Our weather has been mild but cloudy, rainy. Yesterday the sun made an appearance for about three hours between passing clouds.  I was so excited that I played in the garden a little, restacked a few light rocks that lost their place during the winter along flower beds, and sat in my garden chair watching the garlic grow hoping the bulbs aren't rotted from the rains.  The plants that lined the kitchen and dining room windows are outside.  Basil and parsley were transplanted outside in the kitchen garden along with arugula and lettuce that were started from seed in recycled plastic fruit containers.  Throughout the winter plants in the windows gave me comfort and pleasure but by now they need to be outside as part of spring cleaning.  Peas are popping their little sprouts through the soil in the big garden. I planted spinach, more lettuce and beets but with minimal sunlight who knows what will germinate.  And I'm always on the lookout for vole holes.  Hummingbirds should be getting close to western NC in another couple of weeks.  The Carolina wren has his tunnel nest constructed with dry dead leaves in my porch potting shelf.

With all the potted plants outside now, we check the night temperatures to determine if any need to be brought back in. So far, temps haven't dropped lower than low forties, so I leave them all out.  We do expect there will be at least one more cold front before mid-April.

A friend of ours is a nurse in the cardiac care unit outside of Atlanta.  She's getting reports of positive test results in her hospital and at Emory Hospital.  She texted us yesterday offering to pick up any groceries or anything we needed.  John called the other night to see if we still doing alright.  I watched the news as it was suggested that elderly people shop early in the morning for needed food and supplies.  I thought, "poor elderly" people.  How frightening for them. Today one of Cliff's medic friends saw us in a parking lot and also offered to pick up anything we needed.  Then it hit me.  Oh, crap!  We're those "elderly" people who need to shop early in the morning!!  We've stopped our Zumba and yoga classes at the gym.  I dance in the kitchen now and do home yoga.  Cliff eats vanilla ice-cream with only a little chocolate sauce.  Today he asked me to start wearing the N-95 mask to protect my compromised immune system whenever we leave the house.  He's no longer dispatched out for sick calls.  He responds to heart attacks and strokes, MVA's, structure fires and wears a mask to calls.  We have plenty of toilet paper! and we live in the woods................