SPRING 2020

Coming in for a landing!

These are Rose-breasted grosbeaks. The red one is the dad, the one coming in for a landing is the mom.

It’s amazing how quickly the birds return once the snow melts.

The loons were back within hours of when the ice was off the lake.

Spring is a good time to be a loon.

Every year in early spring we get wood ducks. The male’s coloration almost looks to perfect to be real.

We found this cute little guy at the park one day when we were out walking. Turtles like to lay their eggs in the gravel on the shoulder of the roads. This time of year we regularly stop to move them off the road. You can tell how big he is by Barb’s fingers. He’s a painted turtle.

This weasel showed up on our deck one day. The next day all the mice were gone from our wood pile.

One of the things we’ve done during the quarantine is to work on some new recipes. We’d kind of gotten in a food rut. This was one of our new ones, roast beef with mushroom wine sauce over rice. Really good with grilled asparagus, red grapes, and Hawaiian sweet rolls with honey.

This is another new one, apple cranberry chicken with broccoli cheese bake.

Last but not least is shrimp hollandaise, which is shrimp, sautéed mushrooms, celery, and grilled asparagus covered with hollandaise sauce, and served with fresh strawberries (and of course whipped cream) and Hawaiian sweet rolls with honey.

Something else we’ve done during the quarantine is to play a game called Fact or Crap. It’s sort of like Trivial Pursuit. The cards have a statement of something obscure and then everyone votes on whether it’s fact or crap and explains their reasoning. You’re not allowed to google it or do any research. We have about 20 friends and family members playing and it often gets quite lively. It’s done with a group text on our phones so everyone gets to see what everyone else is saying. It’s a way for us to all stay connected and to spend half an hour/day after dinner talking about something fun. For example, one of the statements was “the Hot Lix Candy Company produces candy coated scorpions called InsectNsides.” Fact or Crap? It turned out to be fact, there actually is such a company and they do make this type of candy. Almost everyone got that one wrong.

Our son David and his wife Courtney were up for a visit in late May. It felt awkward because we didn’t do many of the things that we would normally do like playing cards. We would leave their meals on the deck of the guest house. It was still great having them here. One of the things we decided would be safe was going water falling. We took two cars so we weren’t sharing the air in close proximity. This is Yondota Falls, about half an hour drive from us.

Gilmore and their dog Baxter really enjoyed the hike.

Even though we were limited in what we could do, they could still enjoy the scenery and do things like kayaking.

David brought his drone with him. Very cool to see an aerial view of our place.

It’s hard to believe how much the world changed in just a few months. And the changes were so unexpected, so huge, and so rapid that the whole situation has become disorienting. The number of deaths and the damage to the economy have been stunning. Phrases like “social distancing”, “bending the curve”, and “I can’t breathe” that went into widespread use overnight, were a shock. It feels like the 40 days and 40 nights of rain and the locusts are coming next. Hard to believe a pandemic and mask wearing could become political but sadly that’s where we are. All the restrictions and animosity are difficult to cope with, and people are overreacting to even little things. We’ve never been through changes this large in such a short time, but if it’s like prior times when there were major disruptions, there will end up being good that comes out of this. Hang in there and stay safe!