Earth Day – Wednesday, April 22, 2020

The fifty year anniversary of Earth Day – and I can well remember the first one. I was young (in high school) and we were full of hope that we could help save Earth. Ha! First of all, I feel really old remembering that, and it now looks like Earth might be saving itself from our species, since we seem incapable of changing our wasteful ways. On we go, for now, anyway…

Not much news here. The day started badly. We planned a trip to Wentzville to pick up the truck, with its new brakes and new door handle. Harry hopped into my car, and I had left the key in the ignition Monday. The battery was dead. The jumper cables were, of course, in the truck. One of those days.

I put a charger on the battery and off we went in Harry’s car, which had low tires. Luckily, we have an air compressor in the shed, so that problem was easily solved. But it was a frustrating morning, to say the least! We had timed the trip so that I could visit the grocery store for a rotisserie chicken. Monday, shopping during “elderly hour”, I was too early for chicken. Today, that plan, anyway, was a success.

Harry’s leg was quite swollen last night, and didn’t recover as much as we had hoped it would, so we decided this should be a day of complete rest (apart from driving me to Wentzville). I am pleased to report that it does look better this evening.

After groceries, I ventured to Lowe’s for 20 bags of Black Forest mulch. Interestingly, people were in masks at the grocery store, but fewer were wearing masks at Lowe’s.

The weather forecast has a lot of rain in it, so I called Rebecca to see if she could help today instead of tomorrow, and she was wonderful, as always. She unloaded and spread mulch while I mowed. The place has never looked better!

Rebecca brought eggs with her. We are incredibly lucky! Nothing compares to real, fresh eggs from chickens you have met. And occasionally we get a bonus feather, too!

The horses had a day off, since Jane, too, hopped on her mower when she saw the forecast.

My brother has been digitizing some of my grandfather’s old slides. He presented me with some pictures today, including impossibly young Brian and Trudy with their first child (that’s me)…

I had two phone calls from faraway friends today – one in New York City, the other in Texas. We are so lucky to have this “isolation” with such incredible technology to mitigate it. Not only do we no longer have to worry about “long distance” calls, the calls can come in while I’m on the mower or in the barn. We forget how fortunate we are to have our friends easily close enough to talk.

Harry rested well, and spent some time zooming, speaking of incredible technology!

Roscoe availed himself of a pot outside the kitchen door as a chair – he assumes everything exists for him…

In the garden, the sweet woodruff is blooming, and the azalea is coming on (descendant of my mother’s azalea), as well as unusual, tiny, late daffodils. The pink dogwood is glorious.

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At the end of a busy day, Roscoe can be relied upon to remind me how lucky I am to have a comfy chair to collapse into. With him for company, of course…

And Nettie rests, too…

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Hoping all are staying safe and well and getting good rest…