Weekend potpourii

We had a gentle rain on Saturday morning. The ground was so dry from the strong April sun. Only 2 days with rain so far this month.

So another weekend gone, feeling like any old days of the week. We missed a Seattle Symphony concert yesterday, which would have been back in the happy time when we hugged our friends and shook hands, sat in cafes and went to concert halls together. 

It's especially unlucky, because our season tickets were heavy with performances in April, May and June.  So we're missing a total of five concerts, more than half the season.  

Right before the pandemic, John renewed our next season (bad timing) and it's unlikely the Symphony will perform at all this year, and maybe not even next.  Can performing arts organizations even survive without a live audience? The world seems crushed with collective disappointment. We can only hope things start to get better.

On to happier topics. See above bird bath. We have many different birds species in the yard this spring, more than usual. Even in our tiny urban corner, the wildlife take notice when the dominate species stay inside.

It's fun watching their carefree splashing. I fill the birdbaths each morning with clean water for the little ones. Then the crows show up later, to dunk their stale bread and leave empty peanut shells in the water, which seems weird.  But who can figure out crows? They seem needier than usual--maybe slim restaurant pickings. 

Other than the frustration everyone feels, the days are filled. There's Facetime, phone calls, email, text messages from friends.  Good food. Occasional shopping. Endless cleaning. Endless knife sharpening. Puzzles. Books. Music. Long walks for me. A nap doesn't hurt either, when a person just can't take any more reality. 

In the midst of this, moments of strange and simple contentment. OK, the 5 o'clock wine sure helps. But can we ever go back to how it was? All that rushing around.  Incredibly, we haven't left West Seattle for 6 weeks.

Nova and Maya love sewing and reading. This is a picture of a cute book bag Maya (7) made. The girls are really creative with arts, crafts and play. They don't have regular television in the house, so have to entertain themselves. Amanda said one of the benefits of this isolation is how well they're playing together. Hardly any sisterly bickering anymore.

On Monday, the bus drops off books from the school library and a packet of work from their teachers. The girls really miss school. And so do parents everywhere.

My sou chef's knife skills continue to improve. He's come a long way from rough-chopped cabbage. Look at the perfect (shall I say, finicky?) dice on these vegetables.  He's slow, but we have all the time in the world these days.

More yummy lettuce wraps.

And peelings for our resident bunny.

Wildlife Rules.