Monday Morning Pick-Me-Ups

Sometimes it's a struggle, this new way of life we have.  I'm not ashamed to say it.  I just have periods where I can't lift my feelings of gloom, and I have to keep looking for ways to pick myself up.

I usually love Monday mornings because of a new week to start, but this morning I woke up too early and was roaming through the house wondering what to do.  I made coffee.  That's always a good choice.  It was too chilly to sit outside, but I did see the hummingbird feeder and remember to smile about how I've been a bad bird mama.

When I replaced their water last week, I had several things on my mind and was heading somewhere fast.  I know the proper ratio of water to sugar, but something made me miss the mark (and how I remembered I did that is amazing in itself).  Instead of 1 cup of sugar to 4 cups of water, I added 1/4 cup of sugar to the 4 cups.  Since I added some ice cubes to get it outside faster, I even added an extra tablespoon of sugar.  So funny.  

I was feeling so proud of myself the next day when one of the beautiful hummers came flying up and was telling it how it now had clean and delicious food.  But it took a sip, looked at me and flew away.  It took several days of no HB participation before it finally dawned on me what had happened.  I brought in the feeder, made a new batch, and watched a grateful visitor drink and drink and drink - and keep on drinking.  Surely I'm not the only feeder around!  Maybe it's the bright flowers they're attracted to.

Before I threw out the Seattle Times that I had barely skimmed yesterday, I decided to look at the inserts.  They're usually geared to Seattle, so I don't always find anything to interest me, but there were two articles that caught my eye.  

A friend and I were talking this week about how there is only one Chic-Fil-A that I know of and that not within my comfortable driving range.  I can't think of any fried chicken places that I've noticed up here, although I'm sure there are plenty - just not in my area.  Then I saw this beautiful picture and for some reason read the article.  The most interesting thing about it is that it is served on a pickle fritter instead of a bun.  I'm not sure how I feel about that, but I would like to try it one time!  

Another article in the At Home section was one on how to enjoy pools when they aren't open nowadays.  Because of the short hot season, almost no one has a backyard pool here, and there are few, if any, pools open.  Our apartment one looks very pretty - but empty.  I wonder if we could go in and use the lounge chairs properly distanced for visiting.  Probably not.  It would be too tempting for a few of the kids to take a leap in the pool.  

Anyway, the article is about how people all over the country are coping during a pandemic by ordering various sizes and qualities of pools.  I was actually able to find a link to the article.  It was surprisingly funny.  People do many strange things to cope with the way life is now. 

So now it's normal waking-up time, and I'll go have that second cup of coffee and get busy.  I also discovered two ideas for the Win-Bin's shade garden.  Ferns and bleeding hearts.  The girls are fascinated by the name, bleeding heart, of course, and have never seen one in person.  I've had them in several flower beds and am going to be on the lookout for one.  That might be hard since I'm not going anywhere, but I think I can call a nursery and do a pick-up if they have them.  

I found these from my pictures from 13 years ago (that long?) when I had the best yard ever in Columbus, GA.  

I hope today is happy.  I need to make time to see the family if only from a distance.