Well. The coronavirus has given me time to catch up. How quickly life is changing- all my colleagues now working from home, kids not going to school, stores and gyms closed, meetings cancelled or postponed. Everything changes- I am curious to see where all this will leave us. Dennis calls the suggested social distancing measures to slow the rate of infection in the population the ‘introvert’s revenge’, and it does, frankly, suit me and my like-minded friends who are happiest when alone.

In the natural world outside the virus: I took off the first week of March to help Dennis prep our gardens for spring. Raked up all the old leaf cover, picked up 8 yards of leaf mold and weeded and spread it over the beds. Ginger is coming up, and aquilegia, celandine poppy, wild geranium, iris, Jacob’s ladder, tradescantia. Still very young, but busting to grow as the weather warms. Forsythia and golden current leafing out.We put up the wren house and have witnessed a wren look it over for a potential nesting site. Time will tell if they move in and raise young. It would be nice if they did, since the wren will chase of some of the squirrels who love to dig in our gardens. The male goldfinches are beginning to show their brilliant yellow spring plumage and the woodpeckers are drumming out mating songs on hollow limbs and metal posts.

Went to the arboretum with my sister when she came for a visit at end of February. Things are slowly coming to life out there as well. I am grateful for these treasures to anchor me in these crazy and sometimes mean times.