Tiny Steps Back Into the World, Tiny in Everyday Ramblings

Watching last season’s Gardeners’ World, I discovered that there are an amazing variety of daffodils. And in between rain squalls it is fun to go out and find different ones. This is peak season here for them. They are a challenge to take decent pictures of because of the way they throw off light and glare and often have bowed heads, but I enjoy the challenge. Or at least am learning to.

It is a new way of seeing. There was a piece on one of last season’s early shows that both Mrs. Sherlock and I watched about a snowdrop collector. I had absolutely no idea there were so many varieties. She said she went out afterwards for a walk with some hiking partners and there was a hill in her neighborhood planted with daffodils, tulips, hyacinth and snowdrops and for the first time ever after years of gardening she was looking at the granular detail, of how many petals, where the green was, if there was any color other than white, etc.

When we started birding all those years ago that is what happened too, the physical world bursts into points of brilliant color, adaptation and interest.

Happy Spring to those of us in the Northern Hemisphere! And a lovely cool fall to those of you to the south.

In between vaccines here we are all in a bit of a holding pattern. Kes is getting her second shot today, Mr. Sherlock on Sunday, Charity and Mrs. Sherlock next Friday and me the Friday after.

Most Honorable will be starting phased retirement in the fall, which means he only has one more quarter to teach and perform all the other many onerous responsibilities of tenure. We are all very excited to have him, at least partially, join us in the giddy joy of retirement. Like me, he plans to continue to teach an occasional class but with no other responsibilities.

Next week I am going to get the first things in the ground in my plot. Kes is going to come up and drive me to a local store that has starts and the basics. I don’t need much. More will be revealed as I go along. I already have chard and carrot seeds and a lovely highly recommended book on organic vegetable gardening specific to this area.

There are only 4 people and two part time helpers that run the 57 community gardens here. The rest is done by the gardeners themselves, our ourselves, I can now say. This year there are 1,500 people on the waiting list, so I am lucky to have snagged an allotment.

I think I might try some things out on the patio as well. I gave up too easily when the power washer destroyed my cherry tomatoes about 6 years ago. The tomato cage has been useful for the birds though. They use it as a resting spot when visiting the bird bath. And the squirrels and (one hearty resourceful mouse) use it as a ladder to get up the patio well wall. I think I might put herbs out there. Mint (in a pot) and basil. There is plenty of rosemary in the neighborhood. It grows well here and goes well with the iris just beginning to come on.

Mrs. Sherlock suggested nasturtiums. With the climate warming they are doing better here, and I love them.

I was happy to hear that the vaccines are helping 30 to 40% of the people with “long Covid”, or now officially, post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection. That has got to be hard, to have all those crap symptoms for so long without any treatment or really understanding except for a few forward thinking open-minded doctors. Those with Chronic Fatigue know the drill.

A few weeks back I was listening to this skeptical doctor going on about why on earth are we giving folks who have already had the disease the vaccine. Now we know.

Kes is still waiting for her test results. They are looking for genetic mutations in her blood cells.

A lot of people have started to post on the neighborhood boards about dogs with separation anxiety. With all the adoptions and folks mostly at home this was bound to happen as people move gingerly back into the world. What I didn’t expect was how it would affect Diego.

If I go away for a few hours he wants to be on me, in almost a clingy way when I get home, and would prefer it if he could be on me most of the time. Everybody I Zoom with knows about this. On Wednesday I put him in the bedroom while I was teaching, and he whined and scratched the whole time. I opened the door to let him out before I closed out the class and he made a bee line for me in the chair and hopped into my lap. He is standing right next to the laptop as I type this.

We have a little bit of gentle work to do here.

Last updated March 21, 2021