There is a cold wind blowing outside and I am glad to be inside, although I have the kitchen window open, mainly because I discovered I am being watched.
Since the summery days are arriving, Roschti, the feline next door, is enjoying the great outdoors and his first stop in the morning is to watch what I am doing in the kitchen.
He stops for a drink of water at the communal bowl I have outside and then he takes his chance. You might be thinking how sweet, but he is cat and they always have ulterior motives which are usually connected with food. Yesterday evening, in an unobserved moment, he entered the kitchen and Mr. Swiss found it so sweet when he caught him munching from Tabby’s food bowl. Tabby probably gave permission as she was sitting outside bathing in the sun. This morning he was the first thing I saw outside, waiting and watching.
In the meanwhile life continues. My No. 1 son called in at my doctors yesterday to pick up my tablets for a giddy head and they worked immediately. I was bothered with my Menière balance problems from the inner ear which I had a few years ago, but suddenly they returned at the beginning of last week. Now things are reverting slowly to normality again as the tablets do help. Why do we golden oldies have such problems as time goes on? There is always something new on the horizon.
Yesterday was again a chance to escape from my isolation and go shopping. There is never very much happening on Monday. and yesterday was especially quiet at the store. Due to lock down there are not so many people shopping and as I go mainly in the afternoon there are even less. I saw from their screens at the store entrance where they register the people entering, there were only 60 shoppers, and this was also counting the store staff. I almost had the place to myself. I was home in an hour and had bought everything I needed. I even had the handicapped parking spaces to myself. I am not really happy about having a lock down, but you have to enjoy the advantages now and again.
The good news on the home front is that one of my orchids made new buds and the first one opened a couple of days ago. Nothing really special, but it is one of my first successes with an orchid and I see there are two other buds waiting for their big moment.
My hostas in the garden are also now sprouting so summer is really on its way. I have hostas dotted around here and there in my garden beds. I quite like them as they are really no bother. They begin to grow in Summer, flower a little and in late autumn the leaves begin to wither. I just have to wait for a while and then can remove the withered leaves and a year later they arrive again, one of the best low maintenance plants I have. The only danger can be that it will be a wet summer when the slugs arrive with their 300 teeth and go on a dining spree on the leaves.
Today I have planned a day is isolation, we nothing very much to deal with. Perhaps I will polish up a few windows, but as it has not rained for some time the glass is quite clean. Our hairy pea count is really decreasing in Switzerland and yesterday was a new record in low infections. Our government is still on a careful lookout for the second wave of infections, which I hope does not happen. We are now all waiting for the first relaxation in lockdown laws with the normal opening of stores again, although it will be a long while until I return to so-called normality, if ever. The restaurants remain closed here and I have absolutely no interest in socialising in a restaurant at the moment.
The schools here are opening again next month for the children, but many parents do not want to send their children. It has been decreed by the government so those parents refusing, face having a fine imposed if they keep their children at home.
And I am now on my way to socialising with my apartment and vacuum cleaner. Have fun isolating and queuing at the stores for food supplies. I have now learned the advantage of having enough food reserves at home. I never dreamt that the human race could be so experts at panic buying.
And the lilac bush is now flowering opposite my garden.
Chronicles of an Anglo Swiss 
So much is happening in the garden at this time of year. We have azaleas blooming. Don’t know if those are widespread in your area or not. But they are lovely. Have a great day .. SLP …
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We have azaleas but more as an indoor plant. Rhodedendrons are now beginning to flower and of course the many fruit trees. It’s a wonderful time of the year
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Good Morning or should I say Good afternoon. The hostas are looking good, as are mine. How do you keep the slugs and snails from eating yours? I see they are planted in the ground- so must be difficult to keep them looking good.
Enjoy your day of isolation…the garden is a saviour to all of us who are lucky enough to have one. Enjoy the sunshine 🙂
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Roschti and Tabby could possible become….friends? Your hostas are so beautiful. It is good to see them coming up again. Here in Florida, schools are permanently closed for this rest of this school year. Schools usually let out in May, so the governor said it did not make much sense to open them for only a few weeks, when our state gradually begins reopening the end of this month. And all the different states protesting: they want everything opened up NOW! What a strange and crazy time….
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The word friends doesn’t exist in meow and they just observe each other from a safe distance. My hostas are looking good in the sunshine.
The new school year begins in September after the six week summer holiday. Currently it is all home schooling. I am glad I no longer have any school children
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I am glad you’re getting better. The orchid is lovely.
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At least the bud opened
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😍
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The cat looks well nourished, I doubt he needs to be stopping for a snack inside your home.
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The problem is he is being fed by all the neighbours. I do not feed him, but he knows where my cat has his food
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True Tom cat😄
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That’s a beautiful orchid! That must be its natural color. My purple ones grew back white with a magenta center. I have a lot of them this time, though. I am hoping if I keep nurturing them, they will keep growing!
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I have had the orchid for a few months and it had lost almost all its flowers, but then i discovered the new buds
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My Pa says that Golden Oldies have so many problems because of all the abuse they took from their kids over the years. I remind him that he should have been satisfied with only two, and sold the other three on Ebay. Of course, he reminds me that there was no Ebay back then. (Actually, I can remember when Ebay was still an apricot orchard.) I do not think that we were particularly abusive to him. Otherwise, he would be is worse condition.
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My kids didn’t even have the same language as I did and their school language was German, although had English as an extra. Anyhow I managed although life today is really different to my younger years. My parents seemed to live in a different world and that is probably what my kids think of us
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I remind my Pa of that all the time. He could purchase a home here while working on the General Motors assembly line right out of high school. He thought that $30,000 for a home that his grandparents would have payed $4,000 for was very expensive; but that same home sold for $1,500,000 a few years ago. People of my generation do not have the same opportunities that his generation had, at least here. I know I earn a lot more than he did back then, but no matter what, it still does not add up.
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The orchid is beautiful and so is your lilac.
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😃
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Good morning…… Have a wonderful and memorable day
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