Ryshia Kennie ...The adventure begins today!: Social Distancing

Sunday, April 19, 2020

Social Distancing - Day 34

The days are falling into a routine. I can't believe it's Day 34 since I've been social distancing. As I've said before, that's a date that is my best approximation, the week when my MIL began lock-down in her care home. Since then, I do my best to keep her included, entertaining her with my daily phone calls. Today, I crafted an entertaining letter and together with a magazine I found in my "clean out the closets mode", dropped it in her mailbox.

For me, today was one of those days. I was getting antsy and I'd already baby stepped into gardening earlier in the week. Today, I hit it full force. But problems arose immediately and had earlier in the week too:

1) I need dirt! - no problem, there's a yard full of it. Earlier in the week I hauled in a plant pot full. Problem solved.

2) No containers! - I was going to improvise and lucked out. After cleaning the porch a week ago, I found a package from years past.

3) No seeds - Ah - cherry tomatoes that are past their best before date have seeds. And, one week later, voila, a group of spindly seedlings.
And, again that stash from years past provides an assorted but small selection of seeds.

A potato sprouting eyes, is next on the list for planting. It sits waiting on the counter.

But now I have other problems. Plants in little pots with big holes on the bottom. A watering disaster waiting to happen for the cardboard coke box that contains them won't hold water. But there was a big piece of tinfoil that came with my mom's Christmas cookies, add a piece of broken plastic and it's water tight. Okay, let's just go with it could well be The Titanic if pushed too far.

4) The Spanish Onion is sprouting and too big for any of my containers. I'm taking a risk here but my mini greenhouse - sheets of plastic with hoops - allows me to go direct to garden. One onion, one experiment. Fingers crossed it survives the weather which can still dip to below zero. If it survives that, I'm pretty sure the squirrels will leave it alone.

5) Speaking of squirrels, I see some biscuits are no longer fresh. Time to air dry and give my "yard pets" a treat.

On the writing front, I wrote my characters into trouble and back again. Like my gardening, they improvised as they danced one step ahead of danger. They left me exhausted and finally I ventured upstairs where a warm spring day was calling to me.

Outside, I'm guessing that, from the smell of wood smoke,
more than just me was taking advantage of the warm weather. The delicious smell of barbecue came from two different directions.

Spring has arrived and it might be different but it's still a relief after a long prairie winter.

Take care, keep safe!

Ryshia

www.ryshiakennie.com

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