Soda bread and squirrel banquet

 Dining outdoors and in

Here's Butternut Boy enjoying the pear core I'd thrown out for him. It's one of the pears you saw on the windowsill. He also runs off with mango peels and canteloupe rinds. 

Not many of the scraps I put out to nourish the earth get left to rot down.  He knows where to look and I think he can tell time.

Indoors I was all set to make bread and found, unbelievably, I was completely out of yeast. So I made soda bread, not a great deprivation. Yeast is now on the shopping list.

My knitting groups have been running out of doors for a couple of weeks, but without me. With a brisk wind and temperature in the 60s f. I'm not up for sitting outside and trying to get my hands to work. This Friday might work though. We'll see. It's going to be a bit warmer.  My inner introvert is saying let's not go and say we did..

This has been a long cold spring, and the flowers love it, blooming longer than usual, no hot days to get them blown out.

Many happy returns

Two returns, to be exact, one being my blessed housecleaners, and though I've been okay about sweeping floors and wiping bathrooms since March, it was just not in the same league as a couple of hours of their attention.

They clean stuff I can't reach, and they can rassle the vacuum cleaner on the two flights. And they leave the place smelling lovely.

I go out and leave them to it, and today I thought of a few items to attend to out of the house, less easy than it used to be when I could just go to the library. So I hit the bank, needing cash for anyone who shops for me, and the farmstand.

Then, the Asian store being steps away, kept on the mask and gloves and tried to go there. Found it was being gutted. The new incarnation of it, different shopping plaza, evidently has finally opened. I missed that completely.

Nothing daunted, I proceeded to the farm. Sawhorses up.  I was half an hour too early. Oh. Still undaunted, I kept going, to see if I could pick up a couple of items at CVS. That worked. First visit since February. And it appears that the new Asian store is open right next door to there.

Then back to the farm, determined, and scored tomatoes, potatoes and Fuji apples.

Then thought I'd stop off in the local park. Completely missed the entrance. By now a bit daunted, I kept on steadfastly and went to see if I could succeed in getting into the Preserve.

This was the other happy return. Haven't been for months, what with heat and storms.

It was not only open, but their WiFi signal radius is huge. I sat by the lake, away from the building, trying to identify various plants and insects online.

What's this plant? Tiny flowers shaped like a member of the pea family. And the little moth? Fat body, not a butterfly. Not a grasshopper.

It was just one of the best visits in ages, lovely wind, cool enough for a jacket, perfect for sitting.

Goldenrod going well.

Smelled wonderful, fresh off the water. Revisited favorite places.

Such as this little nook

And this afternoon is my online knitters' group. 

So I'm off to fire up my computer ready for that. Maybe I'll look in the mirror. After being out in a brisk wind, I expect I need to tame my hair.

What a great Friday.