Swept away

We have been geeting pretty sunrises quite often. As it is so hot, I must exercise before the sun comes up

we gave Hannah the balance bike. It has no pedals. She still doesn't have the hang of it but enjoys tryuing

the day we visited them was cold and windy though s is comfortable with no sleeves. As we aren't allowed inside, we left

found this flapping on the ground Eastern Swallowtail

I do have a few irises though only a fraction of what I had before. All my tulips became deer food

Some of the bleeding hearts were destroyed by a very late frost

We went from freezing to unbearably hot just like that. Due to Covid, it has been hard getting things done in a timely matter. No water for the sprinklers until a few days. Watering the few plants I have has been a pain though I can turn on the hose, with Steve's help to water some stuff. Although we had a forecast of five days of rain in a row, this never happened.. Our yard is such a mess, the gardens dead and so much work to be done, I had a difficult time getting started choosing just to have a pity party instead. Finally last week I got started clearing out the vegetable patch for new vegetables, planting them, clearing our numerous beds of unbelievable amounts of weeds. I have spent hours out there hampered by extreme heat and humidity and still have plenty to do. But they do look a bit better and most of the summer bulbs are in. The lawn mower guy finally could fix the mower and the weed killer guy finally could come to get rid of the weeds in the lawn.

Still it is hard to enjoy myself even though I know our situation is so much better than so many. For instance, my ex-son-in-law. Torrential rain last week (that seemed to miss just a small area surrounding us) caused two different dams to burst in upper Michigan. He was ordered to evacuate a week ago. I still don't know if he has been allowed to return to assess the damage. There is no working sewage system for starters. One town of 700 had every building destroyed. No one had flood insurance as they didn't think they needed it. Until they did.

I try to stop listening to Covid news. It seems hopeless unless that vaccine comes along sooner than later. And so many are happy to pretend that the virus doesn't exist or that they are immune from it.

Trump is now saying he will pull out of the state holding the Republican convention if they can't have full capacity. Such an idiot. He visited our state and a factory but refused to wear a mask  as he thinks it makes him look stupid.

These are good people

Josh's girls. I don't get to see them inside, only outside at a distance

got a new phone which has 'portrait mode' which I am trying out here with Steve

Mother's Day gifts. I am hoping that the house wrens will nest in the birdhouse. I do have a hollow gourd near my garden they have been flitting in and out of. Good insect eaters and sing prettily though they are not much to look at

Chocolate salami made to amuse grandkids. Nuts would make it look more salami like but some of the kids are allergic or hate nuts Very fudgy

I now have at least 10 Baltimore and orchard orioles. They come often to the hummingbird feeder near my bed scaring away the hummingbirds. I do have at least one feeder that birds can't perch on. Orioles can't drink without perching. Years ago during a garden tour, I asked a woman why she put her feeder 100 feet from her house. She said orioles will never come near a house. Mine didn't get the memo.

Who are these good people as Trump calls them? They are storming our state capital with assault rifles, axes, and my favorite: a Barbie doll with Gretchen like hair hanging from a noose. They had a Facebook group, until Facebook took it down saying that they will string our governor up for having the nerve to try to save their pathetic ignorant lives. Of course they are just extending the time we are all in quarantine. As they are saying they want to kill our governor, shouldn't the FBI be watching them? I only hope so.

Even if our state 'opens up" I don't see myself wanting to go to movies or sit in a crowded restaurant. We now can buy plants but we can't get or sprinklers turned on for another two weeks. I should at least be preparing the beds but my heart is not in it. Finally we got someone out to fix the mower.

I feed and watch my birds. The catbirds like to eat up the oriole food. They are the birds you hear but not see as they usually hide in the underbrush making their suffering cat noises or cat in heat sounds. I knew they were classified as 'mimics' but I thought it was because they could imitate a cat but recently I heard a video in which one male catbird knew about twenty different bird calls plus a few tree frog sounds thrown in. It turns out that they learn as many songs as possible to impress the females. Mockingbirds do the same thing though I don't think we have them. I did notice them in California. As there are few songbirds there to imitate, they imitate the car alarms and all their annoying sounds.

I did see my kids separately on Mother's Day. No special dinners out though I was glad to see them. When will things be normal again?

life in the time of covid

Baltimore oriole from last week. Have about 6 of them

and now I have 2 of its cousins, the orchard oriole: chestnut brown instead of bright orange and skinnier

a pair of rose breasted grosbeaks though only the male has a rose breast

zooming wth Great grandma who will turn 96 in October. Each of my kids had a daughter with them

orchard oriole

Somehow I naively believed this would be over by now. If you are sick for 2 weeks and have no contact with anyone, surely after a few weeks this virus would die down. Since we have mandatory social distancing, new cases are slowing down but some people refuse  to not congregate. If it weren't for Covid, I would be on my dream trip right now which makes me sad but in the scheme of things as long as I and mine stay healthy I will be OK. As I live in the 'sticks'  can run and bike and barely see another person. This is week 8 or maybe 9, I lose track. Bad news started coming around March 12.

Right now the Michigan House of representatives, a sorry group of uneducated, religious right, are trying to sue our governor for 'abuse of power'

How do I spend my days? Well not shopping anymore or visiting my friends and family except by Zoom. Maya and Naomi do come by and we try to stay outside. I have seen my other kids outside. But tomorrow we will have 'thundersnow'. I have invited a friend to sit at a distance on my porch. I should be gardening except 1. it's too cold 2. we can't get our water turned on until the end of the month. Things are breaking down and noone can come in to fix things. I do my language lessons. Do my killer sudoku. Feed my birds. Watch TV at night with Steve. Just finished 'unorthodox' about a woman escaping a hasdic Jewish sect in Brooklyn.

the return of the orioles

As of last night we had 6 of these beautiful birds

we did not have any oranges when they first came, just strawberries and raspberries which they ignored. They do like the grape jelly

still trying to sell photos Above a mix of Costa Rica, Cordoba Barcelona and Ghent

May is when my favorite birds return. The earliest we ever had hummingbirds is April 28 which is when I put out my feeders. On April 29, I look up at the feeder outside my bedroom window and it was covered with orioles: 4 of them. Usually they come after the hummingbirds and not in flocks. By the next morning, there were six. On April 30th, yesterday, a hummingbird appeared. Still missing are my rose breasted grosbeaks and crowned sparrows. The swallows are back along with chipping sparrows. How my world has condensed! I would be preparing now to fly off to Europe. Not happening. At least the weather isn't completely awlful. I took Maya on a bike ride the other day and been riding by myself more than 800 miles since the year began. I am back to studying Italian. Hopefully all these languages will come in handy.

I shouldn't complain. We are healthy and financially we are OK. So many are not. Instead of bringing us together, this virus has polarized our country even more between the uneducated and those who can read. Our useless leader encourages civil disobedience telling his forces to protest against democratic governors. They are out in our capital maskless and equipped with guns. I wish nothing but the worst for them. Unfortunately they are just increasing the length of the lockdown. And even Republican governors can't catch a break. The Maryland governor complained his state didn't have enough masks. Don't come whining to me, he was told by Trump. His wife happens to be  Korean. She helped him arrange a purchase of a huge amount of masks from Korea.Now he is hiding them so Trump can't seize them.

My favorite was Pence showing up in a hospital without a mask. So much for leading by example.