Today I am channeling Julia Child while making coronacation dill bread from my dear aunt’s 1960’s recipe. There is flour everywhere and the smell of baking bread fills the kitchen. I must admit that I am quite proud of myself today. That is a rare happenstance during my weeks of quarantine. I have not been overly depressed during this past month, but I have been rather lazy! Can’t wait for it to get done…
image credit: Taste of Home
Our oversized lawn, actually more of a mowed pasture, is bedecked with an abundance of dandelions. A sight to behold. And as with all sights, beauty or not is in the eye of the beholder. Sitting on the front porch with my seventeen-year-old granddaughter, we were gazing at the scads of dandelions in all growth phases from green-wrapped buds to glowing yellow flowers to white puffballs. I commented perhaps needlessly, “There are a lot of dandelions out there”.
My lovely, intelligent, compassionate granddaughter replied, “Yes, there are a lot of wishes out there.”
I was taken aback. Probably because I was thinking that there were just a lot of weeds out there. Weeds or wishes? Was it our age difference? Was it a personality thing – optimism v pessimism? Was it life experience? How could our oh-so-different perception of the ubiquitous yellow flowers be so different?
I will never look at dandelions the same way again. I have learned a new way to see them. How do you view a dandelion?
image credit: Madison White
In this time of coronavirus, you are being told to disinfect everything except maybe the dog. They say dogs don’t get coronavirus. They say a lot of things. One thing they don’t say often enough is what to use to clean. (Below is a link to a NYT article about which cleaners to use and why. Read it.)
My own cleaning disaster was many years ago when I lived in a very old duplex in Oklahoma City. The house had lots of architectural charm but also boasted a well-used, gray-tinged bathtub that I decided to clean thoroughly. They say suicides often are found nude and I was nude but just because I was home alone and fixing to take a bath. Suicide by bleach and ammonia was not my intention, but that was almost the result. As I was scrubbing away with the bathroom door and window shut, I started to feel queasy, then dizzy, then plague-struck. Close to passing out, I crawled out of the bathroom and lay in the hall wondering what had happened.
It took me a while to figure out what had gone wrong. There was no internet for research in those days and no coronavirus. I thought maybe I had the flu, but my symptoms cleared up as soon as I had fresh air. Eventually, I learned that you are not supposed to mix bleach and ammonia. I have told many people about this deadly cleaning combination. Now, I am telling you. Clean to keep from getting coronavirus, but don’t clean and die.
image credit: thewowstyle.com
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