I’ve been out of commission this week but still am taken aback that it’s already Saturday.

Ron and I met with a construction person yesterday at Edgewater who fixed our chimney flashing on the spot for the cost of a tube of caulk versus $510 versus $1000+.

One of our neighbors, a girl from Leatherleaf, stopped by last night to thank me for my letter to the editor defending Sturgis. She’s a junior at the school. Props to her! This morning, a gentleman who ran for School Committee a couple of years ago called to thank me. I’m waiting for the hate mail now.

Ron just got up. Now HE’S sick. Unfortunately, the only healthy one among us, Fluffles, can’t drive or use an ATM.

Ron’s been filling in for me with vendor appointments and a community activity.

The bug attack is now like a really bad cold. I just took a Benadryl-like tablet because my eyes and face have been so itchy.

Have been gathering info and roughing out our taxes, trying to do something productive while shut-in.

Like this website:
The People Group

Looking from the deck:

Eastern Redbud————–Spruce————–Dogwood————–Red Oak

Red Maple————————————————————Birch

Sugar Maple————–??————–White Pine————–Pin Oak

Should also be a Silver Maple.

I’ve been awake since a little after 1. Fluffles was roaring and hungry, so just as well that I was up to feed him.

I’ve got a chest cold that started some time over the weekend. Felt awful yesterday but a bit better now.

We’ve been gathering estimates on home improvements. Ron was very impressed with one proposal to finish the basement with non-organic materials. It would increase our living space by almost half, so an excellent investment. Now, if we can figure out how to afford it.

We set up an Easter egg hunt for Emme and James, which they enjoyed. Did the transfer station.

Had the best Easter “dinner” afterwards: soup, sandwich and Fritos at Subway, courtesy of Ron.

I planted the ten baby trees we got from the Arbor Day Foundation.

Ron ground up meat – a 2.2 pound “5 buck chuck” and a couple of steaks – with Nonna’s old meat grinder. Excellent hamburg at about $3.70 a pound after discarding fat and tendon, and having practiced a bit, we’ll do better next time.

Before

After

Tackled the horrible upper left hand corner at Edgewater this afternoon: blackberries, cat briar, poison ivy, branches. Filled the big tarp. Had a vision of a handsome stone fireplace with a flagstone patio in that very spot.

More immediately, I wanted to clear this so we could deal with the felled tree on the other side of the fence.

It’s hard to tell from the photos, but there were many dead branches and dozens of shoots that I cut down using only a manual hedge clipper. The humus underneath is absolutely spectacular, though.

We brought Peter some bread and drove Emme and her friend Alex to the mall. Went shopping at Sears, got some great deals, including jeans for Ron, a polo for me and a nice collared shirt for Peter.

Ron treated us to a terrific lunch at the Greek Orthodox church in Centerville.

A gentleman came by to take measurements for an A/C proposal.

We had our first experience with HomeServe today and were mighty impressed.

The tech did an inspection of our furnace and gave it the okay. He also rigged up a holder for the filter, which will (I hope) cut down on the amount of dust in the house.

The filter was never properly fitted, so he fabricated two clamps from some steel metal. We were so pleased we gave him a round of applause!

Campanula persicifolia ‘Telham Beauty’ C. p. ‘Grandiflora Alba’ , pale yellow Perennial Foxglove, Digitalis grandiflora, Allium moly, the yellow-flowered Ornamental Onion shown in the foreground.

Did some more cleanup at Edgewater yesterday. Our crocus are quite pretty, and I haven’t planted nearly enough.

This being end of the month, we are pinching pennies. Ron got his normal retirement package today.

Picked up the defunct leaf blower at Botello.

Finally remembered to Pledge the kitchen cabinets.