Is there a bright spot in staying home? I think so...

I'm NOT venturing out for anything now unless e are completely out of it.   Hubby just placed an order with one of our high-end grocery stores for delivery, so we will see how long it takes.   I made 2 loaves of a chocolate zucchini bread and now we only have 1 egg left, so eggs were on our list.   Meat, too, since we only have 4 bags of 1/2 pound of hamburger each.   Hubby made a delightful spaghetti last night using 1 bag and we do have plenty of pasta and sauce here at home, since I stocked up on it.   And, we have onions and garlic, so VOILA!

Is there a bright side of staying home?   Well, yesterday I emptied out 2 clothes hampers that I hadn't touched in over a year.   I found the bront plastic thing for our vacuum (HOORAY!) and I've now done about 8 loads of hubby's t-shirts.   He must have about 100 t shirts, all colors.   I'm going to strangle him if I ever have to wash that many again.   So, that job is DONE!   I'm also cleaning out the bedroom, since that seems to be where everything is dropped.

And, I'm baking and cooking again!   I dug out my 2 Amish cooking cookbooks and I'm going through them.   I have plenty of baking soda, baking powder, sugar, and flour.   I'm just short on eggs.   We have enough dog food left in our COSTCO bag for maybe another 2-3 weeks.  Bodie doesn't eat much dry food and we aren't over feeding him.   The cats have food and the birds do, too, for now...At some point I AM going to have to go out and buy bird seed and cat and dog food, but that might be a couple weeks away.

So, I'm enjoying my garden.   I watered a spot out front where I planted sunflower and hollyhock seeds and LO AND BEHOLD!   My African daisies that I tossed out there are sprouting! 

Until next time,
XOXOXOXOXO
Stay healthy!
~Cheryl~
Some photos of Bodie helping me with my gardening:

I FINALLY got a phot of the woodpecker

Actually, I got about 95 photos of him yesterday, but I digress...

I've been hearing the woodpecker in our neighborhood the last few days.   2 days ago he was up in one of the palm trees in our neighbor's yard.  I heard him, but couldn't see hi.   Then yesterday he was teasing me by being out in our front yard!   Little BUGGER!!!

So, I was astonished when I looked up from my laptop to see him at one of the orange slices right outside my window!   Fortunately I had my camera right next to me in preparation of taking out the memory card and uploading my photos of the back garden.   So, I snapped away.   He usually flies off, so he must have been very hungry!   Sorry for these being so dark, but I was using my Nikon with my telephoto lens and I've lightened them as much as I can.

Yup!   There he is with his red head!

Had a nice visitor yesterday!

Even though our daughter and her family live only 11 miles away, we are social distancing.   However, yesterday she stopped by with 2 bags of bird seed from COSTCO.   So, we all sat outside (6' away) on our plastic chairs and visited for... 3 hours!   YES!    Hubby broke one of the red plastic chairs when he sat on it, so that is one less that we now have...sigh...   She enjoyed sitting on the porch, watching the birds, listening to them, and being visited several times by hummingbirds!   I guess they didn't like us on THEIR PORCH!

I went out back that morning and pulled more grass and weeds.   I still have a couple of sunflower spots to weed and then the back yard will look presentable!   I can hardly keep up with all the grass and weeds after our series of rainy days!

I'm going to try to finish the side porch this morning and then tackle the front porch this afternoon (or maybe switch them...)   They both need a tidying up and thorough cleaning.

It seems we have been adopted by a new feral cat.  This one is young, all black, and wary of the dog.   I saw him run into our garage a few days ago.

STAY SAFE AND STAY AT HOME!
XOXOXOXO
Cheryl

Spring is in the air (literally!!!)

I went out earlier than usual this morning.   I've been waking up at 1 a.m., staying awake for a couple hours, and then going back to sleep until about 7:30 a.m.   ...sigh...But this morning I awoke at 6.   So, out I went as soon as it was light and fed the birds.   Off to the east, I hard a flock of geese calling.   Then, after I returned to my office, I SAW one of the grosbeaks which I have been hearing the past few mornings!    Finally, i saw 2 ducks flying north as I went in the back yard to feed the birds there.

So, yes, I guess Spring is really IN THE AIR!   :-)

I did my weekly shopping yesterday and was able to ask the butcher if he had any chuck roast.   He said he had some in the back and how many would I like!   2, please!    So last night we had Amish style pot roast.   You should have heard hubby!   We both have German ancestors and my maternal grandmother was Scots/Irish and German/Swiss and her female line was Quaker.   Her Swiss steak was so tender you could cut it with a fork!   So, after we finished, hubby asked, "Are you going to make another one tomorrow?"   So, I guess I have my orders for the day!

I cropped this photo of a bee out back on one of my sunflowers:   Little guys are ALL OVER my sunflowers and lavender!

Canon and Nikon flower photos

So, yesterday I took out both my Canon AND my Nikon cameras.   My Canon has a standard lens on it, since I use it to shoot photos of my journals.   My Nikon, my old Nikon D40, has a telephoto lens up to 300x.

Which do you like better?

CANON PHOTOS:

Nikon photos:

I had a HELPER yesterday!

Yesterday when I went out, Bodie "helped" me.  ...   (NOT!)

Flower report for Friday and Saturday

I'm trying to go out twice a day now with my camera and document what's happening in my yard.   I go out in the mornings now and in the afternoons.   It gives me a break from being inside AND I get some Vitamin D!!!!

Here are some of the photos I took 2 days ago:

The new reality

So, hubby and I normally don't go out much.   I cannot even remember the last time we went to a restaurant.   We both cook, so that isn't an issue with us.   And, we don't go to bars period.  So, this new stay-at-home order frankly is fine with us.

I did order $20 worth of seeds yesterday, so if I'm still alive by July, we should have beans and squash.  I have a nice, tall area of 2 chain link fences for the beans and a nice, sunny, flat spot for the squash.   Oh, and I ordered some bee balm to attract bees and I think I'll also plant some sunflower seeds (from the bird seed) to entice more.   Speaking of bird seed, I only have 1 1/2 bags left.   I'm not sure what to do about that.   I did see that COSTCO now has "seniors only" hours every Tuesday and Thursday and our local farmers' market is coming back to town every Wednesday.   Sooner or later I'm going to have to buy dog food and bird seed...sigh...

In the meantime, I cooked up a batch of beef stew and another batch of cabbage soup.   Both were delicious and ... HOT!   It was good to have some meat, too.   I bought 2 pounds of ground beef the other day at Whole Foods and hubby packaged them into 1/4 pound bags and put them in the freezer.   I am going to pull out one today so we can have pasta and sauce for dinner tonight.   FORTUNATELY we have 4 jars of sauce and we only use 1/2 jar at a time, so we have plenty of that.

I'm ONLY going to the store if we desperately need something.   I figure that with 40 people at Whole Foods at one time, over 20 of them have the virus.   I'm not liking those odds.   Our governor estimates 58% of Californians have or will have the virus.   So, I'm ONLY going shopping if I absolutely am out of something and we have enough TP to last another 2 weeks.   I had just bought a pack at COSTCO before the panic hit, so we are fortunate about that.  I have 1/2 bag of dog food and Bodie doesn't eat much of the dry stuff anyway.   So, that SHOULD last us about another 2 weeks or longer.   He gets eggs every morning with Papa (eggs are still available here and I just bought 2 dozen), and he gets a quesadilla for lunch.   Dinner is dry food with liquid over it.   Plus whatever cat food he can vacuum up from the floor!

I'm really enjoying going outside for at least 20 minutes every day.   I pull weeds,   Yesterday I scrubbed out the fountain.   Today I want to grab the weeder and get rid of weeds in the front yard.

Hubby noticed THE FIRST BIRD in the new bird bath that he ordered and put right outside his window and he was THRILLED!   Such simple pleasures...

We are both well (so far) and symptom free.   I do, however, gargle every morning now...just in case...

STAY INSIDE and STAY WELL.
XOXOXOXO
Cheryl ~~some photos from yesterday in the back garden.   I also go out every afternoon now and take photos

Going to be doing some old fashioned cooking today!

I ran out to our local Whole Foods yesterday and scored some MEAT!   After eating nothing but sliced ham and hot dogs since last week, we were desperate.   They had ground beef, stew meat, and steaks.   I bought one steak to split with hubby and I bought 8 baking potatoes.   Today I'm going to make beef stew with WHATEVER I have on hand.   I don't have carrots or celery, but I'm not going out today.   I guess I'll have to cal it "2020 stew"?

Our local mountains got TONS of snow last night.   Some is even down to 4,000 feet!  That's unusual for this time of year...not impossible, but very late, especially after the first day of Spring!

I posted some photos of my flowers on my Facebook page yesterday (https://www.facebook.com/quad.dean.5), and here they are:

 One of my daisies on the shrub

 Don't know what this is

 snapdragons

 different colors of snapdragons

 My first California poppy.   It is sleeping this morning!

 Yesterday's clouds.   YES!   We had RAIN...real rain!

Droopy sunflower

And, today...we have RAIN!

So, I went out front yesterday and snapped some pics of my flowers.  Birds are busy feeding at my remaining feeders.   Due to my inability to get to COSTCO, I have taken down about half of them, but the ones right outside my window are still full. 

I started cleaning off our side porch yesterday and today...it is RAINING! Wouldn't you know?   So, that chore will have to wait until maybe tomorrow.

I DID see a cottontail in our front yard yesterday afternoon.   Unfortunately I moved a paper in my office which spooked him/her and they disappeared.   Today I have plenty of doves, sparrows, and finches at the feeders.

Back to watching the news.

STAY WELL!
XOXOXOXO
Cheryl

Hunkering down

So, we here in California, over the age of 65 have been told to STAY INSIDE at our homes and self-quarantine.   Good thing I went out last week and stocked up on what I could find.   We SHOULD be okay for about 7-10 days.   Our daughter went to WINCO last night and bought a few items.   We do have stuff in our freezer.   We are hoping that the initial PANIC will subside.   However, the only meat we have is 4 slices of ham and 8 hot dogs, so I'm going to get creative with rice and beans!   :-)   This will give me a chance to learn how to cook beans... FINALLY!!!!!

We are doing okay, so far.   I had a headache yesterday, but I took some elderberry syrup and had 2 naps and I have a little bit today, but NOT like yesterday.   I've been catching up on the laundry.   I vacuumed the bedroom and washed all the linens.   Getting Bodie OFF the bed was a real chore!

I'm going to take this opportunity to do some of the things I've been putting off:   (1) inventory the pantry; (2) clean up my craft room (THIS will probably take a week!); (3) tend to my garden and pull out the weeds; (4) catch up on movies I've missed  (I watched "A Good Year" twice this weekend!); (5) work on some watercolors; (6) FINALLY learn how to use my camera on manual settings!

How about you?  How are you?   What are you doing?

Oh, and I've made some homemade sprays with alcohol and essential oils which I took with me while shopping.   One lady offered me $20 for my little spray, but I told her, "no"...The daughter is doing shopping for us.

ALL the grandkids are now off school here for 5 weeks.  Personally I think it WILL be for the rest of the school year.   Our daughter isn't even sending the 3 year old to daycare.   Oh, boy!   He IS a handful, but she now has a daily schedule of activities for them.   I found these activities for them to do at home:

XOXOXOXO
Cheryl

We're still here, but staying at home!!!!!

Hubby and I are still here, but we are staying home.   I'm going to start cleaning my craft room and, well, he's watching TV.   (typical, eh?)

I have a TON of weeds to pull and I need to dig out the weeder and start on the back yard after it dries out from Thursday's rain.   We got over 1.58" in one day!!!!!   Everything is still WET!

We lost our little male feral cat to SOMETHING.   I found him curled up on his little bed in the garage, deceased.   I will miss my little guy.

Grandkids' schools are all now closed for 3 weeks.   That means everything from the university level through preschool.   Our daughter isn't even sending the nearly 4 year old grandson to day care.   TOO RISKY.

So, I will stay at home, clean my neglected house, pull weeds, and do some crafting.

Stay healthy, stay at home, and wash your hands!
XOXOXOXO
Cheryl