Random 5 for May 24 – Anniversaries, tomatoes, familiarity, less restrictions, pizza!

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Here is the offending groundhog checking out a pile of dirt for any possible edible.

Happy anniversary to my brother and his wife. Yesterday was 62 years of mostly bliss!

Look away one minute – Since early March I have been raising a few tomato plants. I prefer to raise my own because the varieties I like aren’t always available. Just as I was ready to plant, I had them sitting on a table on the patio adjusting to the outdoors. Within an hour a groundhog came and snapped one up for lunch. I didn’t grow extras this year.

Missing the familiar – During this time of “stay in place” orders, I’ve been trying to embrace the normal and routine when I can. It’s been hard to do. Changes happen all the time. This week we had a huge tree cut that we put in 17 years ago. It was beautiful and gave dappled sunlight but it became troublesome. It outgrew its space and towered over the house. We had to have it pruned every other year plus every wind storm brought down a ton of branches. I was surprised at how affected I was by cutting it down. I miss that old tree.

Going with the good news – Our area, despite being very hard hit, will be lifting some restrictions the first week in June. We will continue to be cautious and some of the more “touchy” businesses won’t be open yet. I’d love our mall to open for walking. You can do that safely. We’ll see what happens.

Good pizza! – That is something I’m missing. I need good pizza! Fresh and hot and luscious!

So how was your week?

 

63 thoughts on “Random 5 for May 24 – Anniversaries, tomatoes, familiarity, less restrictions, pizza!”

  1. We have moles, voles, martens, and hedgehogs to deal with, but luckily no groundhogs from the sounds of it. And, as you know, I also find it hard to lose a tree – more so than any other of our vegetation. I feel for you.

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  2. Hi Kate, The “mostly bliss” made me smile. I am likely going to crave pizza now. Should I thank you? I may have mentioned this to you last week, since it was our highlight of the month – last week we left the house together to take our truck for the first ride in over two months, pick up masks we had ordered that had arrived downtown, and stopped at a D.Q. on the way home. The best Blizzard ever! A major romantic date!

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  3. So sorry about your tree! It is rough losing lovely old trees, though sometimes it is necessary. Also sorry about the tomato plant, though the groundhog is cute 🙂 Maybe s/he will take care of dandelions and weeds for you?

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  4. Oh, I’m so sorry about your tree. Tree cutting down can be the saddest thing. It’s as though we pick up on the mourning of the other trees or the earth itself. Now the groundhog story is pretty funny. I’m sure you were not happy with the thievery, but LOL from over here!

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  5. We had our first conversation last night about how much we miss going out to restaurants. I guess making it to the end of May for that talk is pretty good. They’ve opened here with restrictions, but I’m not interested in that yet. I miss the gym too, but won’t go back when that opens either. Mall walking seems safer, especially in the mornings. I hope they open it for you. – Marty

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  7. Shame on the groundhog – nothing is sacred with them! We had bunnies in the yard and my mom liked bleeding hearts so I planted a couple close together to get a bushier plant. Three years in a row the bunnies ate them so I said no more. Tomato plants were his catch of the day it seems.

    Congratulations to your brother and sister-in-law on 62 years of marriage. That is great.

    Last week I came home from walking and heard a loud noise which I thought was inside the house – ran around “looking for trouble” – found nothing. Went to the front door later and saw a huge log in the middle of the street. It had no leaves or branches, just a log. My neighbor is still off work and I sent him a FB message – did the City drop that off a tree cutter’s truck? He said he was looking out the window and this massive thing dropped onto the street – good thing no one was walking or driving by. Eventually someone picked it up and put it on the lawn. But it belonged to the now-deceased neighbor’s tree. The original owners were family friends and the first ones to move onto this block in the 50s. They had four kids, one right after the next, and for each kid, they planted a tree. Three Maples out front and an apple tree out back. They cherished those trees and in 1988 the City dug up our street to put in new sewers and damaged the roots on every single tree on that side of the street had its roots destroyed … since then, one by one, they have had bark peeling off, sparse leaves and now falling pieces of tree. Yikes – I won’t go down that side of the street anymore, in the car or driving.

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  9. Happy anniversary to your brother and his wife.

    Do you have many groundhogs? Do they normally eat plants like that? I never see groundhogs around here. I wonder if we have any. I read a disgusting article yesterday about rats not finding their usual restaurant garbage and turning to all kinds of disgusting, dangerous alternative sources that I won’t mention here.

    We had several enormous Douglas firs cut down years ago. It was so sad, as though they were alive (they were) and crying. On the positive side, I was impressed with the skill of the loggers.

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    • There is probably of family of groundhogs nearby but I only see the one. I live about a quarter mile from a preserve so there are a lot of animals that roam. Rabbits haven’t been plentiful but I think that’s because we have foxes. They all just want to live.

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      • Yes. That’s the way of nature. They all want to live. We seem to have a family of coyotes living nearby. Today I was dive bombed by some crows protecting their nest. They zoomed just inches from my head. I think I’ll wait a few weeks before I walk on that path again.

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  10. We are just getting ready to plant our vegetable garden… late, I know but we decided to make our raised beds taller and add hardware cloth to the bottoms (no groundhogs here, but we do have gophers). We have a long growing season so I hope to have some good tomatoes and squash later on.

    Things are starting to open up Here but my husband and I won’t be out among the throngs. It appears that there is a lot of magical thinking that the virus has somehow disappeared while we were staying at home. Nope… it’s still out there strong as ever. No overpriced meal at a restaurant is worth a visit to the ICU. Stay safe, Kate.

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    • I feel like you do. I’d like to see some relaxing. Maybe more stores with curbside pick-up (our non-essential stores are not open). I had a doc apt this past week and was surprised that other than a temp check, people didn’t seem to be afraid to touch me. We all had masks on but sometimes I feel like a leper when I’m out. I would love a raised bed. Just a small one for lettuce and the low growers. Right now I’m only doing tomatoes. Maybe at the next house! 🙂

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  11. We’ve had some restrictions lifted with the outdoor dining approved. After going 70 days, I can eat at home except for some take out and not worry about who’s sitting next to me. We took a drive this afternoon. Yes, we were bored. 🙂 There were quite a few gatherings in yards that we saw and some had gotten creative in setting their chairs and the food. I wish them all well, but I’m thinking when we get two weeks from this weekend, the numbers are going to only go up. No travel plans for us unless we can get there and back in one day and pass some bathrooms that are open in the process. 🙂

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  13. Our Pizza shops have stayed open for delivery. We are hoping for a few more shops and out door activities to be open from the beginning of June as well but we have not had the announcement yet. I think we will have to wait until July for a haircut. Congratulations to your brother and his wife.

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    • Our pizza shops are open for delivery too but it hasn’t worked well. One time they were so busy and our pizza took a hit. Not much topping and the crust was hard like a cracker. Hopefully in June our fav will open (it’s in a mall setting) and we’ll pick one up there.

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  14. I want a tomato plant but a few weeks ago when I did my mad dash into the gardening part of our grocery there were none to be had. Haven’t ventured out since then. I wonder who will be walking at the mall? You may have the place to yourself– and wouldn’t that be great!

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    • That’s what I’m hoping. It’s a kind of dead mall to start with. I’m not sure how they keep in business. Most walkers are older than me so some for sure won’t come out for a while. Even at the busiest, it’s less than 10 when I go. Stores would be closed so at that time too.

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  15. I bought one tomato plant, one cucumber plant and some lettuce for my small garden square…..but left all the flowers there as they looked so awful and small this year due to the cold spring. Also I’m waiting for them to go on sale as I only end up killing them anyway. Our cold spring is over and now we’ve jumped right into hot humid summer-like days. This is the 3rd year in a row for that cold to hot scenario which bothers me as May/June is my favorite time of year. We are opening up here very slowly….but I’ll be happy when our local library starts curbside pickup on Jun 8. Stores can now be open if they have a street entrance and follow 6 pages of rules, but I was able to buy some rhubarb-strawberry jam at my friends shop, as I plan on making rhubarb scones next week. Oh, and I had some pretty blue hollyhock like flowers bloom in my garden, which I don’t remember planting and don’t know what they are which was a pleasant surprise. They were right beside my lily-of-the-valley which is due to bloom soon. These small delights are getting me through…..but some pizza would be nice too!

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    • I finally planted my window box last weekend. The flowers were very small but I put them in anyway. I won’t do more for another week or two. Partly because the garden centers are crowded and partly because I need to work the soil and figure out what I’m doing first.

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  17. Our town began sidewalk tables/chairs as well as opening up some alleys for that purpose as well. This is a SMALL town so perhaps easier to do than a larger town – they blocked off some street parking as well for tables. We’ve not taken a whirl with this….not sure I’m totally comfy with it. They have tables spaced wide apart and everyone is to wear masks – disposable menus, etc. but still…………….I’m waiting. New Normal so far is some months off. We did finally give up and cancel all our plans for our usual trip to Maine in late September – that was TOUGH to do though. Maybe next year……………..

    Hugs, Pam

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  18. Things are opening up around here . . . but I’m not planning to sit inside a restaurant any time soon. And I’m not inclined to sit outdoors at a restaurant when the temp is above 80. So we’ll still be eating at home.

    That said, take out pizza seems pretty safe, Kate. Especially if you reheat it up in your home oven.

    I planted one tomato plant this year. But I’m sure we planted it too late for Florida. Every day when I walk past it, I hear it saying, “Man, it’s H-O-T!” :mrgreen:

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    • It’s not a safety thing. We had two deliveries of pizza. One was ok the other not so much. Both were from one of our favorite restaurants. The second time they were slammed and it took well over an hour to get (we are 5 minutes away). The crust was hard as a rock. We should get it during the day rather than at the rush dinner hour. Next time.

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  19. Like Anne, some of our restrictions were lifted on Friday evening. For now, I plan to stay hunkered as yesterday our state had the highest number of new cases in one day. Of course, there’s more testing going on now, but the idea that so many asymptomatic people are still out there is a little frightening since I have a compromised immune system. That said, I’m thankful we have a choice and some of these small businesses can hopefully resume some normalcy. Sorry about our tomato plant!

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    • So many people have compromised systems and it isn’t something you see. I’m hoping that we are doing this right. My heart goes out to businesses, large and small, who are struggling. I know that I’ve bought only what is necessary during this time and a lot of it from places that deliver free. I bought a new tomato plant this morning. Had to pick up something at the grocery store so it was easy.

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  20. Oh, those outdoor critters! Luckily the possum just helps himself to the compost pile buffet, only last night the dog didn’t finish his food–so the possum helped himself to that as well.

    We took down a massive tree two years ago and I’m still sad.

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  22. Our restrictions lift to “yellow” this coming Friday and I am glad to get back to some pet sitting and dog walking, though it won’t be anything close to the pre-pandemic levels. I am so glad to have a daily “to do” list again…who knew I’d ever be glad to have that little taskmaster back in my life.

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    • We go to yellow in June. Fingers crossed. I’d love to have some semblance of normal even if it’s a new normal. Glad you can get back to work. I”m hoping this all works out.

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