June 10, 2020

So, how's everyone enjoying their little pandemic? We opted out of participating in the pandemic--have worn no masks or gloves. Zero. Not once. Grocery stores, hardware stores, Lowe's, etc. And no one has said anything! This crap about no dine-in restaurants in VA for a while--no prob. We ain't that far from NC, which is what we did for our recent 40th anniversary. No mask to even walk in the door. We met with my aunt who helped us a great deal when we got married and two of my cousins who still live in the area. Forty years! That's a long time, still together and still diggin' life together.

Scaled back veggie gardening this year, as I've been working on new landscaping; putting in trees and starting a new orchard on the back property now that the one in the front property is about grown to maturity. So far I have 12 cherry trees planted, 2 elderberry bushes, a pomegranate (another one from out front will be transplanted in the new orchard this fall), 4-5 blueberry bushes, and will continue adding cherry trees from the volunteer "suckers" from the mature trees. These are tart cherries that are great for pies, cordials (I make GOOD cherry cordial!), etc--tart cherries have antiviral properties that are as good as, if not better than, elderberries. I made a lot of tart cherry syrup this past winter and we have not had a cold, flu, 'rona--nothing. The syrup is made just like elderberry syrup but is a lot less expensive since we have our own cherry trees (and soon, our own elderberries) and I have about 40 pounds of cherries in the deep freezer. It has raw honey (MUST be raw), cinnamon stick, whole cloves, anise seed (not to be confused with star anise but could be used interchangeably), and whole ginger--using the powdered spices, you don't get the antiviral properties of the whole spice. I've been asked to make it for sale but I can't do that--I'd need to know a medical history and what prescriptions people are taking, so I tell them how to do it and stress highly that people do their own research--elderberry is not for everyone and could interact negatively with some medications.

Planted several Star Magnolias on either side of the front of the house, and 3 new Formosa azaleas--the oleanders were pretty but looked like crap after being hit with ice storms a time too many. The house has been repainted a darker grey and looks very nice. Out back I put in Confederate jasmine, more hostas, a rosebush, and new raised flower garden with tons of flower varieties, and, of course, lots of sunflowers. Next year (or maybe this fall), lilacs and gardenias.

As for veggies, we now have terrific sources for organic fruits/veggies at a couple of farmer's markets so I buy from them and can, freeze, etc. I just have 10 tomato plants (down from a high of 80!), 4 bell peppers, and 8 hot peppers. That way I can concentrate on the new landscaping and such. My new herb bed has parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme, chives, oregano, marjoram, etc. I love using the dried herbs all winter.

I bought a reel mower (made in the USA!!!) and I love love love it! I can quickly cut grass around my various pocket gardens (I have 6 pocket gardens right now, each a little different) without the noise and stink of the push mower or riding mower. I wish I'd bought one sooner! Each pocket garden has a birdbath, and/or bee bath with lots of tempting plants for bees birdies and butterflies. Look up pocket gardens on Instagram; some are fancy, more fancy than mine. But they are just small gardens scattered here and there around the property. Once the plants start blooming and I get the gardens the way I envision them, I'll post pix. I don't do Instagram much anymore; once they messed with the algorithms and you see posts from days ago, it wasn't as much fun anymore as photos posted in real time.

All of that keeps me hopping, and tending the several birdbaths and bee baths around the front and back property. It's so cool watching the bees use the bee bath to drink! The dragonflies, too. So cool to watch. I make sure to keep all of the water baths clean. I planted tons of thyme because bees love the flowers. I hope if there's a beekeeper around that they are enjoying honey from the bees collecting pollen at my herb gardens!

That's 'bout it, just livin' life. Refuse to get caught up in pandemic pandemonium. I just laugh at all those videos being passed around about washing your groceries and sterilizing anything in the house that the groceries touched. Other than normal cleaning, we ain't sterilized shit. People need to look up what living in sterile environments does to your immune system. And what the science is about masks...I'll post some links later, gotta go hang the laundry--yep, I still use my "solar clothes dryer" and laugh at the nitwits who say we gotta be taxed more to "fight" climate change while not doing shit about it!

Ciao for niao...but here's one link:

From the New England Journal of Medicine...

"We know that wearing a mask outside health care facilities offers little, if any, protection from infection. Public health authorities define a significant exposure to Covid-19 as face-to-face contact within 6 feet with a patient with symptomatic Covid-19 that is sustained for at least a few minutes (and some say more than 10 minutes or even 30 minutes). The chance of catching Covid-19 from a passing interaction in a public space is therefore minimal. In many cases, the desire for widespread masking is a reflexive reaction to anxiety over the pandemic."

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