I'm Just Visiting This Planet

Radishes survived the frost Anne examining the "tender greens" Herbs from Hilltop Hanover Yesterday we were able to work in the garden. I was so happy to just be out of the house! We removed the row covers that we put on last week when we had a frost warning. The radishes and greens look fine. We planted all of the herbs that we bought at Hilltop Hanover Farm. After a couple of years of not belonging to a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) we belong to two: Hilltop Hanover and Fable We joined these two because they are CSA's that issue you a "card" and you can shop whenever you want and buy whatever you want. We are experimenting with this model--it allowed us to get organic herb starters for the garden that we didn't know we were going to have. The plan was to travel this summer--Ha!--and not have a garden. "Man plans, God laughs" goes the old Yiddish saying and it apparently applies to women also. Once we realized that we...

I’m counting from March 3, so I think that I’m up to day 49-28 days in March and 21 in April. So now the routine is: Up between 6:30 and 7ish Shower Yoga Breakfast Read the newspaper Wait for Governor Cuomo and his update Get depressed Have lunch Watch Fauda  Season 3 (we’re up to episode of 7 out of 12) Start cocktail hour (with fancy appetizers) Make dinner Watch something else—The Plot Against America was last night’s event. Okay so we don’t get depressed every day, especially today—“only” 481 deaths, down from over 700 day after day. Our lives aren’t all that different from the “before.” We are cooking more, shopping less and watching more TV. We’re walking the trails in our neighborhood and have discovered trails that we always meant to walk. We (okay Anne) have seedlings growing under grow lights in the basement—dill, parsley, cilantro and thyme. We have radishes and greens growing under row covers as we await our last (we hope!) overnight freeze....

Okay, it’s official—I am soooo over this. And I’m not really even sure which part has me the most vexed. Is it missing physically being in  church? Is it how stressful grocery shopping has become? Is it how divided my brain is—when neighbors lost power I asked Anne if we could have them over to charge their phones, totally forgetting that we are in self-isolation. I think the worst part is not being able to just leave the house and go somewhere else. Anywhere else. The library, Whole Foods, church, synagogue, the Jacob Burns , Lexington Square  for lunch or dinner. Passover and Easter were very strange. Of course we weren’t the only ones asking “Why is this night different from all other nights?” and laughing. The sunrise service was different, too—I attended in my pajamas, which was kind of nice, and stayed warm while I watched Chip and Tami looking cold. My happiest moments have been outside, in the garden. Here I am filling one of our raised beds so that we can pl...

I’m counting from March 3, the day that the first person in New Rochelle was diagnosed, or at least when we were alerted in the news media that someone in New Rochelle had tested positive for CORVID-19. So it’s just 31 days. And we’ve only been on a “stay at home” order for about 19 of those days. Only. Tuesday we decided that it was time we each wore a mask when we were out grocery shopping. But what kind of mask, where to get one, how to make one? We knew we were going to Seasons in Scarsdale early (like 7 AM early) to do some Passover shopping, so we needed masks ASAP. I haven’t used my sewing machine in, oh, forty years (don’t ask why it has moved with me to every single place I’ve lived since college) and I didn’t think that this was the time to reintroduce myself to sewing. We found a YouTube video showing how to make a mask out of paper towels, aluminum foil and rubber bands—about our speed. It went well until we got to the part where you “just” take a hole puncher and ...