#Pussywillows

It must be #Spring. The catkins on the pussy willows are probably ready to be cut. Our Canary is enjoying our Sun-room. It is the first day this year we are using it. It is only a Three-Season room. The sun is shining hot and heating it up, with the help of an electric heater. I can hear the little guy singing from my office in the basement. I see the sunshine only through the window. Too many things to do. We came back from a two-week holiday in Cuba and now we have to catch up with all the stuff that’s been accumulating in those two weeks. I’m also busy smoking a couple of Whitefish, so I’ll be outside in the afternoon. The water in the aquariums needs to be topped up and I have a few batches of wine to be filtered, transferred and bottled. And I’m going to look at my seeds that need to be seeded in flats for my garden.

Oh yes, there is no shortage of work. Most of it, of course, self-created, but that’s okay. Keeps me in shape and my mind sharp. Before I retired, I asked a friend who was retired what he was doing all day long with all the free time he has now. He just laughed and said, “What free time? I’m busier now than ever (He keeps bees). I don’t know how I ever had time to work before I retired.”

Now I know what he means.

There is no reason for anyone to ever be idle and bored. Stuff to do is all around us. That is why I cannot understand why the members of our native population living on the reserves are so bored and turn to drugs and alcohol, even committing suicide. Perhaps they should look around and start cleaning up all the garbage that is everywhere and fix up their houses, like painting them and repairing the damage that somehow occurred inside the houses. We have no holes in the floors and walls in our house. We never made any in the first place. I have a garden that keeps me busy in the summer and shrubs and flowers in the yard that need to be tended. No shortage of work that needs to be done—ever. All that is needed is the will and drive to do it. And to enjoy everything you do.

Nothing to eat? Raise rabbits for meat and goats for milk, chickens for eggs and meat. We did that after the war when there was nothing to eat in Germany after the war.

Just saying.

A couple of days I saw my first goose in the field and yesterday a small flock flew across the highway. I also say the crows that live all year around in our yard. I have no idea where they went for the winter. They are looking at the old nest in the tree in our neighbor’s yard. I wonder if I’ll catch enough mice this year to feed to the crows.

In February, I bought a new pair of glasses from Costco. Progressive and transition. I paid extra money for a frame made from Titanium, which is stronger than other metals. Well, that strong titanium frame broke into two pieces on our second day of our holiday, which means I was left without glasses and sunglasses for the entire two weeks. Not a good thing when the sun is blaring down from the sky and reflecting from the white sand and the ocean. Fortunately, I had an extra pair of reading glasses along, so I could at least read my electronic reader. I have no problem seeing without glasses, but reading is a different story. That’s when things become blurry. Anyway, I’m picking up my new glasses tomorrow. I hope that strong titanium frame doesn’t break again. In all my years of wearing glasses I never even broke a lens, never mind the frame. And none of them were made from any special metal. It proves again to me that expensive does not mean better. Sometimes it is best to stick with the old, the proven stuff, but there is always somebody popping out the woodwork who claims to build a better ‘mousetrap’. I’ve had those also already—mousetraps made out of plastic. Half of them have already given up the ghost.

This was supposed to be only a short blog, but, as usual when I begin writing something it turns into a novel.

Enjoy the rest of the day and the next and the next and…….