April 2021 - a month of adventure

 

Here are the seedlings at the mid/end of April.

The pictures load backwards now so I'm just going to show you my April in reverse.

I primed a new Mandalorian Blaster and stand. These are a gift for Haven. There is a wall there where the 3D printers display their cool sci-fi and or fantasy props. They have a Maltese falcon and a ghostbusters backpack and an I Dream of Genie Bottle and a Dumbledore lectern. I felt like my blaster attempt was good enough to join the wall.

I've  decided to do more and watch less in my life. I'm going to try the things that I like to watch or that I wish someone would prompt me to try. I'm also going to try the things that people have recommended to me.

I had a boss one time who, when coming out of a bad place in life, decided to just say yes to things that people asked him out to do. I was so impressed when he did this. He wasn't quite as shy as I am but it wasn't easy for him either and it really stuck with me. It worked out too.

I am not coming out of a bad place per se but coming out of Covid and Lockdowns provides and opportunity for reassessment. Plus I am likely going through some sort of midlife crisis where in I reevaluate myself anyway. Ha!

Regardless I am trying more things.

One of these things is to be much more active in the clubs and societies that I already belong to.

Therefore over April I entered in not one but two SCA event competitions and went out with Haven on adventures.

I did two songs for the First Bardic War . Once the contest is open I will post them here. Both from before 1625. I did a funny one with mom and the kids that was supposed to be Elizabethan but we turned it into vaudeville Viking and another with just mom which is a simple round for 1609, for which we dressed up and did simple (but not intuitive for me) video editing. 

We are so goofy and I love it.

Gracious In with both feet.

I made apple fritters. They turned out very well once I got the frying time down. It was a really long process (4+ hours) with several rise times and it was frustrating to mess up the last step and have raw innards. I love apple fritters and in the end they were extremely tasty. I will probably do this again soon.

There was a fair amount of fiddly disassemble and reassemble here.

Trying out a simple Viking hair style for our first video.

I was having a terrible anxiety day ...well weekend really and making props and setting up shots and singing with the kids and mom was so helpful.

I am particularly proud of my butcher-paper Viking ship with pillow case sails.

I started the back piece for my cheap cloak.

I got a new caving helmet.

You will see below that I went caving wearing a horseback riding helmet. It worked well for protecting my head but the light wouldn't stay up and I was often one handed from adjusting it. This one has a nice light clip to solve this issue although to be honest its not as comfortable.

I finished the tow front panels on my cheap cloak.

I got this thing for 15 bucks on wish.com (a cheesy chines knock of web site where you can among many other things get costumes). My idea was to see if I could turn it into a nice thing that I would like to wear at the rennfair if it got cold or at an SCA event in future.

So far so good.

Progress and leg color confusion.

The seedlings earlier in April.

We got a nasty cold snap with very high winds (we actually had 2 tornado watch warnings this month that sent us to the basement) so we wound up having scramble to try to protect the plants.

I got my 2nd Covid Vaccine dose.

There is a whole story here about timing and exposures.

I did some outdoor Havent events and someone at one of the events tested positive and despite my hanging back from people habbit I still needed to get tested.

I tested Negative the day my shot was scheduled so I rushed over to NIH, a much easier trip than the first one as knew where everything was this time.

Megan broke her laptop screen. David replaced it.

David can fix anything.

I printed out some garden signs. I think they are very cute and handy. We are doing newrly everything in container bags on the deck this year to take advantage of all the light.

Some red house sparrows nested behind our deck light. One of the babies fell out when it was tiny and rubber and hairless. I put it back in and it lived all the way to fledging. We haven't seen them since but it was funny because  for a time every person who opened the back door would reflexively apologize to the birds for disturbing them.

My purples are coming back. Man I love purple flowers.

Here is me getting my first of two Covid tests in a week.

The event was on a Friday night and on Monday evening I got the you need to go get tested text (one form Haven and one from the state). I rushed over to urgent care and got their half and hour before they closed and got my pcr test. This one was back by Wednesday morning and I went to get my shot on the strength of its negative. Then OHS told me that the window was too short and I could still be positive and to stay home from work the week and get retested on Friday. I went back in on Friday and got retested and told that ahem people of a certain age are unlikely to be asymptomatic. Oh Gracious this is my first you are old from a Doctor.

I was worried that I might have exposed people at NIH and that I might be in trouble for going down there at all and that my boss was going to be mad at me for being out of work on an important week.

Wages of socialization. Not an auspicious start to my do more watch less experiment.

I took the kids for a hike as required by Kiernan's PE teacher.

Tadpoles and top hats good stuff.

Megan's braces made a huge shift this month. Those teeth are looking very straight.

Here is the before to remind you.

I went on a hike with some Haven people. We all blithely marched along not knowing that we were about to get a go get tested text.

I love fiddlehead ferns. I haven't eaten any yet but I want to try them. I hear they taste like asparagus.

Marching through the woods in Germantown in the heat with masks on.

I will try this trail again. It was 3 miles and had nice views and a few water crossings. I got to use my new hiking/caving/adventure boots again. They are very light and very water proof but are a little skimpy in the arch support department. 

On Friday night Haven had its first in person Bardic in over a year.

I wanted to sing and to get out a bit. They will be doing them outdoors for the foreseeable. This time it was at Washington Monument State Park . There was a fire and it was very cold.

There were lots of dogs and alcohol and someone grilled hot dogs for anyone who wanted any.

I sang a song and shook with cold and sounded like a 1920s radio show from all the shivering. BUT see that red case above. It is a harp. The man petting the dog is a really decent harpist (busker). From time to time he will accompany people and this time for the first time he asked if he could accompany me and I was so flattered and happy and of course said yes. 

Highlight of the day.

The songs and stories were great and despite the cold I was glad to have gone.

The cleaned up print of the blaster.

I took mom for her 2nd dose on the same day that David had his. Big day.

Good stuff.

Here are the seedlings in early April.

Here is the Birthday Girl.

Happy Birthday Erena!

We planted some asparagus and some rhubarb. Both of those take well over a year (or two) to become useful edible plants and I'm glad we finally started them. Thanks mom.

I fired lots of things.

There used to be this place we would go in Langley Park that we went to when I was Kiernan's age. They had vegetable fried wontons. I got to craving them so I decided to try to recreate them.

I got pretty close. They were good but still need some work

I went caving with Haven.

I got muddy and wet and climbed around and had a wonderful time. This was a relief. I did caving in summer camp when I was a kid and loved it. I watched some caving videos on YouTube to prepare and found myself super uncomfortable and breathing shallowly. I am not claustrophobic and I don't mind mud a bit, but my anxiety has been so high that I was afraid I had lost caving. Its not like caving is integral to my life but I hate to lose things that I enjoy.

I did not lose anything. Now I will go caving and exploring with them whenever I can.

The pictures are about what you'd expect from an iPhone 6 in the dark but it was really neat.

There was a line of graffiti and then suddenly nothing as you passed the line of where the sunlight could reach.

We were told that they had a bear encounter here one time but that it was fine on this trip.

This was an easy large cave with only climbing that you wanted to do and as long as you had waterproof shoes it was quite comfortable.

That's me above.

The walk to the cave was along the C&O and very beautiful and springy. 

The Virginia Bluebells were everywhere. I was reminded of Scearce's.

This is mostly because at Scearce's I got a big trash bag full of bluebells to plant and distribute.

Next year I should have some very pretty new flowers coming up.

Now here is an adventure.

Over Easter we noticed that ther was no wood in the wood pile at  Scearces so some of us (Michelle and Chris, Licia and Kuehnerts) got together to buy some wood and have it dropped off.

We got it from this place.

It was good seasoned hard wood.

We also noticed that the lid to the well had caved in and was in the water so I went back down the next weekend to order the wood and cover up the well and just visit.

The wood ordering went well.

I got the wood out of the well but there were frogs and muck still in there so I started dredging with a rake.

See that light colored thing in the bottom left of the well.

That is a dead fox.

😖

I got dead fox juice all over me and smelled quite a treat when I went to home depot to get the plywood to cover the well.

AAAAAAA

Here is Mr. Scearce with a water pump and plywood to place.

Oh boy.

Adventure.

At least now we know why the well cover caved in. The fox must have jumped on it.

Erena played several pieces at a big piano recital.

I embroidered.

Here are the seedlings at the very beginning of April.

The trees blossomed.

Our hot water heater died and we got a new one.

That was a surprise as well.

The new water heater people helpfully turned on the house humidity thing before they left and our basement flooded.

boo.

I harvested some marigold seeds from on of the plants from last year that we had saved partially for the seeds and partially because I am lazy.

This was a deeply satisfying process. Pulling the seeds out of the cones had a slight pop and they were a little like dandelion seeds.

The blooms around my work were especially beautiful.

I'm hooping next year we will get back to the cherry blossom festival.

The daffodils came out just in time for Easter.

 

We had a nice outdoor spread at Scearce's and I wore not one but two Easter hats.

As usual I gave up Amazon for Lent and on Easter morning Megan was like "So mom can we order from Amazon now?". Chocolate has its char but online shopping is forever?

Everyone got design your own kits in their Easter Baskets.

Plus all the chocolate.

We died Megan's hair to match the eggs.

The eggs.

I dug out an old space themed table cloth for egg dying this year.

Good call me!

After one 80 degree day Megan filled up the little pool.

It froze 2 days later.

Oh April.

Opa sent the kids this amazing Easter box.

They loved it so much.

Candy apples decorated like Easter Eggs with little stuffed bunnies on the sticks.

I decided to add to my front edibles beads with nasturtiums this year. They have this score and soak step that always throws me but it worked.

There is a boggy place in the back yard that wont dry and I am thinking of trying to start a willow or two to put down there. (spoiler from May our septic system has failed and the bog is not to be treated with willows but rather huge amounts of money and digging oh mannn)

I put together a plant selection for my new friend at work (Lucero) to spruce up her place.

I used cuttings from things in my dining room and it seems to have worked so far.

Lots of these are from cuttings from my friend at Qiagen.

I miss Qiagen. That last year was so bad. I still dream about it and I still feel worthless from it but the 14 years before it were really good and I see those years now more and more.

That I think is a form of healing too.