Might as well start blogging again...

Seeing as we are all stuck at home for the foreseeable future, I thought I'd start writing again. Truth be told, I've been writing this whole time. I just haven't been posting.  But now that everyone is stuck at home, I figure, it's a good time to post my drivel.

I realize that most people do not like to be on lockdown.
I don't like it either, in theory.
But I do sort of like it.

Let's be real. Given the choice I don't actually leave my property unless I'm going to Maine, running with my club, going out to dinner with Andy, or doing something for or with my kids. I've been social distancing for like twenty years at this point. I'm kind of an expert at this.

Under the circumstances I'm not going to Maine, but I'm still running (though not with my club), still eating dinner with Andy (though usually it's frozen dinners), and I'm spending more time with my kids than I have in .... a long time. Because they can't leave. Poor little suckers.

Here are the reasons I actually sort of dig lockdown:

• I can work outside in the garden (Thank you Jesus for any early spring) literally all day and my children do not call me to pick them up, or drop them off, or go to the store to get them xyz or fill in the blank here, because they are home and cannot leave. (Insert maniacal chuckle...)
• I can go on super long runs and no one looks at me like I have three heads. When I see people when I'm out running they give me six feet (awesome!) and nod like, I get it. Of course, my running has nothing to do with social distancing, but you know, whatever. I'll take an I get it look over a WTF, didn't I see you out running yesterday?--you overachieving, skinny, do-gooder, which is the look I generally get -- or got up until a few weeks ago.)
• I have an excuse to have hair that needs cutting and dying, nails that need manicuring, and clothing that needs updating. I always have these things, of course. It's the *excuse* part that works for me.
• I can order take out and it's viewed as a support of local establishments as opposed to the fact that I freaking hate to cook.
• My kids! My kids are home! They are miserable, but (completely selfishly) I like having them around. I feel like some higher power granted me this last span of time to be with them. Mothers of older teenagers, I bet you know what I mean.
• I have read (or listened to) 21 books so far this calendar year, and that's because I can't leave home, right? (Lockdown is definitely good in terms of attempting to achieve my 2020 Good Reads Challenge goal.)
• I have an excuse to spend time on Facebook since I can't see these people in real life. (Not that I see anyone in real life normally, but again, whatever.) Also, people are not posting as much political shit because they are too busy posting funny videos of life stuck at home. 
• My dogs are loving this time. They are in heaven. Every one of their humans is home 24/7 and ready to snuggle down. 

There are a lot of reasons to dislike what is happening right now--like people are dying and many more will die going forward and our health care workers are over-stressed and exhausted and as a country we were totally unprepared for this pandemic, despite that experts warned over and over again that this would likely happen eventually. But I'm trying not to focus on those things, and I don't plan to write about them here. I plan to write about my ongoing daylily project, my gardening, my observations of the birds at my feeder and the behavior of the animals and insects in my landscape. 

and other stuff, too. Other stuff will probably comprise the bulk of my writing. I have trouble staying on topic.

I will leave you with some pictures: 

I've mostly been raking and (re) labeling my lilies this week. I still have a very, very long way to go. I usually allow things to get messy in the fall going into the winter. I don't do a lot of cutting back of my perennials because I find that old foliage and leaf cover insulate my plants when we don't have snow cover. I still lose many daylilies every winter do to frost heave. I also lose daylilies I've purchased from southern growers. Still, I keep buying the southern varieties. My goal is to create hybrids that are southern patterned, ornate and lush, but that still survive in the north. I often use southern daylilies as breeding stock, so I take the chance on them each spring, and accept that I lose quite a few each winter. 

The pictures are now and then. The now is (obviously) the brown, leafy, half raked March garden. The then are photos of the same areas in July. I post these before and after pictures-- or after and before -- mostly for me. I have to keep the faith that someday the property will be gorgeous again-- and all spring work is worth it. 

This is a space I call the "butterfly" garden. I've been clearing it and planting gradually for a few years now. I think this summer it will finally come into its own.

I have to figure out what to do with my lovely compost bins. hmmm

 This is Henry searching for chipmunks. He's a voracious chipmunk/mouse hunter.

In my raking I found this nest. It's so sturdy! I can't figure out what the exterior is made out of. There is some Easter grass in there--or maybe it's not Easter grass, but that's what it reminds me of. You can see the designer made a pouch for the eggs, and that the exterior is made from different materials than the inside. There was still some downy fur inside the nest from the chicks.
Amazing construction.

 A rare shot of three of the four dogs (Henry, Hazel, Ernie) of Four Dog Farm, all sniffing around for whatever dogs sniff around for. Missing is Chica. She's an old girl and spends most of her time inside.

The final pictures are taken from the basement of the new 2019 seedling stock. It will be time to harden these plants off very soon. I use tree pots to grow my seedlings. They are quite space efficient. I have about 500 seedlings growing from my 2019 seeds. Many will not make it when brought into the garden. I don't coddle my plants. It is a survival of the fittest type of game. You have to be strong, or you will be culled! I have about 400 survivors from my 2018 seeds, and many of those will bloom this summer. I honestly cannot wait. This will also be the summer that I start culling the 2017 seedlings. I wanted to give them at least two seasons of flowering before deciding whether to keep or throw away. Sometimes a plant just needs a bit more time to show its stuff. 

Okay, I'm off for a run. 

I hope everyone reading is surviving this pandemic. If you are a fellow daylily enthusiast, I suspect that like me you are using this time as you always have--on your plants!