March 30

Been a good day so far. It is warm enough for a brief walk around the patio. I found a couple of shoots of peppermint trying to come up so I hope I won't need to buy more. The shoots of spearmint I found on stems that had grown long enough to rest under a pile of fallen leaves are doing nicely in a shallow dish of water. I will try to transplant them next week. I have never had anything that survived the winter on my patio. I hope the weather continues mild and we don't get a return of winter.

Under the lights in our "what not" room all of the seeds I earlier are sprouting except for the butterfly pea. This morning I planted garlic chives, sage, catnip, lavender and forget-me-not. I found one cell of chives on my plant tower coming back. I didn't clean out the garden containers as thoroughly as I usually do and I think that might have provided a bit of cover for the roots.

I spent a good bit of the morning yesterday winding floss onto bobbins. So this morning I started the cross-stitch tablecloth. I think it will be a nice, restful pattern--no French knots, no lazy daisy stitches. Only cross stitch and back stitch. The most intricate part will be the color changes on some of the leaves and the flowers. I like being able to switch off on projects. I found an intriguing crochet pattern on line yesterday done as a blanket in worsted weight yarn. I think I might try it with some of the lace weight yarn I have lying around and if I like it make a couple more place mats out of it. We'll see.

So #45 has extended the Federal "social distancing" guidelines through April 30. I don't know what it will mean for us since the state stay-at-home order enforcing it will run out April 7. I don't know what others might think but #45 looked and sounded decidedly unhealthy last night. He looked bloated and his breathing sounded like he had just run a hundred yard dash and lost.

William Astore writing at Tomdispatch this morning has a series of good suggestions for reforming the U.S. in the wake of the corona virus epidemic.

An interesting snippet on the morning news: hatcheries are reporting a surge in order for chicks exceeding what they normally see in preparation for Easter. Evidently some people are trying to ensure a continuous supply of eggs and/or meat. The report mirrors what I saw with various seed venders: an upsurge of orders that are running them out of stock or making it necessary for them to lengthen the time for orders to be filled and shipped. A gardening blogger I read earlier swore off veggie gardening because of less than adequate yields for three years running is rethinking the decision. I am also. I still won't put in tomatoes or peppers because devoting the room for them in a small space doesn't make sense. But perhaps lettuce, spinach and small cabbage? Grown inside that might be doable.