Green Thoughts for a St Patrick's Day

Happy St Patrick's Day to one and all. I'll be busy with laundry today (once again a trip to the laundromat to use the dryers and then lugging everything back home again *sigh*), as well as a zoom call at noon which I may or may not make, and the usual grocery shopping, workshop lessons and household chores. Tonight we'll go to out accountant's for a meeting to hand over the stuff for our personal taxes. That's always fun *not*, but it's usually fairly easy. The stumbling block will be one 1099 statement that I've been having difficulty accessing. Getting that printed out is my #1 priority, organizing my charitable donations for the year is my #2 priority. I pretty much have everything else nailed. 

Although Chicago still dyed the river green, they cancelled 
the annual St Patrick's Day parade. I'm quite sure almost 
all parades for the day have been cancelled. We usually have 
quite the celebrations here in the Twin Cities, with two 
different parades and a lot of green beer. That's not happening 
today either. Maybe in 2022. 

Last year's appointment was just after Covid shut down the state. I remember we practiced social distancing and wore masks, but I think we all thought it would be something relatively fast and our lives would return to "normal" in a month or two. Now, here we are a year later and life has returned ... but to a new normal. I'm not sure if we'll ever have a true "normal" again. 

Nothing emphasizes the change in our world more than 
celebrations where we would normally have been out 
there dancing or drinking, or would have been looking 
over in that direction thinking about other years. This year, 
however, we're still returning to normalcy. The last time 
we wanted to Return to Normalcy was in 1920 after 
the flu epidemic. At that time, the Republican, 
Warren G Harding, won the election. 

Either today or Friday (probably Friday since today is pretty packed) I'll need to get more organized in my menu planning. I get home from the shop and I'm too tired to deal with any meal, but I have to eat something. Since my go-to frozen dinners or prepared food have been eliminated on my nutrition program, I really need to think a bit harder about what I'm going to eat. Last night's dinner was a three-egg omelette with three pork sausages and pesto and a side salad. Not unhealthy at all, but actually more prep work than I want at that time of the night. If I have everything pre-prepped and packaged, ready to be tossed into the pot with sauce or into the oven, it will be much easier. 

I found it VERY interesting to look at the election map for 
the 1920 campaign. The deep South, an area we think of 
as conservative Republican, voted Democratic. The states 
in red, all voted Republican. Things have certainly 
changed, haven't they? 

I also have to do more prep work on my fruits. Getting this morning's portion of Champagne Mango open and scooped into my bowl took far more time than necessary. The kiwi was easy, the mandarin orange was a breeze, and bananas are earth's perfect take-away fruit. I still have a mango in the fridge that needs to be peeled and cut up. I should probably get that done today. I think I might get some storage bins for my veggies - I'm having too many of them wilt a bit between my Wednesday and my Sunday batches of my veggie smoothies. I love my smoothies, but want my veggies to be super fresh and happy. 

My vegetable smoothies might not be shamrock green, but 
they seem an appropriate green for St Patrick's Day. Shame 
on the Saint for driving all of those innocent snakes out of 
Ireland anyway! LOL

Well, I've got to get my act together and get the trash cans out to the curb for today's pick-up. I'll wrap this up here and head on out to my chores. I hope all of you have a wonderfully fantastic St Patrick's Day and I'll be back tomorrow. As always, please be kind, stay safe, and wear your masks. 

Stay at Home - Day 24 - Venturing Out

It'a a Tuesday, and that's the day I cut checks for company bills. We're an old-fashioned company. I might pay my personal bills via electronic checks, but for the store, I actually type paper checks and mail them. I know that's almost as old as pressing cuneiform characters into clay or painting Egyptian hieroglyphics onto reed papyrus. Having paper checks makes DH happy, and since he's in charge of the finances, I try not to rock the boat. 

I learned to type on a machine very similar to this one. This typewriter
dates from the mid-1950's, I received my first typewriter as a gift
from my father in 1964. I used it through college and over the years
developed some impressive speed and skills on the keyboard that
has been a key to my employment through the 1980's. 

However, I don't own a typewriter outside of the shop, so to type checks, I have to drop by the shop. That's OK, I also pick up the mail on Tuesdays (and Saturdays), so I had the chance to add one more bill to the small pile. I'm missing some mail, but so far I've been able to get e-bills from the vendors we were missing. I suspect I might never see some invoices, but as long as I'm not overdue on any payments, I'm OK. 

Our trees are starting to look bushy - what I call it when the
leaves are just starting to bud. I love early spring up here
in the Frozen Northlands. It's a beautiful season and a
time of hope for all of us, despite the pandemic. 

It was a nice errand, though, because it's blue skies, just at freezing for the temps - a little cold for this time of year, but still within reason - and the trees were showing their first hints of green. Grass, being a sturdy plant, has been growing in over the past month and well-kept lawns are looking lovely and green. My lawn is NOT well kept - it's so shady that a majority of my "grass" is actually Creeping Charlie - a weed. But it's green, and the grass tries to come up also, so by the end of May, we'll have green, just not a beautiful sward of grass fit for an English manor house. 

I would love to have grass that looks this beautiful. Unfortunately, we
have too much shade from our numerous trees to be able to get
anything close to this. DH isn't the "Grass Whisperer", but he is
most certainly the "Fern Whisperer". Our fern crop this year will
be magnificent once again. 

We're into our final two weeks of quarantine. I'm hoping that our customers will come back once we're open again on the 4th of May. I was cheered by one piece of mail from an older woman whose necklaces I've been repairing for a few years. She wants me to contact her and has a "box" of necklaces she wants me to repair. I guess I'd better finish my Owl Project (the display stand should arrive next week) so that I can devote myself to a "box" of repairs. Of course, a "box" could be three or thirty pieces. 

I hope all of you are enjoying your day today. Stay home, stay safe, stay well, and I'll be back tomorrow. 

A Love of Green

I'm seeing green. The early, wonderful, yellow-laden green of new grasses and leaves that simply glows with early morning light has reappeared. This will, over the course of a month, deepen into a mellow medium green bespeaking moisture and contentment and the promise of future growth. And, at the height of the summer heat, it will deepen again into a protective darker green - almost a forest green of grass sheltering itself from heat and the rays of the sun. I love green, but my favorite color of green is the new spring green that is starting to appear now. When I am out in the early hours of the morning and the sunlight strikes the newly green lawn or the new leaves on the trees, it brings a happiness and contentment that has few rivals in my life. It makes me want to take out my watercolors and play a while.

My "sister" once told me that I always had some green on me. When I thought about it, she was correct. I wear a lot of green - usually in the olive green and khaki green range. I have some necklaces and rings that are also green. (My birthstone is emerald, but I don't own any jewelry featuring that stone - a bit too expensive for my budget.) I think green is so close to my heart because of it's intimations of growth. As I try to grow my own artistic skills and talents and try to expand my own thoughts about creativity, green should be around me at all times. It isn't - but the Spring is quickly changing that and it will be surrounding me soon. I'm smiling today as I do what seems like one million errands before I can fire up my kiln for the afternoon's enameling session. Have a creative Wednesday!