Front Porch Flowers 2024

 We ate lunch sitting on the front porch today. It is warm with a light breeze. It is the first time to eat there since last fall. 

I bought a pot of geraniums and a hanging pot of wax begonias this year. 

We are on the roller coaster spring weather of northern Indiana. Tomorrow might only be a high of 60. Today 80. Yesterday the area to the north of us, including Michigan, had tornados, high winds, hail. But there should be more porch sitting days coming.

Purple Passion

It was a scorcher today, up around 90 degrees. We've run the air conditioner since yesterday afternoon. The heat makes the irises open up. 

I am becoming sensitive to the watering needs of my new potted plant. Every day in this hot weather.

This morning we ate breakfast in a restaurant. They did a good job spreading customers out, and the waitresses wore masks. I had some discomfort taking my mask off, however. The waitress came to refill coffee and clear dirty plates while I had the mask off. I have a slight cough from my allergies; I coughed into my napkin and made sure not to cough when she was near. Nobody seemed to pay any attention to me when I coughed. Not a lot of awareness of what was going on around them by the customers. I ask myself would I be observant of somebody displaying possible virus symptoms? Probably not.

What's New With You?

We do cautiously go out with masks on. Yesterday I went to Menard's to buy some flowers. I was a little irked that the gardening center door was "locked" and a sign said I had to use the main entrance. Once inside, I realized why. There was a huge sign saying all customers had to wear a mask and an employee monitoring the customers entering. I only saw one man turn around and leave because he had no mask. In the store I saw a person who had taken her sweater off and put it around her neck with the sleeves tied across her mouth and nose. I wish more stores required masks. This morning my husband went to his barber. The shop only reopened on the 11th. The barber wore a mask as did my husband. But the man leaving when my husband arrived and the man who came after had no masks. Today in the local newspaper the Warsaw mayor was lamenting that not more people were wearing masks. It is disconcerting. Unless it is a N45 mask, the mask protects people around the mask wearer, not the person wearing the mask. Where is the reciprocity? 

People in our community are sewing masks and taking them to a central donation site, the fire department on Center Street. We have a mask sewn by a lady in our church, but we hoped we might have a second one so we don't have to launder the masks so often. We had checked the fire department twice, but the outside sign said no masks today. Yesterday on my way to Menards I stopped at the fire department. They did have about 10 masks. These weren't exactly what I wanted since the ear loops are easier to use than the over-the-head kind, but in these times one has to be flexible. None of the fabric was masculine, but I told my husband he could use the "lining" side of the "fish" mask instead.

We are actively looking for things to do outside our home that we consider low-risk. Yesterday morning we went to a huge antique store in North Webster wearing our masks. The two clerks had no masks, however. We were the only two customers in the store. We didn't buy anything, but it was nice to browse. Afterward, we drove north of the town to a large nursery/greenhouse establishment. We were asked to wear masks but nobody enforced it. I bought a basket of ruffled impatiens, something I had not seen before.

The plants at this nursery are kind of expensive. That's why I went to Menards in the afternoon to look there.

I was thinking a geranium would be nice, but I ended up buying this combination which was half the price of the impatiens I bought in the morning. Obviously petunias. I think the pink flowers are verbena. Don't know what the little purple flowers are. I will probably kill it within 2 months; I don't have a green thumb.
Our fothergilla bush is finally blooming. We will have warm weather by the end of next week. The colorful plants will make sitting on the porch pleasant.

I went to Meijer Tuesday morning. Between 7 to 8 a.m. is the senior shopping time, but it is too early for me. I arrived at 8:30. I was glad to see most of the customers wearing masks. One benefit of the virus is that I am looking at food products/brands that I had ignored before. Last night we had grilled shrimp.

There were 6 skewers in the bag. The frozen shrimp were sort of little but so tasty when grilled with a sprinkling of St. Elmo's seasoning. 

I bought a new top from Land's End last week. Actually I bought two tops, but one was too long and looked strange. I had to pay to return it. I am trying to order online more because I don't think department stores are going to survive much longer. Right now, online stores have some good sales.

One of my projects has been going through my closet getting rid of older items that are worn out. I needed a long-sleeved top after getting rid of two. 

Today we signed up for the New York Times crossword puzzles. We subscribe digitally to the newspaper, but the crossword is an extra charge. One of our routines was for my husband to photocopy the Sunday puzzle at the public library for us to work on together Sunday evenings. We did the last one several weeks ago. Our library is closed to the public though they just started curb-side pickup of items this week. Now we will access and print the crossword puzzle online. It is worth the $20 annual fee to restore a routine and some normalcy to our lives. 

A new habit is eating peanuts. At $2.99 for a large bag, they are a cheap snack and relatively healthy. It uses up time to shell the nuts. Yesterday I sat on the front porch eating them; I could be messy since I just had to sweep up anything that flew out of the container.

So we are busy trying to make a new life for ourselves. This new life has some strange aspects, but it helps to make some effort to shape it into our preferences. What new things are you trying?

Pretties

I just watered my porch plants. The geranium is getting quite a few new buds after the falling disaster. The petunias are still putting out blooms, too. The roses and Stella de Oro lilies are almost finished blooming so it is nice to have the potted flowers to give some color.

At the monthly birthday/anniversary party at Grace Village, I picked up this beautiful rose given to us in celebration of our anniversary. They often have interesting choices for the roses. If I hadn't selected this one, I probably would have taken one of the ash mauve ones. The birthday honorees get carnations.

The chest of drawers I ordered over 3 months ago from an Amish furniture store in Nappanee is finally done! They delivered it yesterday. It is bigger than I remember; that gives me more space than I anticipated. The footprint is smaller than the bureau with mirror it replaced. Thinking ahead to one day maybe moving to an apartment or Assisted Living apartment. This is called a Cornwall chest re the invoice. Next will be the replacement of the queen-sized bed with a twin, but that won't be for several years.