Ah, A Sunny Day in Everyday Ramblings

This is the female cone of the Deodar (or Western Himalayan Cedar). It can take them 3 years to mature and let go of the tree. In the Fall, the male cones will appear. They look completely different, are tapered and are covered in yellow pollen. When they let go, they pollenate the seeds from the female that have been uncovered by the unraveling of the wooden like “petals” of the cone above as they warm. I took this picture a couple of days ago after I fished the cone out of the neighbor’s ivy that escaped the landscape crew’s careful cleanup. It is starting to open up now.

I hiked back up to the tree on my own midweek to confirm that it was in fact what Kes and Most Honorable identified in a Zoom call last week. They have one in their neighborhood as well. These cones are magical. Sticky with sap, but magical.

The tree had already caught my attention because it is huge, next to a very well-maintained mansion and is on a small hill with some of the root structure visible in the supporting rock wall beneath. But who knew?

I shared with Charity and Mrs. Sherlock separately what I learned about the tree this week in the midst of the quest for my first vaccine shot. This activity consumed my whole week pretty much.

If you are skeptical of the vaccine, I understand but I am high risk and I do not want to get the virus. In the end, after a concentrated effort and much cheering on and advice I got the first of the Pfizer shots yesterday after standing in line for an hour and 15 minutes at our state fairgrounds almost an hour south of here.

Can I say thank you so much to our National Guard! And all those nurses. I thanked the tired looking young woman checking me in. She was working so hard. They had hit a milestone of 100,000 vaccines given while I was there.

After all that, even if I do get some uncomfortable side effects, the second shot will be a piece of cake.

Charity drove me down. She had driven me to the convention center on Wednesday so I could take her “extra” appointment. That was a no go, and I was practically in tears afterwards. Everyone was nice but it was like, you have to wait, it is random, you will get it eventually. It was crazy there, very intense but they were moving people through a lot faster than at the fairgrounds.

So now, my walking partners and I have all had our first doses. I get my second on the 2nd and Mrs. Sherlock is driving me down. I am so lucky and blessed to have people in my life that take helping others seriously. Charity parked next to a woman who was waiting for her husband to get his shot and they basically told each other their life stories while waiting. Shades of airport travel.

As, Charity told me, if you had the means you would do the same for me, and I would but instead I am going to make up a batch of the pecan toffee she liked so much during the holidays.

Last night I splurged and signed up for “Brit Box” via Amazon Prime so I can watch Gardener’s World. OMG, how come I have never heard of this before? I understand the new season starts next week. I watched the first episode of season 52 and am already hooked I can also watch “Vera” and “Shetland” as if I didn’t have enough to read and watch.

We were talking in my Teacher’s Class this week about how to get new students to participate in one’s online classes and I was talking about getting to know folks through affinity groups. And I mentioned the overwhelming interest and support I am getting with the community garden plot…and J. our fearless leader said, “Wait, are you saying take up a hobby to attract new students???”

In a way I guess I was.

This whole new world is opening up to me. What a gift.

Last updated March 14, 2021