Birthday aboard the Cruise Ship Solitude

It's Jim's birthday today.  He is 78.  He therefore easily falls into the older age group where people are being exhorted to Stay At Home for their own safety.

He did go out yesterday.  We were out of fresh vegetables so we drove to the Spring Creek Vegetable farm.  It was good there.  They have loads of produce. And people are being very considerate and wait in their cars until it is their turn to go in. Not that there were lots of cars. We were the second of three while we were there.  They do report, however, that they are nice and busy. Good!

Jim didn't get out of the car.

Then we went to the IGA in Mount Clear.  Once again, Jim didn't get out of the car.  Most people were very considerate and kept their distance.  A few, not so much.  It was very tempting to push out of the way with my trolley the people who came up close to look in the freezer cabinet that I was already looking in.  Their behaviour would have bordered on rude under normal circumstances.  It was positively reckless under the present ones. I sprayed myself with my Anti-Covid spray after they had moved out of the way.   And didn't ram them with my trolley.

We have had quite a lot of small wildlife in and around our place lately.  There are oodles of small black millipedes pottering round.  We get them inside from time to time.  At the moment they are flocking in in droves.  Jim vacuums them up when he has the vacuum cleaner out.  Every now and then I sweep them up and put them outside. We have also been finding unusual numbers of spiders. We get spiders, of course, but not usually so many.  Mostly they have been small and relatively unobtrusive. But we've had a couple of larger ones and I don't know what they are.  They're not big enough to be Huntsman spiders, unless they are juveniles. But Huntsman don't usually rush about much and these have positively scuttled.  Not only that, when you approach them they rush about and, more often than not, rush at you.  This is not typical Huntsman behaviour. I don't suppose it matters much what they are.  I put a glass over them and then put them outside.  Huntsman are usually fairly resigned when you do this.  These spiders get positively antsy!

We get lots of corvids too (no anti-corvid spray!). But outside. So far none have come inside, although there was a magpie looking through the patio doors the other day.  I think it was waiting for me to refresh the water in the bowl I keep outside for them.

I have been quite busy, amongst all the things I do every day.  I found a purpose for that little wall shelf I ordered by accident

Put on its side, it makes a great desk tidy

I have sorted out the seed tent and started planting winter and spring veg seeds

Now I just need to tackle the snails

I have pulled out the tomatoes and cut the beans down to the ground

Now they are ready for the winter and spring veg.
If the snails don't eat all the emerging seedlings!

And I have sorted out the compost bins.

It was a beautiful morning for Jim's birthday

I gave him a jigsaw for his birthday. I know he doesn't need any more jigsaws.  He has several that he hasn't done yet, plus one unfinished one waiting at Hill House, if we ever get up there again.  But I thought it might be educational as well as keeping him occupied

He seems to be enjoying it