The Walk

 This morning some friends and I participated in the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention walk.  This was the third one of these since a dear friend died by suicide.  The cause is good, the reasons behind it are not.  I am very appreciative to the people who donated.  After I had a nice visit with my friend, Amy.  Some other parts of the day that I am happy for include:

• Many people showed up for the walk and the pre-walk ceremony.  

I need to work on taking group selfies.

• Amy and I went for another walk in the afternoon to get our step count in.  Foliage is still spotty, but it is making an appearance.

• I noticed this pretty flower in a wild part of the yard.  ⬇⬇  Lens thunks it is white campion but I don't agree.  For one thing, it is a very light pink color.  I'm pretty sure I saw it last year as well.  Too bad I can't remember what I thought it was then!  

• I tried to thin more of one of the flower garden.  Earlier in the week I pulled out some of the lily-of-the-valleys.  I was hoping to pull some of the iris out, but they didn't want to come.  I got quite a lot more of the lily-of-the-valley pips to transplant.

Before I started today.

After, the bag has the lily-of-the -valley pips.

☮

Currently reading: The Backyard Homestead Seasonal Planner, by Ann Larkin Hansen.

Thank you for being part of my happy things. Stay safe.

More Stamping

 It has been a long day with Gideon not feeling well in the end.  He had a fever.  Keziah had a home Covid test and he tested negative.  Anxiety is high though.  Gideon and I had a nice walk with Aesop, the dog, this morning while he was still feeling alright.  Our second walk is when he started to not feel well.  Here are some happy things from today:

• It is hard to make out from the picture, but there is a layer of fog becoming cloud over the river.  It was very beautiful.

• Some of the wild sweet William is still blooming so the bees can do their collecting.

• More masks were stamped!  I think we totaled 450.  There are white and black ones for different types of check in.  I don't like to reveal what a site token will look like for security reasons, but part of it has the Baronial device.

Keziah carved all the stamps
(which has another name that isn't coming to me).

The ink is rolled on.

Then the stamp
with the ink is pressed onto the fabric.
This is a medieval craft that we used modern materials to do.

• Keziah and I got some pre-hurricane cleaning up of the yard done this afternoon.  Most likely, Henri will be a tropical storm by the time it reaches us, but winds could still be over 40 MPH and we had stuff that needed to come in.

☮

Currently reading: Backpacking: A Hedonist’s Guide, by Rick Greenspan and Hal Kahn.


Thank you for being part of my happy things. Stay safe.

Cemetery Day-Too Many Pictures

 Before Memorial Day every year we plant geraniums on family graves.  That day was today.  Not everyone could join us, but we got the geraniums planted, cleaned off the stones that needed it, and got a much needed visit with family we haven't seen in a while.  Hugs are a wonderful thing.  Other happy things for today:

• Since I knew I would be gone all day, I started by taking a walk around the property and getting the pictures from the wildlife camera.  Here are some of the plants I saw and what Lens thinks they are...

Common Cinquefoil, it is getting larger.

Possibly a blackberry.

This is coming up as either whorled loosestrife or
northern bush honeysuckle.
I'll try to look for this again as it grows.

Ostrich Fern.

Fern.

This is supposed to be Geranium dissectum.

Just trees.

The witch tree.

The rhododendron.

Iris are starting to open.

• I saw some deer tracks on the property.

At least I think it is from a deer.
It looked like it in real life.

• Some highlights from the day...

Fairly new monument at one of the cemeteries.

This is at my aunt's house.
The tree has grown SO much.

Keziah and the reflection on those sunglasses!

Well water for the flowers.

Up it comes!

Beaver lodge.

Goose family.

On the way home a storm was rolling in.

We had a rainbow after the storm passed.

• We went out for lunch and ice cream.  😃
• There is a tiller in the back of the van.  It may not work, but we will find out fairly soon.
• For that 'just in case' reason I brought my pruning shears with me to the cemeteries.  I don't think we have ever needed them and didn't today.  However, there were some people that were planting flowers on a loved ones grave near where we were and they did need them.  Being helpful is one of those things that makes me happy.

☮

Currently reading: The Backyard Homestead Seasonal Planner, by Ann Larkin Hansen.

Stay safe.  What things make you happy?

Happy May Day!

 Keziah and I took a ride to Maine today.  We had one task, to pick up an item to deliver to someone in Southern NH.  We have the item and will deliver it tomorrow.  It was a nice day to drive along country roads.  Tulips and daffodils are still mostly blooming as are magnolia trees and leaves are just beginning to open.  Color is returning.  Other things that I am happy for today:

• It has been two weeks since I received my second covid vaccine.  My understanding is that I can hug vaccinated people other than those in my family unit now.   
• After putting burlap on the part of the garden that I recently turned, removed weeds, and tried to prepare for seeds, I realized that I had something else to do before planting.  There used to be trees in the corner of the garden.

An autumn olive tree and maybe 
a black locust tree and
bittersweet.

I took them down.  All the cut branches are all over the place, but the tree will no longer be casting shadows over the garden.

The tangle of tree trunks will have to stay for now.
The fence and trees have grown together.
There are even wire tomato cages grown in there.

• I'm enjoying watching plants awaken after the long winter.

☮

Currently listening to: The Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey Chaucer.
    

Stay safe.

Plant Life

 It was Gideon's day to have friends over.  It was good to see him be able to have masked, outside interactions with other children.  We are all trying to work our way back into society and relearning how to be social.  I still seem to be okay with one on one things, but add other people -other than those in the household- and I start feeling overwhelmed.  Other than having these occasional small gatherings, I am not sure what else to do.  Other things I am happy for today:

• One of the children, a younger sibling of Gideon's friend, visited with me while I was repotting some of the geraniums.  They checked to see that the ruler I had was the same as one they had at home by counting the numbers to twelve.   They dug in the dirt to help plant things.  It was good.
• What I thought was a dead animal in the woods seems to instead be some kind of moss?  I found this one clump that was black and hairy looking.  Once Zed and I determined that it was most likely some kind of plant we started noticing similar bumps all over the place.  I'm glad we didn't find an animal.  My online searches eventually pulled up an older New Hampshire Garden Solutions blog which then led me to believing that this is a cushion moss.  I have very faint memories of this type of moss when I was a kid-but green, not black and seemingly decaying.

This one had some of the pale green
that makes it look more like moss.

• Some more of the cultivated flowers are starting to open.

• I saw bumblebees.

☮

Currently listening to: Too Like the Lightning, by Ada Palmer.

Stay safe.