Point & shoot photo album: April

Jasmine continued to find me wherever I go.

I have mentioned this neighbor.

"I miss you," says the flowerpot. A lockdown message?

Infant peaches.

Weekend bed inertia.

Walking by our estuary as often as we can.

These gracious trees and gracious shadows.

My hometown a dream across the water.

Ice plants, always.

Me and my best company.

Playgrounds are, of course, still closed.

A wonderful surprise - wild turkeys. See the male in the back?

Instax.

"Temporarily Closed."

Vegan nachos, made in the oven. (I grew up microwaving nachos, but oven-made is even yummier.)

Sights from my runs...


Dreamy Japanese maple.

The mystical peacock and the even more mystical white cat. She has light green eyes and is fairly skittish. I didn't even realize she was in this photo until I was looking at it later.

Vegan grilled cheese, yum yum yum.

Spring evening light.

Late-season tangerines.

A gift from a restaurant I work with.

Estuary again.

Lover.

Strange ramp into the water. For small craft? Mermaids?

Weekend breakfast on the porch of a vacant unit.

I love this cat! She came right away to hang out and get pets, as soon as I called to her.

And then she jogged along with me for a while, trying to persuade me to give up running in favor of some more quality time with her.

An excellent way to use up asparagus and overripe cherry tomatoes. Grated asparagus, vegan mozzarella, burst cherry tomatoes, pine nuts, and then baby greens added after baking. No sauce.

The mini cactus decides to flower!!!

More lockdown messages.

Sweet peas - my birth month flower.

Paper butterflies.

What remains after making mango lassi.

***

April was the month of adjusting. I had my strange birthday. Lockdown continued; lockdown was extended (now through the end of May). As an aside: "Shelter in place" does sound better, doesn't it? My girlfriend and I figured out pandemic grocery shopping, to my relief, and I got more adjusted to the permanent working-from-home lifestyle. We watched a lot of movies and TV. I settled into a few daily/weekly habits and routines to help things feel more normal and less stressful. Walking, jogging, walking while reading. Now instead of my days feeling alarmingly open, I sometimes even manage to feel like I don't have enough free time.

I received a wonderful cooking-related gift for my birthday: a very nice chef's knife. I've been using it a lot as, of course, I've been cooking...a lot (probably more than I had cooked in the previous 31 years of my life, combined). I have a weekly farm box I get to pick up and I've been learning from that. Not wanting to waste that produce has been making me branch out, learn new dishes. Nothing complicated, but I feel pleased with being more a slightly more able home cook.

I also started to be able to concentrate on reading again (something which I couldn't do much of in the first few weeks of shelter-in-place). Thank goodness.

How was your April?