The temperature in Pittsfield brushed up against 90 degrees. On April 14. As much as I like it, I do have to wonder what July will feel like. We actually talked about air conditioning today.
All the good weather though means a jump start on the yard and garden. My first spring jobs are out of the way – rake the gravel back on to the driveway, with the help of Simon, I have to add. The rototiller started, so the garden has been turned over, the fallen limbs have been removed, chipped on to a great big pile for my next project (paths into the woods.) The first of the porch furniture is slowly coming out of hibernation, and the mowers have been serviced and are back in the garage. My big dilemma – should I plant seeds outside? Surely, it's gonna snow at least one more time. But then again….
Did I mention Simon? How about Margaret, or Andrew, or Annie and Joe? They were all here for Easter, staggering their arrivals, but overlapping enough to go to the Red Lion Inn for Easter lunch, to pick up on a tradition Mom/Grandma started in Pomfret. Who remembers the name of that restaurant? Too easy – The Harvest.
Margaret and Andrew were here for a week-plus, but who's counting. That meant we got to spoil Simon while they were working. That translated into trips to Panera's, Easter candy, swimming at the Y, birthday cakes (play-do), muffins (real ones), coloring Easter eggs, and a host of other activities to break up the days. Who knew you could get so much amusement out of throwing sticks in the lake? Or watching a bulldozer? Or a waterfall?
Annie also worked while here for a couple of days, and Sankhar stayed back in Oakland to do cat-sitting, among other adventures. She picked a midnight arrival flight (Mary picked her up) and a predawn departure flight to Arizona for work and fun (John took her.) Teamwork. Annie filled us in on current plans for the big event in November.
Joe drove up from DC in a rental, for just two nights, but with only a couple of weeks into his new job, he couldn't take off more time. And Joe filled us in on current plans for the resettlement of his family in the DC area. Thomas and John were admitted into the no-boundary school so that makes house hunting a little easier.
We heard, through Andrew, that David and Paula are coming off a bout with Covid. I probably should reserve that news for the not-for-the-weekly-letter letter, but too late. Here's hoping that my revealing this didn't cause any setbacks on your road to recovery.
To be fair, we also had some medical stuff recently. Mary is treating a nasty abscess, and I had some tests for my prostrate and Duputryn's.
All is well out in Illinois, and folks are contemplating options for heading to India in November. Billy, in fact, was at the moment in Bangalore, for work.
We heard, also through Andrew, that the New Jersey Dicksons are contemplating travel to India. Maybe we should give up on the Poconos and all meet in Chennai. We also saw on Tinybeans Kiernan leading Grandpa around the room, standing up.
Speaking of standing, Luisa is taking steps with her toy walker. We did a reading Zoom with Thomas and John the day before Easter, with Simon taking part from here. We set a record of over an hour for this, as Thomas got one of his nature books out and was showing us all photos of whales and snakes and other creatures.
It's quiet around here. Can you all come back?
Love from over here.
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