Covid Journal, Day 51: Rain and Grass and Grousing and Such

53 and the promise of a bright and sunny day! Water is standing everywhere, the ground too wet to even walk on. Some areas not far from here had some flooding, I heard, so I am hoping no one's home was impacted. Water on the road is one thing, in your house is terrible to deal with. The clematis vine doesn't seem phased by the rain however, and is beginning to bloom.

I am getting garden frustration, on two counts. First the rain has made it impossible to do more than pull some weeds that I can reach in the flowerbeds. And more rain is predicted tonight and tomorrow (100% chance). I know that later I will be crying for rain but right now we could use a break. This year is beginning as a replay of last spring and summer, when the spring was so wet and cold that gardens were late and farmers didn't get their first cutting of hay in the barns until late June or even July. Fortunately the mild winter prevented a major feed disaster as livestock was turned out to pasture early.

The second frustration is my knee. It is not being cooperative and I can't stay on my feet too long without a lot of pain. So I work a bit, then go sit and put my leg up. I had hoped to get a cortisone shot but the virus stopped all such procedures, so I have to put up with this until there is a way to get a shot. I can't dig, and bending to weed causes issues with it locking up, or sending jolts of pain that take my breath away. I hate this. I am not used to something putting a crimp in my style. So I am doing my best to work around it and get at least some things done.

Larry has his own frustrations. His new lawnmower, bought last year, just up and quit on him last week. He's been tinkering around trying to fix it but so far no luck. Meantime the rain keeps falling and grass is growing like wildfire. Ah me.

Well, enough bellyaching, as my Dad would have called it. I should be happy and enjoying this beautiful day. I've painted a table, made blueberry cobbler, stained a chair and recovered its seat,

the re-covered chair seat. I think the toile print goes well with the color and the striped drawer liner--and it was the only fabric I had on hand that would work, so it was an easy decision!

done some laundry and other housework, so I will be content with what I have been able to do and not moan about what I can't do!

Oh, and the plants in the little greenhouses are growing well,

and most of the herbs I started last week have spouted--basil, chives, summer savory and chamomile. I'm still waiting on the lavender and parsley to germinate. So I will, I hope, have a nice herb garden of my favorite cooking herbs. Rosemary, thyme, sage, oregano and some parsley over-wintered, and I am hopeful that the dill seeded itself in the garden.

Over the weekend I dried the raspberry leaves I gathered on Friday, blended them with spearmint, rosehips, chamomile and cinnamon chips, and made teabags. I bought these bags several years ago and they are so easy to use, just iron the open end closed. I added orange peel to some of them, and I do like the flavor addition.

In bird world, we've been visited by quite a group of rose-breasted grosbeak the last  few days and have really enjoyed watching their antics. The Baltimore Oriole seems to have left, maybe not liking this tough interlopers. I'm keeping watch for any new migrators but haven't seen anything different yet.

I guess that's all the news that isn't from our hill. How is your Monday going?

And just now, I heard the lawnmower start! Yay! One less worry!

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