It's Good to be April

Above is the bird calendar for the month of April that I sold last November, collecting a nice profit to be donated to The Alzheimer's Assoc. I've been doing this for several years now, printing note cards, creating calendars with different themes, and last year I began selling Canvas Prints. Hopefully I can continue this practice this year but who knows.

Life has turned a very strange and disheartening direction affecting each one of us. Dangerous for all, isolating for many,  Not to mention job losses and the ever present threat of having the disease. Our healthcare workers are risking their lives to save others, extremely admirable and so very brave.  This pandemic has brought out the best in many people.

Today being Palm Sunday many gathered around their computers, IPADS, and Smart Phones to listen to our pastor present our Palm Sunday morning service.  Pastor Pat just recently joined our church as an interim pastor for the next couple of years, fortunately we all had an opportunity to meet him and to attend Sunday Services to listen to him deliver his message before this horror began. This morning early in the service he looked at each of us thru the camera and said with such compassion "how are you, how are you really".  Honestly I broke down in tears, the first time since this all began. I have been living on a day to day basis, taking one step at a time. Staying home and only going out for walks with Lily. But the cupboard is bare, the only thing left on the shelves or in the refrigerator is "out of date" items that should have been thrown away many months ago. Thank goodness all grocery stores around here have "senior" hours so my plans are to go to Trader Joe's tomorrow and hopefully stock up for awhile. Since it's just me, I can have breakfast for dinner and vice versa, I have been known on occasion to have cereal for dinner. But even the cereal is gone. My neighbor across the street has brought me 4 bottles of wine over this past month, thank God. That is the one thing in my day I look forward to, a glass of wine.

Yesterday was my Mother's birthday, if she were still with us she would have been 102. I'm relieved that both my parents and my sweetie are in a place much better than here right now. I still miss my Mom, I guess you never get over needing your Mom. I'd sure love to be playing gin rummy and having a glass of wine with my Mom right now,  she loved playing cards and she loved her 5:00 PM glass of wine. Sometimes we would sneak it in a little earlier than 5:00.

This time of year is absolutely my favorite time to be taking almost daily trips to the Morton Arboretum with camera in hand. In April and May the daffodils and wildflowers are blooming, the crab apple trees, magnolias and dogwoods are bursting with their loveliness, but no trips to the Arboretum this year. They closed on April 2nd which was a real blow. I could spend hours driving thru the Arb stopping to take pictures of whatever I saw in bloom. Last year I found a whole area filled with Virginia Blue Bells, a mass of blue wherever you looked. Driving or walking the Arb is one venture you could easily "social distance" from everyone considering it is spread over 1,700 acres.  Right now they are only closed until April 30th but I have doubts they will open on May 1st.

The calendar picture above was taken at the Arb about this time last year, robins gathering their cuisine.  The two flower pictures were from today's walk in the neighborhood. It was a beautiful day today, as I walked and looked at the blue sky and spied the buds on trees and bushes,  my hope continues that we will get through this nightmare. Right now we are in that valley of darkness, but our Lord will lead us through and we will together say "this is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it."

Until next time, stay safe, stay well.....