Miscellaneous Days of Covid Summer

 

A few years ago I made it a mission that I was growing to get sweet peas to grow at this house.  And I have succeeded with not just one, but two patches! This patch is growing up my deck and I'm hoping it will spread along the whole thing with a little help each year.  This was from early August - it's so big now!

This patch is behind the shed and where I first started them.  I just love these flowers!

So in these days of Covid and not being able to travel, I got this huge box from Amazon (of course something quite small was inside which makes me crazy) which gave me an idea...

This box was big enough to ship me somewhere!  LOL!

And last but not least, Madison's lease was up at her apartment in Ann Arbor and she moved into a new one with her friend Olivia. It was a rather rainy day and we had to make MANY trips from one apartment to the other with just my little Escape but we did it!

All moved in and ready to start their adventures for this school year - mostly online - but in Ann Arbor!

Boom! It's 4th of July!

Apparently, I didn't take many pics between Memorial Day and Independence Day!  But I have a few.  First up, more modeling of my sister's hats by me, Madison and her friend, Olivia who joined us for 4th of July at Carrie' house.

Carrie ended up giving each of us a hat!  They are so cute!!

My sweet peas are in full bloom and growing great this year after a slow start.  This patch was started summer before last.

This patch is less of a tangle but has been growing good for 3 years now.  There are two different types here although you can only see one in this picture.

When I got a HUGE box from an Amazon order I realized it was big enough to ship myself somewhere - could it be safer than flying, Leslie??

Memorial Day Weekend

We made it to summer!!  Spring under Covid lockdown was sloooooooow and while we still are far from being out of the woods, small gatherings were being allowed with the preference for being outside.  So Carrie had us all over for a traditional Memorial Day BBQ!

Garry and I were there ready to enjoy the sunshine and hot weather.

My sister has started making hats and brought out one for my mom to try to keep the sun out of her eyes.  She loved modeling it!

She didn't have another home made one but this straw hat for me worked pretty good!

Later, Garry and I went hiking an spotted this HUGE woodpecker!  It's hard to tell from the photo but this breed is the size of a very large crow.

And we spotted a turkey.

An amazing sunset.

Tracks that led to the lake.

And some sandhill cranes that had to walk around us because we didn't move!

The daisies were starting to bloom.

As well as this other white flower - although I'm not sure what it is.  Overall - a pretty perfect long weekend!

Spring turned to summer

I found a new trail and was amused that it crossed a train track. I was even more amused with the train actually came by while I was head up to the tracks!

The woods smelled divine as the wild roses came to bloom everywhere!!

It was greening up so fast!

I love finding familiar flowers growing in the wild like these Lilly of the Valley.

And the sight of trillium in the woods always makes me smile. It's not so rare now as it used to be.

And boom! Everything was green and beautiful!  Pure Michigan!

Garry and I did our first 5 mile hike together at Brighton Rec - and he said it was easy!  And here I thought it was going to take all summer to get him up to 5 miles!

I even got Austin out walking around the neighborhood with me a couple of times where we had some wonderful conversations.  

In the meantime, Madison and Olivia were out hammocking in Ann Arbor.  Those two have been getting closer this summer and it's awesome.

Mother's Day and Spring

Mother's Day was a bit unusual in corona virus lockdown land since we weren't really supposed to be seeing anyone outside our homes...Garry and I had been somewhat breaking the rules since he didn't technically live with me but was here every weekend and neither of us saw anyone else working from home...

Madison used to make me crepes for Mother's Day breakfasts...so I made my own this year!  Yes, they were awesome!

And Garry made me this yummy dinner of Chicken Piccata with just a little help.

And my neighbor dropped off these cool tulips!

And just like that, spring was here!

Despite the gloom of a pandemic, the world didn't stop and mother nature did her job just fine.

The green was so welcome!

Old and new were all getting green.

The weather was crisp and clean and we did a ton of hiking as it continued to warm up and get greener and greener!

Working from home...all the time

Along with Covid pandemic, it meant working from home full time for me (along with so many other millions of people.  For me, it wasn't a huge change since I had been working from home 3 days per week anyway.  It was the middle of March and the weather was fairly crappy.  My view from my desk was these roofs.  And a bit of sky.  Boring. 

Henrik and I decided it wasn't going to do to spend 8+ hours a day staring out at nothing.  So I dismantled by kitchen "office" and moved. 

After talking to the kids, neither who is living here, I decided they didn't need their own rooms and I could create one "guest" room that they could both use when here.  The odds of both of them moving back home at the same time are slim but if they do, I can undo this easily enough.

For now, the old desk space just has this card table and chairs.  I'll figure it out later!

And then Madison's old room became my office with TWO windows!!  Now I can see everything going on in the neighborhood and love it!!  It's bright and works great for all the video meetings I now have to do.

And of course, Henny likes the view better too!