Covid Journal, Day 64: A Perfect Day

55 and a little cloudy, still humid but so nice, with a soft breeze blowing. I took some of my tomato and early cabbage plants out of the little greenhouse to start hardening off. I am really pleased at how quickly my plants grew, considering I didn't get them planted until the beginning of April.

This has been a perfect day. We got outside early to till the garden and plant more lettuce, onions, and radishes. Everything has come up well except the peas, but there are a few plants and we'll get enough to add to salads, as these are snap peas. The purple beans are finally beginning to show up, and the carrots that I'd written off as a loss have also germinated. No mulch yet--these tiny plants need to get a little bigger or they'd be buried in the old hay we use. Still looking for a source of more hay.

When we finished the garden work, we took a coffee break, then took a beautiful drive to a friend's house in the next county to drop off a load of things for him to re-sell for us. We haven't seen him in 10 weeks, so we had a nice, carefully distanced visit. He also is not going out yet, so we felt safe being there. We came home by a road I haven't traveled since the 1970's, even though it's not that far away. It was really nice; we took our time, and people along the way waved to us even though we were strangers. So many people were outside, enjoying their homes on this lovely day.

I took a few photos along the way, after remembering I had my camera with me. We will have to go back and take more as I missed a good bit at the beginning of this road.

When we got home, we had vanilla ice cream topped with some of the blueberry pie filling I made last year. It was delicious. Now Larry is mowing, and I just finished ordering 378 canning jar lids. That should take care of most of the summer, just need wide-mouth ones now. Maybe not the cheapest deal, but $68 + shipping isn't too bad. I think jar lids may be in short supply this summer, with so many more people gardening--a good thing, in my book. I've never ordered from this company before, so we'll see how it goes.

Now I need to get back outside to get to work with my string trimmer, but here's a few photos from today's drive. The homes along this road (Reedy-Golf Course Road, Roane county, WV) show that this area had some well-to-do farmers back in the day, and indeed even today. The homes are mostly large, well-kept and surrounded by well-maintained farmland.

We'll start here, though, the building that caused me to remember my camera: The Boggs School. No date, but under the name it says Dist. 1.

The home has recently been re-sided with the prettiest shade of green.

If you're longing for a house in the country, this one with its red roof is for sale by Calhoun Realty. I couldn't find a price listing for it though.

Perched high above the road is the Mount Olive Baptist Church. It doesn't look, at least from the road, as if it is still in use, but look at those windows!

Another small, well-kept home. The family was on the back deck, enjoying the day.

Green, green fields everywhere. There will be good hay this year, I think.

Winding along, between the sycamore trees and over a small creek.

I have a thing for old barns, It makes me happy when I see one being taken care of, like this old-timer.

A fine long home, perfectly maintained.

And a plantation-style home. There may well have been slave-holders at one time on this road, given the size of the farms, but most likely no one owned more than a few. This part of West Virginia did not have many slaves, as I understand, but there were many Southern sympathies, and just as many Northern which led to a great deal of friction between friends, family members, and neighbors.

Until tomorrow! This old lady must get to her string-trimming. But what a perfect day this has been.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.