May Day!

No, we're not in trouble up here.  It's just that I love this first week of May – every year it makes me feel good – Spring has sprung!

We're getting more rain, too: a wonderful thing, as it's usually all over for us, H-2-O wise, by the end of April.  Fill the watercourses, dear Lord, we'll need it this summer.

Of course, with rain comes power outage.  Our electricity was off all last night, went out around 10 PM and just came back on at 7 AM today.  I finished reading the wonderful new novel by Leenie's buddy, Sarah Dunant, by the light of a dim lantern last evening: very appropriate, as it is about life in a convent in Renaissance Tuscany.  (Such a great historical love story, you must get and read it, friends, when it is published in mid-July.)

Our horrible virus siege is just about over, after a month of suffering, and that lifts our spirits as much as the coming of May. I guess that, being "old, now" we have to expect that illnesses will take longer to conquer than they once did; we'll also have to take serious steps to avoid picking up viral and bacterial infections.

Now we have seen the last of our guests for a while, and we are finally beginning the work that needs to be done this year on renovation of this cottage of ours.  The parlor and guest-room floors are the first project, scheduled for a week from now.  While that work is being done (including repainting the horrid orangey-red wall of the alcove in the parlor and ridding ourselves of the ugly chandelier therein) – we will go down and stay at Merrybrook for a couple of days.  When the work is done to our satisfaction, we will leave it to dry thoroughly while we head down for the long-delayed visit to Southern California, I think, over a weekend.  Our various siblings are clamoring for our presence there, and it will be an opportune time to go.  After that, we have a lot of outdoor work to be done, and more finishing touches to be installed for John's study.

By July, we should be able to take a deserved rest during the very warm summer months, lounging on our deck in the shade of the new umbrella table, on our chaise lounges, with a cool lemonade and a good book in hand.