. For now, he is Mr. X for me...

Ophelia & Mr. X

From out West, it was a delight to see Elijah's big smile on a video that Jeff sent of this young man at the wheel of the family vehicle after securing his learner's driving permit. Later this month he will be ready for the manual driving test when he has his 16th birthday.

Just now, a batch of texts arrived with photos Elijah put together for his photography class. He was to photograph a subject or a model. He chose young brother Kingston as a model...

Congratulations, Elijah! on your wonderful new portfolio. You rock!

In Tucson, Paula completed a month of desert colors making a different one each day of February inspired by the desert and its life around her. I relate to the colors and even feel nostalgic pangs for the desert when I look at them...

You can see more of Paula's art at Paula Borchardt or on Twitter Sonoran Sketchers which includes other southwestern artists as well as Paula's work.

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From the Catch-Up Desk: I know I promised catch-up in this space. It will happen but with an addition in design. Above, you saw that I started an "Electric Attic" gadget. Catch-up will go there as I comb through the last few months, my archives in the closet, and items bulging in this laptop. 

It grows late, so I'll end with good wishes and hopes for safety and health to you and your loved ones, including all the different colored ones, and the furry, scaley, feathered, finned, and even the crawly. Remember, Albert Schweitzer didn't even swat a fly. It's springtime.

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Young great-grandneice Lily found her first dandelion of spring...

Outside the front door of Dock Manor.

Moonset early morning a couple of days ago.

Spring is happening, the country is happening. We're emerging from serious woes, one petal at a time. Lots of gardening ahead but plenty of fertile ground awaits us. 

It's Time to Begin Again

A convergence of thought rivers flow
beneath limit-stretched endurance.

Green blades lie under snow blankets

flourishing unseen

until Earth spins our tilt

into more sunlight.

Trickles of melt

fill streams and rivers--

fresh and new

is taking place.

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Or, maybe old is too, but nothing is quite the same. And that's okay. Since I was here last, there have been political and cultural and societal and environmental and health... and....and...and...changes. Much, isn't it. 

I'll send you this to begin again and try catching up as I go along in later installments. Over the past week or so family members, here and in other states, have gotten a first and/or second vaccine shot, and so have friends, and so have I, thanks to the diligence of my housing's staff/admin. Each time I hear of another shot in the arm of those I know and love, it is a hallelujah moment followed by anxiety for those still waiting for the chance, including our fellow citizens. Boy, I hope this works.

Yesterday, the snow was almost melted back to a few little shaded piles here and there. In the warm afternoon, Keoni and I took some walks near the farm where he's been exploring this past year. 

Close to the farm is a power line.

You might be wondering, "What's the point?"

We can see Philadelphia! (It's the blip on the blue horizon.) The farm is on Ridge Road. Keoni says it's the first ridge of the Poconos.

And in the valley between Ridge Road and the next ridge there's a creek we walked to in a Nature Preserve. Keoni drove us around the little roads winding through.

Keoni getting a shot of the creek.

The sunlight felt so welcome.

One of Mark Bittman's food-world-related, email newsletters of the last few days asked us to write what we're most looking forward to now that we can cautiously, protocol-consciously come together soon for meals. I posted that I'm looking forward to this--

A family meal, a holiday, or an everyday. A daughter, her husband, and two (now OMG young men!) grandsons. Mostly, there'll be homegrown, homemade, or local foods on the table set out under the tree near the barn. The late afternoon sun will dapple us and the chickens will slowly make their way back toward their roosts, the goats in the close-by pasture will comfortably lie in the late sun to chew cud while the mare munches grass. The cat will wind around our feet and the dogs will lie about watching the perimeters for action. Our masks will be laid aside. Our bodies will have had time for their immune response since we're now almost finished with shots. My hearing aids will be in place since mask bands won't interfere or flip them away. It will be grand to hear and see what is said and laugh again until tears when the conversation veers into hilarity. We'll linger and talk and eat and laugh some more. A breeze will slide by, dusk will meld into night. Together, we'll carry the remains up into the kitchen, clean some, and put away some; then sit at the kitchen table for dessert that would possibly have been made by the grandson who explored uncounted pandemic dessert-makings. Soon music will start and we'll listen to the two young men with their viola and cello or maybe the piano. Was this what it was like before we had electronics? Maybe so. I will be enchanted like I was before the pandemic. I will know again that it doesn't get any better.

Tell me what you are looking forward to the most.

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From the Catchup Desk:

The grandsons, Keoni and Aidan, are seeing fruition from their intensive practicing and auditioning. I'll let you know what's next on that front when in the weeks ahead choices are made.

The family came together virtually at Thanksgiving and we Zoom-shared some pictures we'd saved. My contribution was remembering the last time we were all in together was Thanksgiving 2012 when the Utah bunch visited with us in Tucson. By the same holiday, 2013, our faction lived in PA.

A first for 2021... lunch with Pat. It's been a bit over a year. We're both vaccinated!

During recent heavy snowfalls, Aidan built an igloo from snow he packed into blocks, one-by-one, using the newspaper recycle bin...

Keoni tries it out.

Aidan the builder.

And then it warmed up...

Keoni played some contemporary excerpts for me that he's been putting together.

And, Sebastian baggin' UVs...

There'll be more catch-up coming next time. See you soon.