PHOTO-A-DAY-CHALLENGE
Easing Back into Normal Life as COVID-19 Cases Decrease
One April week of California Red Tier Life in 2021
Looking forward to normal life again
My photo opportunities have been limited by pandemic restrictions, but they allow more freedom now. I took most of these photos in my own neighborhood. Recent rains revived the weeds in my garden just as spring made the flowers burst into bloom. I took this photo next to my walkway to the house on Day 1.
Yes, I did take time to smell the irises on my way back from taking the trash cans to the curb for the next day’s pickup.
When I brought the trash containers back from the curb on Day 2, I noticed the gophers had crossed the driveway and started to attack my Euphorbia plant. I transplanted a root cutting from our other property last year because Euphorbia needs little care once established. It’s also drought-resistant. I hope I have time to make the weeds around it disappear soon. The gazanias prefer to grow in the soil the gophers pushed to the sidewalk.
Across the driveway on Day 3, I found this shy iris hiding among the potted lemon balm and volunteer Lamb’s Ears in a shady spot under the eaves of the house. I didn’t have room to plant the leftover rhizomes on planting day in 2013. Instead, I threw them into a shallow cardboard box, covered them with dirt, and put the box into that shady corner. The next spring, I had a clump of purple bearded irises growing there, and they’ve been back every year since then.
On Day 4, it was off to the dentist to get the impressions made to crown an implant. On this April day, it was two months overdue. After my husband broke his neck in February, I couldn’t leave him alone to get any dental work done. The dental technician allowed me to photograph the work she had done after she made this mold of my lower row of teeth.
Almost every day I walk to my mailbox a block away. It’s in front of a neighbor’s gorgeous flowerbed that always colors my world in spring. On Day 5, I couldn’t resist taking two shots of it at its April best. First, an overview of the vines clumped in the middle. Then a close-up of a section that shows more detail in the individual flowers.
The yellow flower vines are small roses. The smaller flowers are California poppies, irises, Jupiter’s beard (red valerian), rosemary, French lavender, and ice plant.
The photo below shows the details of what’s in that clump of vines climbing the roof behind the mass of yellow roses. It’s a wall of flowers.
I can’t pass my neighbor’s home without showing you her trellis of roses I look forward to seeing every year. I took this when I walked to the mailbox on Day 6. You can see it’s beside the pictures I took on Day 5.
It’s Day 7 and now that I’ve taken my online bookstores off vacation mode, it’s time to sell and ship again. Wouldn’t you know an order for an odd-size book came just five days before the shipment of new boxes to fit it was due to arrive? I had to recycle in order to ship that bottom one on time. But I protected the book inside well with extra packing materials.
Just a week in the way back to my normal life as I look forward to pandemic lockdowns ending.