Happy May Day--OMGs--already into the fifth month.

We had a really heavy rain over the last two days. I am not complaining because, although I have my hose hooked up, I won't have to water. I moved my two miniature roses (yeah, they are still alive) and six spearmint cuttings from the table on the patio to the shed Tuesday evening because we expected the heavy rain, high winds, and (possible) hail. And I put the 3 rosemary plants under the table. The plants in the shed survived the two days in the dark well. All are back in the open on the table or resting on containers yet to be cultivated for spring planting. I won't do anything more outside today because it is a bit cool yet.

We did our shopping yesterday. We have things down to about every two weeks plus/or/minus depending on whether we need milk and other dairy products. Because cat food (wet and dry) was low we went to our regional big-box supermarket. That chain isn't national/international like Target and Walmart and does try to use local providers when possible. And things have changed once again. Most of the shelves were well stocked though we didn't need toilet paper and cleaning supplies. We got everything we wanted except the elastic. The craft/sewing section had a lot of empty spaces. Though there were big gaps in the meat department they hadn't been cleaned out. Evidently they didn't get quite the run on meats some other stores did because of the problems with the meat packers. Most noticeable was the traffic control. We could enter by one door only and an employee (wearing a mask) greeted us and entered something into his small tablet. We did ask and he said he was making sure that the number of customers didn't exceed whatever limits had been set. The store was far from crowded and the lines at checkout did move smoothly and fairly quickly. We did see three customers move to another line because the cashier didn't have her mask over her mouth and nose.

The dairy hadn't changed. I did look at the meat freezer just in case something appealed to me and found it very empty. I think they did have a run on their supplies. We weren't looking for meat at all because we checked our stock and decided we didn't really need anything. We were the only customers until we were already checked out so there was no crush here either.

We did pick up a bag of compost yesterday since I plan to mix that into the containers. I won't buy plants until at least the middle of the month but getting the containers ready seems a good idea. The plants I started upstairs are doing far better than expected. The only failures were the woad and forget-me-nots. I will start more seeds over the weekend. I hav.e never had any success with lavender from seed but this year the seeds sprouted.

Our governor is supposed to announced whether he is going to extend the stay-at-home order and, if he does, with what changes for businesses. It seems that governors are faced with opposition no matter what they decide. If they keep the shutdown there are those demanding their "freedom" to risk getting the virus themselves and exposing everyone around them. Many governors insisting on opening up more broadly are facing rebellion from mayors of urban areas and some business owners who don't want to open before the numbers of cases are considerably lower than they are. I saw the figures for my state and county and the numbers haven't hit their peak much less a plateau. Whatever he decides we will still wear masks and, if he decides on a broad opening, gloves. We'll see.