karmicdragonfly: (Default)
karmicdragonfly ([personal profile] karmicdragonfly) wrote2020-05-12 10:33 am

Staying at Home Update

I'm still doing fine "staying at home." Well, mostly. I have had a couple of social times with small groups of friends, and even though we "said" we were social distancing, in reality we were closer than 6 feet. But electronic communication is just not very satisfying. And don't even get me started about the lack of physical touching - whew!


The family has not been meeting at all though -- not for birthdays nor holidays like Mothers Day. I'm not sure when my parents will feel comfortable for face to face encounters -- maybe after restaurants are open for dining in again? But I don't plan to dine in at a restaurant any time soon -- even after they are open, I intend to wait and see how the virus count increases to determine the risk level.

Book club will be having our first Zoom meeting this week.

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More flowers in the yard have been blooming. The peonies have mostly come and gone now.


And even though I no longer spray roses for black spot (a near necessity for hybrids sadly), a few have been able to stay alive.




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After making banana bread, I remembered why I don't normally make it. It is so sweet! I suppose there are less sweet recipes, but overall the bread is always sweet, like cake. I froze 1/2 of it so that I didn't eat it all -- but later found that even when frozen, it still cuts just fine. So I have raided the freezer a few times!


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Being in quarantine and off work has been a lot like retirement for me, so I find myself being concerned not to waste anything. And that's a really good mindset to have!

I had a candle that was burning a small tunnel down the center of the candle. When I bought it, I did not know the rule to burn a candle the first time for one hour for each inch of diameter. So I should have burned this candle about 3 - 4 hours the first time. To fix it, I cut it off, and dug the opening in the center wider to try to force the candle to burn properly. Here it is after I dug the center wider.


Lopping off the top of the candle meant I had A LOT of wax left over which I did not want to waste. So I melted it, poured into a jam jar, and made a new candle! It seems to burn just fine!




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I've been out to the parks a few times for exercise.
Spring at Maymont

Tree-Ear (Auricularia auricula) - I think edible?

First Orchard Orbweaver of the year!

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