Strawberries and Graduation

We have been busy lately. Several projects around the house ... checked off. I wrote two blocks with information ... one about masks for children ... one how I made roller shades (replacing the cheap vinyl with fabric) to "hide" our bar. 

But when Sarah had a day off and the weather wasn't too bad we arranged to meet at The Berry Patch (Gallmeyer Farms). The boys know what to do: virtual hugs. So sweet. So sincere. 

There were plenty of strawberries ready to be picked. We were done way too quickly.

Sarah had information from a friend that there was a wildflower field with trails criss-crossing. The boys could run off some steam. She headed straight for it while Papa and I brought the pickings to the cars. Then we joined the fun.

Sometimes the wildflowers where so high that the children disappeared. 

This VIDEO gives you an idea ( 0:26 ). 

We had separate cars and when Sarah drove home she sent this photo to us: The boys wanted to wear the new masks Omi had sewn (see above about the mentioned blog).

The same day Helen took some important photos. Our Nashville grandson is moving from elementary  to middle school. This was supposed to be a very special time for him with field trips and other events he was looking forward too. Like many children he got disappointed but he did find this sign in front of the house from the the school.

Helen mounted it on the front door for a few days.

She took photos in front of his "old" school. Look, his feet actually left the ground.

Graduation zoom meeting. 

He looks so .... grown up? How did this happen? 

A few days he had a birthday. He turned 10 years old. His first birthday that we could not be there, sigh. And now he is a middle schooler. CONGRATULATIONS! 

The sad side: the plan had been to be there for the graduation and take him to us for a lovely visit with us and his cousins. We hope that it is only postponed for a little time and not cancelled. 

Haircut ... yes, yes, yes

Ugh, one hot day (in the eighties) and it was obvious that the amount of hair on my head was uncomfortable. My last haircut was 2 months and 10 days ago. Way overdue! I had been jealous of James getting his haircut two week ago and was sorry I had not jumped to the chance to get mine. Report in a previous blog.

Daughter Sarah volunteered to cut it.Yeah! I promise we tried the social distancing very hard.

The "before" photo doesn't really show the mass there was.

All three children are hands-on people. They want to do and try EVERYTHING. We said no, no, no to cutting Omi's hair but Sarah had a job for him. He could make my hair wet. Oh yes, you can imagine how much fun he had with that. 

Sarah did an incredible good job. She might have to do it from now on. I "paid" with 6 masks for the children. She had asked a few days ago because you never know whether she has to take them somewhere in kind of an emergency. The masks are not in their final stage yet because I didn't have yet what I needed from the internet. But usable. After this blog I will write a "how-to" on my "lace and quilt blog" because I had to do a lot of research for the pattern and (I think) improved on it.

Wade had smoked ribs for dinner and a little bonfire had been started in the fire pit. 

Everybody had a good time. The children were actually pretty good in keeping distance. 

Caleb and I admired the flowers from their huge tree. There were hundreds on the floor.

And then he went all the way around the house to bring me a rose blossom. How is that new hair cut? I am so happy.

What else to report? I am mad with that baby rabbit which I saw a couple of times in the yard. I am sure that is who did this!!! Ate everything off my beautiful stand of lilies with lots of buds. Ugh.

Only this single one was left. I probably should go and check whether it is still there now.

This one was laying around not even eaten. Just like people who take too much food at a buffet. Sigh. May be it will do well in the glass and flower after all.

What else is there to report? We did a lot of gardening, well, planting the containers. Don't worry. It was a purchase in the outdoors. 

I had some really ugly square planters in the back. They used to be white but over the years had discolored. For about $5 we bought a spray paint when we needed something else anyway and now they are "hammered bronze". They are so much nicer then the smaller black square ones which looked so "plastic". More plants are needed though for them.

Ha-ha, did you get the message from the Librarian (photo in the last blog)? 
My friend Irma figured it out too and sent me this in an email (I filled in the red):

"The English patient had caught it on the beach.  I should have stayed home she said.  Now she was in quarantine in the dark. House of splendid isolation. Still hope springs eternal with a little bit of luck (common sense) and personal hygiene the (corona book of horror stories) must end soon.  Always remember clean hands save lives and when in (doubt) don’t go out."

Irma also had said to me on the telephone "it's much better to be 6 feet apart than 6 feet under".

So, here are a few more things which I found funny. The first one is so fitting to this blog. Lots of my friends talked about "the hair situation".

Last week we had a really HOT day with windows and doors open and today we had to turn the heating on again.

Hope you can stay home and stay healthy too.

Small Adventure

Our two major trips were cancelled this year. But there is joy in small trips too. Sarah had told us about York River Park and Fossil Beach. James keeps an eye on the weather forecast and announced excited that Monday May 4 was supposed to be a day we should consider doing something a little more exciting than walking in the neighborhood.

And a gorgeous day it was! We started at 9:30 am for the nearly one hour drive.

Close to the parking and the visitor center (closed of course) was an osprey nest. You can see it on a pole in the water. Right away we noticed that we should have brought our binoculars. Forgot! We decided that it looked like that there was at least one chick in the nest.

We decided on the trail to Fossil Beach. 

Sarah was right, it is a lovely place. There is actually it is tidal and it was high at this time so the beach was a bit narrow. There were a few people besides us but it was not crowded at all.

Looking for fossils is definitely better at low tide. But there were some interesting things.

A little child got the shoes wet. See them? The mother knew what to do.

Lovely wisteria.

We walked another trail back to the car. First we looked again at what the ospreys were doing but still no adult. We had packed our lunch and enjoyed it on a picnic bench in the sun before we headed home again. What a nice outing. We need to do this more often.

Here is a clever thing. I found amusing. Can't have enough of this right now. 

Have you figured it out? It would be nice if you would write it into the comments for me.

Thank you!

Life goes on

It's amazing. We are retired. We have to do social distancing and can't really go out. But still, we are busy and don't seem to have enough hours in the day to do all we need and want to do. We are not bored.

James did power washing. Don't all boys like to play with water?

It was definitely worth it. Cleaning is especially fun when you see instant success.

More and more it seems like summer is coming. We enjoy the beauty in nature.

There were only 3 days between the next two photos.

The clematis is the best it ever has been.

The roses ....

And this week it is "Flamingo time" in our community. Some of the jokes are quite funny. I think one could take a flamingo home and dress it up. Sorry, don't have time. 

On one of our walks we searched for rocks suitable for painting. There are 14 on my back.

After a few days they could be varnished ... but outside. Not my best job ever but it was fun and I ended up quite pleased with it.

Finally they are ready to hide in our grandsons' backyard for them to find. Sarah told us when they were gone so we could do that.

I am not sure whether they had as much fun finding them as I had painting and hiding. But it was worth it. In the evening James and I were invited for a dinner but of course observing "social distancing" (which was not easy for them or us). We had picked up Chinese take-out to do something for the local economy. We tried to keep it short but had a very nice time.

The boys had all had haircuts and in the discussion about it Sarah said she would be willing to cut our hair too. James usually has a #4 and Sarah knew exactly what that was. He left very happy.

The children were so excited and getting ready to spend the night in the new tent. They gave us a bit of a hilarious show changing into their pjs. We heard the next morning that it was a great success. They are so much fun.

Times will get better. If we only could visit William and Helen too. William is turning 10 soon. We had such big plans for the summer.