May...you weather the storm

As we enter another month of COVID lockdown, countries and cities around the world are beginning to ponder relaxing the rules on social distancing, in an effort to balance the continued health risk against the urgent need for economic recovery.

Here on our quiet rural property, life goes on, without the usual hustle and bustle of art shows that normally permeate the Spring....but leaving more time for homebound endeavors and emerging yardwork and maintenance.

We've been only doing one grocery run a month, thanks in part to a well-stocked freezer, and otherwise we have pretty much stayed home. We also did one large beer run to a nearby brewery in a small village - we called ahead with order and payment, and backed in and watched as they loaded the car. Sure, we got four cases....but we figured better to go once and get a lot, than to make multiple trips.

Lots of puzzles, Jane has been baking and taking grammar lessons, and I have been doing more reading, dusting off the mandolin and brushing up on my French. Jane has also focused more on getting her studio up and running, now that she is well on the mend from knee surgery.

Here's hoping the return to a "new normal" is just around the corner!

Penny guards the tomato seedlings

Stashing the vehicles during a hail and tornado warning

Contactless beer run to Bayside Brewing!

Hobbit Puzzle!

Once-a-month grocery runs require The Van!

Some things are still normal....like Spring Daffodils!

Dubrovnik Puzzle

Piazza in Pisa!

The seedlings continue to progress

Finished taking down to mulberry in the front hedge

Partway through the first cut of the year

Cherry blossoms!

Perhaps this is the year for dandelion wine?

Puzzling Prague!

Regrowing some lettuce

Backroad Bounty

So we're watching TV during COVID lockdown on some random channel with some Saturday afternoon shows about antiques and home renovation and the like....and suddenly my mother is on the television!

We knew she had been on a show called Backroad Bounty, where two guys come to your house in a van and try to haggle with you for things. The show is from a few years back, before my mother moved, and she had a fair collection of antiques and nostalgia for them to paw through in the house and around the yard.

Of course, they generally don't want to pay the full value of things, since they still have to make a profit too, selling it later at their store. Often time they rely on people not knowing the value of what they have, or people that are just tired or desperate (moving, etc.) and just want it gone.

Well that is not my mother. It was entertaining to watch all the same, especially out of the blue. The boys were unable to pry anything away from her, at least not for the prices they were offering.

The last line of the episode as they drive away in their empty van...."Well, she was a good talker, that's for sure!"

Bam Bam and Marty arrive to have a look around

Checking out the basement....

....and the back yard

"She was a good talker, that's for sure"