We are polar opposites from the NE. We’ll be lucky to open the windows a couple of more times before summer on the rare upcoming cool days.
Personally grilling season ends on Memorial Day if not earlier and won’t resume until mid-October at best.
The oven won’t come on, at all unless we get a juicy little tropical storm, no biblical floods Houston is known for, but 6-8 inches is nice in the middle of summer.
We had a few nice days this weekend (around 70), but are now back to the 50’s and a forecast for frost on mothers day. I swear this year’s March was warmer than May. But I won’t complain . . . by July it will be in the 90’s with 90% humidity. And we had only one plowable snow all winter.
I have a grow light in my basement, so the herbs are starting to grow. As usual, the mint is taking over my front flower bed, so if nothing else there will be mojitos this summer.
Oh, and I did go to the local meat market. It’s a zoo. But I did get a (huge) London broil, NY strip steaks and some bone-in chicken breasts. Between that and delivery I think we’re good for another few weeks. Maybe the occasional trip for bread, milk and eggs.
ETA: Oh, and bacon. I’m very low on bacon. 
We’ve given up on trying to find good quality bacon. We usually buy from a local smokehouse or from the farmers market - neither of which are current options for us. So, we’re making do with supermarket stuff. Fortunately, we still have stocks of free range pork sausages from the farmers market, so Sunday breakfast is not a total write-off.
Local gossip says that one of our normal supermarkets is adding more delivery slots over the next couple of weeks - and they do decent bacon. Fingers crossed.
Amateur. grin A cube box of Kleenex lasts me a little over a day this time of year even with antihistimines. sigh I’ve shifted over to handkerchiefs. I have a bucket to soak them in overnight and hand wash them each morning. Hand wash is not because they are delicate but to avoid tiny clothes washer loads.
WE HAVE FLOUR !!!
A few days back, Mrs H spotted a name she recognised from one of our local farmers markets - Fruits of the Forage - who usually sell jams and the like.
They were starting home deliveries of vegetables. And flour - sourced from small local millers (including one in our nearby town - which is celebrating is 200th anniversary this year).
The box has just arrived. There’s plain, self raising and two bread flours. - all as ordered. As for the veg. There’s some basic stuff - spuds, onions, courgettes, carrots. And some lovely cherry tomatoes. But what’s intriguing is the foraged stuff - a bunch of wild garlic and another of ground elder. Never really heard of the latter - apart from the fact you don’t want it getting into your garden as its incredibly invasive. We’ve nibbled on a leaf which was quite tough and has a sort of celery-esque flavour. Should be fun. Oh, yes, and a jar of hedgerow jam.
YAY! 3 months ago, a statement like this was unthinkable.
Is there a bustle in your hedgerow?
And congrats on the flour score!
WE HAVE MASKS !!!
A box of 50 3-ply surgical masks costs 42€ / $45.39, I guess it’s the price of today. Bought it at the wholesaler food chain Metro, limited to a box per client. When a staff came with a cardboard box full of them, briefing other cashiers on this, all the clients had glittering eyes and were ready to jump on it.
There’s hedgerow highway robbery.
This jam is damson, apple, plum, elderberry and blackberry. It’s a 210g jar and it cost £4. Which is extortion - and why we stopped buying from them at the farmers market. Or, looking at it another way, the jam was absolutely free. That way would be to say that the £4 expenditure took us over the minimum order level for free delivery - avoiding the otherwise £4 charge. As two retired procurement managers , we havent lost our touch for a deal ( or, at least, herself hasnt)
Hurrah! Are you being required to wear them when outside. I sense that’s coming to the UK in the near future. Prime Minister is to make a statement on Sunday announcing the “road map” for unlocking the lockdown. But we’re not to expect anything other than very modest changes just yet.
Massachusetts just switched on 6 May to requiring masks when outside, but there’s a bit of wiggle room: "the governor’s order applies to “any person who is in a place open to the public in the Commonwealth, whether indoor or outdoor, and is unable or does not maintain a distance of approximately six feet from every other person.” So if you’re in your own backyard or a large public garden and no one else is near you, no - you don’t have to wear a mask.
There’s also a fine: “The governor’s order specifies a fine of up to $300 per violation and also notes that anyone not wearing a mask can be banned from entering any business in the state. The order includes an exemption for anyone with a medical condition that prevents mask-wearing.”
Walmart is selling them again. I think they are meant as home repair dust filters but I ordered a box of 25. Adding a layer cut from pantyhose will increase the effectiveness. If you give a mask a time out for several days, it can be safely reused without being disinfected, as virus won’t survive more than a day or two on a porous surface.
Most probably in the public transport.
The lockdown is supposed to end this Sunday.
Yes!!
I come up with a system, you take 7 disposable masks, and numbered them accordingly. Every monday you will only use mask #1, Tuesday #2 etc. Like this it can last at least a month (or more) and no need to wash them. I think the virus cannot survive for 7 days on soft surfaces.
Good idea for the 7 day masks.
Mrs H bought a box of 50 disposables last month in the expectation that we’ll soon need them.
A retired friend who lives in the South and only drives a couple of times a week leaves his mask on his car’s front seat, where it gets sun and heat.
Not delivered but just picked up 20 lbs of produce from a local organization called Buy Farm Food. Pretty happy with the selections.
20 lbs for $20.
The good news is that it is also bringing out the best in people, e.g., the woman who saw me limping with my cart to my car and offered to unload the bags into my trunk. (I refused–my problem is my leg, not my arms.)
Who’d a thunk it but tvs. I lost two tvs in the last couple of weeks so I’m tv less.
One is in warranty waiting service and the other is15 years old and needs to be discarded.
I’m a Best Buy guy having recently retired after nearly 25 years without getting fired, a major accomplishment.
So I don’t want to set up an account at BB on line only pickup and we go to the local Wally World, a huge nice one and they’ve stepped up their game since the many years I’ve been to one but…
Wally World is totally out of tvs.
I ordered a 32 inch LG stop gap tv from Best Buy with 5 year warranty for about a buck fifty.
Awaiting pickup.
