Another glorious midsummer day, bright and breezy and a tad cool. We need rain; most of the forecast rains this summer have past us by and the landscape is thirsty. Fortunately, the heat has mostly stayed inland or the situation would be worse. As it is, even with frequent watering the veggie garden is struggling.
Here in southeastern Massachusetts our Covid numbers are down and there is a sense that it may be OK to relax a little. Over the recent holiday folks apparently relaxed a bit too much so our numbers ticked up a tad. Still, most people are trying to be reasonable and we are enjoying the lull, fully expecting the virus will make a return come autumn.
We have used the respite to catch up on things let laps during the stay at home. Thus we have visited our dentists and the ophthalmologist, and I’ve seen my physician. We go about these tasks rather gingerly, as do the providers we see. Still, after months of isolation even sitting in a relatively quiet waiting room seems s tad disconcerting.
Jennie has been going to the grocery every other week or so, and we have supplemented our diet with veggies from the farmers’ market and our local farm stand. If we go to the farm stand, the veggies are usually picked the day of sale.These fresh veggies are significantly fresher and more tasty than their grocery store equivalents, and we get the pleasure of paying the growers directly.
We have frozen snow peas from the garden as they all came in, as always, at once. An errand took me down into the basement earlier where I discovered the freezer seems to be running a little warm, and some frozen goods are a bit mushy. We defrosted the freezer a couple of weeks ago, and I am wondering whether we did not set the temperature low enough when we restarted it. I set it colder and will recheck it in a bit. Hopefully the problem will then be solved.
Our book group meets at our local market/cafe but has moved online for the past few months. Next week we are scheduled to meet outside, adequately social distanced if the weather allows. Ours is a good sized group and I am curious to discover whether we will be able to hear one another given how spread out we are likely to be, and masked. We seem to be on a roll of somewhat grim reads that end badly, and I am assured the present novel, while somewhat dark thus far, ends well. If so, I will be relieved and more than a bit grateful.
Well, somehow this day has gotten away from me. In an instant we have gone from morning to late afternoon. Perhaps I am witness the fabled age related time compression, or perhaps the day has proceeded in that uniquely distorted manner we have become so used to during the pandemic. In any event, the sun has moved to the left side of the house, the shadows in the trees have elongated, and the afternoon sea breeze has picked up just a smidgen. Time for me to move along as well.
Dreaming the World 
If you want rain, buy new hoses. Worked like a charm here for me in central Maine. Our hoses were old enough to vote, maybe even collect social security. (I kid you not.) During our June dry spell, I was hauling water by hand to the front gardens. Bought 150 feet of new hoses, and we haven’t had a dry spell since. 😉
Laurie,
We have been thinking about getting new hoses. Maybe we should try that. 1/2 inch or so this morning over about two hours!
Who knows? Maybe just thinking about it helped. 😉
I hope that you get the rain you need Michael and that you continue to stay safe. It will be interesting to see how many of our old activities can begin again in the ‘new normal’.
Andrea, I am at a loss as to how to stay safe in the current craziness. That said, thank you and we are doing our very best. You be safe too. And yes, we are looking forward to a new normal that saves much of what we love to do.