Early Birds

51°f, or 10.5°C this morning, only warming to about 54°. Showers overnight and early morning, then partly cloudy and breezy. Rain expected tonight.

Our first crocus for this year! Many of my bulbs do not seem to have made it through the drought.

We were up and out the door by 5:30am this morning. Now normally I get up between 7 and 8, but today was another free food giveaway, and one needs to get there early, before supplies run out. We didn't really need anything, but our younger neighbor had to work and couldn't go so we decided to go for her. 

What is this giveaway? As some if you might remember, a local organization wrote a grant to get food that was otherwise going to the dump. This is from a government warehouse that supplies school lunches, and they sometimes have overstocked items due to a variety of factors like snow days, illnesses that mean less attendance, etc. The food is given first to food pantries and other community groups, and then to families. There is no income or any other qualifier for who gets it, except you have to be there early.

This time, what was given out was:

peanut butter

cooking oil

dry penne pasta

Canned white chicken meat

Canned pork 

Sliced white American cheese

Frozen pancakes

Frozen breaded chicken tenders

What's available varies every time, as does the amount any one person gets. We had no idea what was loaded in our van until we got home because they have a very fast method of loading to get everyone done quickly, since some of the food is frozen.

We were home again by 7:30, so we certainly had a jump on the day. I went out and did some cleanup out by the garage. I love my man, but his messiness drives me crazy. I do not understand why he drops so many things on the ground and just leaves them there. Tools, trash, hardware, you name it. I can fuss, plead, scream, ask sweetly, but nothing changes his behavior. It seems to be getting worse as he gets older, too, I suppose because he doesn't like to bend down.  Probably my obsession with putting things back where they belong drives him crazy too. Opposites, much? 

The reason I was out there in his domain was because I needed my garden row cover supports, which basically look like large croquet wickets. Well, they have gone missing, and I suspect Larry gave them to our metal-scrap-collecting friend Ernie. I know where they were (reference my obsession above) but they are nowhere to be found. We did find 3, but not where I put them. Grrrr....so now I have to buy more. It was pretty quiet around here for a while after I gave up looking for them!

But all is well. We bumble along in our uneven way, but in the end I still love the man, and he seems to tolerate me pretty well. And both of us are too old to change our spots. 

Anyway, I did manage to get my little garden row covered using those 3 supports, and then continued with yard cleanup. I uncovered my hellebores yesterday and cut off the big old leaves, and they are just about ready to bloom.

I also cleaned up one flowerbed by the porch and was delighted to find a crocus and a snowdrop in bloom. 

I believe this is the only snowdrop bulb to survive from all the ones I planted last summer. I also found these tiny crocuses trying to bloom in a place i had forgotten I'd planted them. I'm afraid they are getting dog-trampled. Brave little things.

It feels so good to work outside again. My knee is holding up well although still not bending properly and often painful, especially at night. But I could dig and hoe and such, which made me very happy. And I see slow, incremental improvement. So at least I know I can garden as usual. Yay!

I spent the rest of the afternoon pricing things for our booths. We will be back to them tomorrow. We only took in a couple big things the other day; this trip will be mostly bringing in smalls.

Now my feet are up, i am enjoying some tea and looking forward to doing nothing the rest of the evening. We'll see how that goes.

Stay well, friends.

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