My last newsletter closed with my excitement about the week to come. I don't know that exciting is the right word, but this week definitely started with an unexpected twist. This week turned out to be my family's first ever week lived in quarantine.
Being at home in quarantine is a unique experience. Truthfully, there has been a psychological element for me. Both resuming normal life and justifying isolation seem to hinge on test results. PCR tests are readily available where I live and my community has come to rely heavily on these. I have had many. But this week testing has not been what it once was to me. My emotions now feel complicated by test results. This week has contained a cycle of testing, self-assessing, waiting, testing, feeling symptoms, self assessing, no longer feeling symptoms, waiting, receiving results, testing, self-assessing. It is on the verge of overwhelming! But these are also our only trips out of the home. Which brings me to the upside. Having the fortune to live in a small community, these testing trips can't help but turn social in nature. These drives to our local fire hall afford me short but wonderful visits with my dear friend Virginia Lester, who has been providing testing week in and week out for months and months. It is always great to see other volunteers alongside Virginia, too, such as Sara and Kandy who always have warm greetings for my family. Together they all create a comfortable environment and I dare say make the moment enjoyable, even for my kids, who feel like they are a part of something that matters. Thank you.
Photo Courtesy Ruth Fremson/The New York Times
In light of these circumstances, I decided that this was NOT the week to make products to release into the world. All those plans were shelved. I have been into the greenhouse where I planted all of my shelling and snow peas. I will plant these out into the garden a month from now. As my crop will go into the garden very early, and we can never have too many fresh peas from the vine, I plan to experiment with a second crop this summer. I will let you know if it works! Fingers crossed.
I started more of my annual flower seeds as well, including bachelor buttons, violas and snapdragons. I have seeded new-to-me varieties of violas and snapdragons and even transplanted the first of these long stemmed violas into my garden beds. This is a great cool-weather flower that I am really excited about mixing into my spring and summer flower bouquets.
Since sewing and wreath making weren't in the cards, I put my energy into my website. I finally added new cloth napkins. There are even more to come - I have new prints that I love. I can't wait to make them up into napkins and list them on my site.
I revised my About page, too. This has been the hardest page of my website to write. However, I enjoy connecting, and I know this sentiment is common to us all, so I pushed through and I have put something out into the world. I decided to embrace the potential to move closer to others through sharing. There are times, like this week, where the impulse to draw closer is especially fitting.
The best to you and wishing you a wonderful week ahead.
Chwynyn