Yesterday the first wood ducks of the year arrived in the pond. This morning there are two pairs of wood ducks and one pair of mallards gliding gracefully through the water. Most of the ice is out of the pond and yesterday 4 of the neighborhood’s teens were out canoeing in the pond.
And I found these lovelies (above) in bloom in our back yard! Every day I am thankful that we are in springtime instead of deep winter with the stay-at-home directive in place. At least we can go outside and enjoy nature.
No Fools, It’s April!
April
I wanted to speak at length about
The happiness of my body and the
Delight of my mind for it was
April, a night, a full moon and-
But something in myself for maybe
From somewhere other said: not too
Many words, please, in the muddy shallows the
Frogs are singing.
Mary Oliver, from Swan: Poems and Prose Poems, Beacon Press.
I also found some scilla siberica ready to bloom. Unfortunately the deer seem to like eating it. The leaves were bitten off most of the plants as well as some of the flowers.
What’s left of the Scilla siberica in our back yard after the deer ate it.
Last week I got the spring gardening bug and decided to order garden seeds online. To my amazement, Burpee’s (my go-to seed suppliers) were completely sold out of seeds! It seems that lots of people have decided to garden this spring. I found the seeds I wanted on Park Seeds but they say there may be a 2-week delay in shipping them because of high demand.
My garden is a container garden and many of my containers were getting old and brittle so I decided to order a couple of new planters.
I have one Earthbox self-watering planter I bought years ago and it works so great that I decided to get 2 more of them this year. These box gardens along with the beautiful raised table my son-in-law made will make container gardening a breeze.
This is what the earthbox looks like.
Now, if I can find some lettuce seeds, sugar snap pea seeds, parsley plants and a cherry tomato plant I will be very happy.
How about you? How are you doing?
Jon and I, who are both retired, are finding this stay-at-home time mixed. We miss spending time with our kids and grandkids. Our granddaughter is finding waving from a distance not nearly as satisfying as collecting numerous hugs from us when we visit. And our visits are confined to days when our kids pick up groceries for us and we go over to their house to pick them up.
Most of the time I am busy with projects. We try to get out for a walk every day. But there are times when we wear on each other’s nerves. A couple of days ago the probable length of this stay-at-home order really hit me and I had some sad moments.
The hardest part for me is knowing that the best thing I can do is to stay home. I so want to get out to help those in need. It is heartbreaking seeing healthcare workers overwhelmed and afraid, others out of work and not knowing how to pay their bills or feed their families, and the sheer number of people who are ill and who have died.
I remind myself again and again to stay in the present moment. HERE. NOW. ALL IS WELL.
May you walk in beauty.
Wood ducks in the pond this morning
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