Mosaic Monday #78: A "Wait"-y Month

Graham crackers with cream

cheese frosting and nuts

As I set about preparing this post, a recap of April 2020, I began as I always do, scanning the photos from the month.  A dangerous thing to do in this instance, with the preponderance of food photos.  Did we do anything other than eat?  I mentioned this to Spousal Unit, and he said the motto for the month was F-A-N - Food + Alcohol + Netflix.  Whatever you call it, I have managed to gain four pounds since February.  Yikes, I am going to have to make some changes!  For now, let’s enjoy the photos – at least they don’t have calories!

Team Cooking: Stuffed Tomatoes and Chicken in Cinnamon Sauce

We weren't big fans of either recipe

Just another breakfast omelet!

Apple Pie made with all of the remaining

2019 Goodland apples from my Mom's tree

Team cooking: Corned Beef Pasties. The filling was outstanding; we

would replace the pastry with the one Head Chef uses for steak pie 

Upper left: Red Beans and Rice  Upper right: Pork, Applesauce and Vegies

Bottom: Corned Beef Hash and Scrambled Eggs

Of course, there was more to the month than eating.  Anxious to get out of the house for a change of scenery, we attempted some hikes.  I say attempt because two of the three were unsuccessful.

Upper left: we made it to Lupine Lake on 4/2

Upper middle: Glacier National Park Closed

Upper right: Snake Loop Trail - only made it a mile from here on 4/9

Lower left: only made it a mile from here on 5/1

Lower right: COVID-19  Save Lives Now  Stay Home

Countryside driving also helped us escape our four walls. 

Upper photos - making S'mores along the river

Lower left: Kootenai River   Lower right: Playing Rook,

one of my childhood games

Left: Osprey nest along Thompson River

Scenes along Thompson River

Searching for any excuse to have a celebration (or was it any excuse to have champagne?), we jumped at the second anniversary of moving into our log house.  It may sound like an unlikely pairing, but we tried a new recipe (Biscuits and Gravy Casserole) to accompany our champagne.  I love breakfast for dinner (well, for any meal), and it wasn’t too far to stretch imagining that champagne as a mimosa!!!

#1 Son celebrated his birthday during the month, and on one our Skype calls he jokingly threw up a picture of a $800 Lego set of the Millennium Falcon, with “Birthday?” scrawled across it.  We couldn’t (and wouldn’t) get close to buying it for him, so I did the next best thing and stitched him up a Falcon.  This joined several other quirky items meant to create a mini-Grand Cayman care package – sun cream, mini bottles of rum, a sea shell, biryani recipe, cardamoms and bay leaves.  After all, it became very apparent as April marched on, that we would not be going to Grand Cayman to celebrate his college graduation.  This care package would have to do for now. 

Albert Tennyson wrote: “In the Spring a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.”  Perhaps he should have written a corollary for middle-aged men: “In the Spring a middle-aged man’s fancy heavily weighs to thoughts of fishing.”  Man with Hat began tying flies again, spreading feathers, thread and wire across the table on the lower level.  Of course, one can never have enough gear, so one day the UPS man brought this lovely fashion item - his first set of waders, ever.  Don’t you just love the look?

It was my turn to indulge myself when I bought a “new” card game.  For some reason, I got to thinking about a card game that we used to play when I was just little.  I could not remember the name of it, but the concept and the design of the cards was burned into my neurons.  It is a “driving” game, and some of the cards are designed to stop your opponent from progressing.  Even thinking about the cards would bring a smile or even a giggle to the surface.  I did some research and quickly (re)learned that the name of the game is Touring.  And would you know that good old Google informed me that there was ONE set out there, the exact set we had when I was a kid?  A wink from Spousal Unit, and a twist of his head, soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.  I spoke not a word, and went straight to work, ordering that vintage game!  It has brought me great joy to play it again, and to show the cards to our kids, who agree it is delightfully quirky and funny.

Everything is as I remember it, down to the "green felt" case with the cards and instructions.

This version of Touring was created/sold in 1965.  I adore the simple artistry which is so

compelling - the mustached man is SO expressive (and the animals are too)!

Dried Yarrow in my garden

The month was not all jollies.  My Mom was admitted to the hospital for a couple of nights (not related to COVID-19), and then released to the skilled nursing facility at her senior living community.  While the facility and the broader community have not had any COVID-19 cases, this development has caused more than a small amount of anxiety in my family.  We all have heard the tales of aged family members in these facilities, where they cannot be visited by anyone other than medical staff.  Well, now this has come home to roost.  We are continuing to pray for her recovery and a return to her home environment when it is medically prudent.

Glacier Lily in my garden

Each day, I followed the growth of Montana COVID-19 cases, which peaked on April 11 with 23 new cases for a total of 377 cases (6 deaths).  As of yesterday, we have 455 cases (16 deaths), and we have averaged 1.6 new cases a day in the state for the last week.   Based on this and other factors, the Governor started a phase one re-opening on April 24.  It is encouraging, but I think there are many of us that are still skittish to resume anything close to “normal” until we have been able to significantly ramp up testing, conduct contact tracing and/or have a vaccine.  In other words, my wishes from this post will have to wait a little longer.

Way down on the scale, in the category of “first world problems”, we officially cancelled our trip to Ohio for #1 Son’s graduation (the ceremony would have been today) and the follow-on vacation to Grand Cayman.   Glacier National Park notified us that we would be refunded for our backcountry camping applications, and it is unknown when they might be issuing any backcountry camping permits (can you hear the bears and other wildlife celebrating?)  The Alaska fishing trip Spousal Unit had scheduled in August with several buddies has been cancelled.  Sigh.

Reflection in Hodge Lake

Raptor on my trail cam

So, I continue to keep myself busy, with sewing projects, walks, and checking the trail cam.  

Violet Protest Project

I made two masks from a barely worn shirt.

I was blessed to find fusible interfacing in my

Mom's sewing machine, and elastic in my 

sewing kit.  Using the sewing machine

was like riding a bike - you never forget!

Sandhill cranes returned to our lake on 4/8

We woke up one morning and this grouse was on our deck.  I am not sure how it got there, but it certainly seemed confused about how to leave.  When I gently shooed it, it halfheartedly tried flying through the cables of the deck fence, as though it had already tried that.  So, I guided it around the side deck and down into the garden.  It finally moved off under the front porch, as you can see in the video below.

A future post will show you what’s happening in the garden; for now I will show you a couple of pictures of the Oriole feeder that I put out on April 30 (you may remember this was a Christmas gift).

Of course, I was over the moon to be able to kayak with my Dear Neighbor Friend this week since the stay-at-home directive was lifted (pretty easy to maintain the six foot clearance in a kayak!)  I was too busy talking to her to take any pictures, so I will leave you with one of my favorite photos from a past kayak excursion with her.  This was taken the morning after a crazy storm, and for me, it represents the hope of better days to come.

Mosaic Monday

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