Crabapple Red

Crabapple White

Bleeding Heart

The Beauty of May

Remember and Honor

Happy Boy

They named him Orenji which, as Alan may know, is Japanese for orange. It seems a fitting name for a Ninja (which he must be, having survived the Winter outside) and he is kind of Zen. 🐈

Memorial Day Weekend

                                                                                                                                          Rodica Madan

"Americans wear the symbolic red flower on Memorial Day—the last Monday in May—to commemorate the sacrifice of so many men and women who have given their lives fighting for their country."

"The Remembrance Day symbolism of the poppy started with a poem written by a World War I brigade surgeon who was struck by the sight of the red flowers growing on a ravaged battlefield."

https://www.history.com/news/world-war-i-poppy-remembrance-symbol-veterans-day

Indigo Bunting

Pollinator Garden in Progress...

Favourite restaurant for 46 years has fallen to COVID-19

Utterly heartbreaking. 💔

Young's Restaurant in Durham, NH is closing permanently. 

Wil and I have been dining at Young’s since our college days, and I even remember eating there while pregnant with our first child. 46 years of Young’s, and we have 5 children and 8 grandchildren. Always the people at Young’s were wonderful, the food excellent and the atmosphere just got better and better. 

We are so grateful for everything all these years. 💛

They will be sorely missed and so fondly remembered!

Click to read more:  A tradition comes to an end

(I am posting this on the 41st Anniversary of Wil's college graduation.)

RIP Jo*in*VT

It was during the Dean Campaign that I met Jo. She was one of the members of the original Dean blog, and when a bunch of us wanted to put together a special quilt for Howard Dean, I collected the squares and Jo and I got together at her house and she sewed it together! When Kimmy was grieving because her sister had died; we did it again.  I collected squares for a special quilt and Jo sewed that one together too. It's kind of a metaphor of all that Jo was and did in her amazing life. She was the one who took the scattered, incongruous parts and sewed them all together into something comforting and useful. It also expresses so well her kindness, strength and "let's get this done" approach to life. Her voice stays with me, and her smile. Wwe talked on the phone from time to time and her voice still seems fresh in my heart. May it ever be so. Rest in Peace, Jo. You are already missed, dear friend! 

Pumpkin T. Cat

This gorgeous kitty has been coming through our yard a lot all Winter.  Recently, we learned that his owner died, after a year or so with dementia.  Then we learned that he escaped her care when he was a kitten and has been fending for himself most of his life.  He is, nevertheless, sweet; just a bit skittish.  We learned all of this through inquiring on our local Front Porch Forum, and hearing from the son of his former owner.  He thought the kitty was long gone or dead and feels terribly that the kitty was out all Winter. But he has two cats and can't take him in.  Happily, a person here in town wants him.  Her two elderly kitties recently died (aged 19 years!) and she is prepared to take this fellow for his first ever vet visit. That is, once we "catch" him.  Wil and I have been feeding him the last few days and he seems to like the arrangement.  We want to gain his trust, capture him nicely, and get him to his new home. Wish us luck! 🍀

Pair of Orioles!

Vermont Graphs

Autumn Joy Sedum in Spring

Incongruous

So strange to see Snow and a Goldfinch in Summer plumage!

When it's cold outside ... I've got the month of May ...

The new marina at Lake Champlain

The Bike Path that Howard Dean founded

🌼🌷 Happy Mother's Day 🌺🌸

Moms are more than at home today.  Moms are home.

Beginning to Snow on the Mountain

We got 1.25” of snow (melting now)

Puffy Clouds Day

The Flower Moon will be full at 6:45amET

Light

Wanna let off a little angst?

                            Bernie Sanders Supporters Have Every Right to Be Furious (click!)

"... You didn’t listen to us in 2016 when we said Hilary Clinton was unelectable. You didn’t listen to us when we said Donald Trump had a real chance at winning. But you blamed the entire catastrophe on the handful of us who didn’t vote for your candidate.

"And now the second Bernie Sanders suspends his 2020 campaign, you’re all over us to commit to your boy, Joe Biden.

"We’ve been here before. We have a pretty good idea how this story ends. Maybe you’d do well to listen to us for once. ..."

Heh.

Stones

New Daffodil

🌼🌿🌷Happy May Day!! 🌷🌿🌼

Mmmm...Cake...as April folds...

Shhhhhh....

Today is Wil's 65th birthday, so I have bought him this bicycle, and the kids have added accessories to it, such as water bottle and holder, bike lock and rear carry rack, as well as helmet and car bike carrier.  It's such a sweet secret that we have all been keeping together, and has given us all something to look forward to!  We pick it up curbside at 12:30pm!

Local Walk: LOVE Note

Local Walk: Yellow Crocuses

  My town is the green one, with 11 cases.  We are on the outskirts of Burlington, which has the most.

Local Walk: Mr. Bun

Local Walk: Holly and Berry

Local Walk: It's definitely Spring

        Here is Alan’s screen capture, of how prepared, financially, the various states are:

VERMONT NEWS:
4 weeks ago Vermont was doubling the rate of COVID-19 cases every 2-3 days.  Then it went to every 5 days. Two weeks ago it was every 2 weeks. Now it is every 37 days!  

This is why we can begin to open up just a little bit.  [Not like Georgia, opening up even before they hit peak!]  We hit peak around April 4th, as Eldest’s graphs show.

Local Walk: Pine Cone