2018 Life Logs, Day 89—Easter and Passover Traditions
Date: Friday, March 30, 2018
Weather: Overcast and Foggy; High Temp 51, Low 36 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA

Easter celebrates the resurrection of Jesus over 2,000 years ago while Passover celebrates the ancient Jews leaving Egypt more than 3,000 years ago. Both are determined by the spring equinox which occurred on March 20th this year. Equinox means ‘equal night’ in Latin, so ten days ago we experienced day and night of equal length all over the world. This year, the first night of Passover was today, Good Friday, and Easter will be on the second day of Passover this Sunday, April 1, which is also April Fool’s Day. Easter and April Fool’s Day occur on the same day about three or four times each century. The next time this will occur is in 2029, then 2040, and then not again until 2108. So make good with your Easter April Fool’s jokes!

But back to Easter and Passover. Easter is all about Jesus and Passover is all about Moses. Both of these men inspired people to strive for kindness, respect, and for justice for all people. I’m all in for that, so I enjoyed spending the day celebrating both traditions with the Goldstones. Since the Goldpebbles did not have school today but Heather and Jed needed to go to work, I went over this morning to be with the boys. I took things needed for coloring Easter eggs with natural dyes—red cabbage for blue eggs, turmeric for yellow eggs, beets for pink to red eggs, onion skins for marbled brownish eggs. I enjoyed the morning with the boys as we hypothesized what color eggs we would get from the various natural dyes. The red cabbage was the real surprise. The boys were certain we would get pink, red, or purple eggs, but actually you get blue eggs from red cabbage dye. The dye is ruby red, but the egg that emerges is definitely blue. So cool.

Heather and Jed both got home early in the afternoon, so I headed home for a couple of hours to work on Ziggy’s book. Then I returned for a Passover Seder. This is a Jewish ritual feast marking the beginning of Passover. The Seder is a feast that includes reading from the Haggadah, drinking wine, telling stories, singing, and eating special foods. When I arrived I was greeting by Ollie in the front yard playing hockey with Jonah, Jed, and Ollie’s stuffed panda that he got for his birthday. Panda was also invited to join us for the Seder which was so cute. I really appreciate being included in the Goldstone Seder tradition and the food tonight was spectacular. Heather made a roasted chicken with lemon, scallions, and green olives accompanied by spicy carrots and salad. Thank you, Goldstones!

2018 Life Logs, Day 88—Out and About All Day
Date: Thursday, March 29, 2018
Weather: Mostly Cloudy and Warmer; High Temp 59, Low 47 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA

My hope to have the time today to finish up Ziggy’s book just didn’t happen as I ended up being out and about all day and into the evening. I had a late morning coffee date with friend Midge Frieswyk to discuss education issues, something we both enjoy discussing. I came home long enough to eat lunch and then I was on to visit with other friends, Karen and Peter Baranowski. Karen has a relative that might want to sell or rent a property that Karen thought I might be interested in. So, I went to see the that. I left there and drove to Hyannis to do a little shopping, but as I am finding more and more, I should have stayed home and shopped on Amazon. The stores had nothing I was looking for and Barnes and Nobles was the most disappointing. I thought I could go there and look for books like I do at the library. But an employee has to do the searching for you, and I found it to be a very frustrating experience. I’ll stick to the library and Amazon from now on. I made a couple of other stops on the way home and didn’t get here until 7:30 pm. I spent my evening on the phone to family while making natural egg dyes. I will be spending tomorrow morning with the Goldpebbles as they do not have school. And if they are interested, we will color Easter eggs with the natural dyes. I got my incentive for this from my daughter-in-law Jo’s Facebook post for tomorrow’s Soul Food Friday at Finca Maravilla. Thanks, Jo!

2018 Life Logs, Day 87—A Day on My Computer
Date: Wednesday, March 28, 2018
Weather: Mostly Sunny; High Temp 47, Low 36 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA

I made up for all that gardening exercise yesterday by sitting still all day today. I’ll hit a balance here soon, but I needed to sit still today and work on getting the book Ziggy wrote published on Shutterfly. I’m not quite done, but I made good progress. Then in the early evening I went to the Goldstones to be with Sam while everyone else was out and about. Heather was on the air fundraising. Jed and Ollie went to Kindergarten Curriculum night at East Falmouth. And Jonah was with Sam and I for a few minutes before taking off for soccer practice. I have to be out and about tomorrow, but hopefully I can find the time to the finish Ziggy’s book. That’s the goal for tomorrow.

2018 Life Logs, Day 86—Harder Than I Thought
Date: Tuesday, March 27, 2018
Weather: Mostly Sunny, Still Windy; High Temp 43, Low 32 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA

My goal for today was to plant 3 rhubarb crowns and then prepare an area at Heather and Jed’s to plant the 15 raspberry canes I got as a birthday present. With the help of Sam, Jonah, and Ollie, the beds for the rhubarb crowns were prepared yesterday and got those planted first thing this afternoon. But in order to plant the raspberries, I needed to remove the sod from a 30-foot long x 2-foot wide area. No problem, right? Wrong. As my body is telling me, I overdid it a bit this afternoon as I can hardly move tonight. I’m sure a good night’s rest will repair things, but I am anxious to test that belief. And the reason for the hurry in getting things planted is no longer there. I had seen a weather report showing rain for the next couple of days. I wanted the new plants to benefit from that rain, but now it looks like the only rain might come mid-day on Friday.

Tomorrow I am going to do some jobs here at home and then at 4 pm I pick Sam up and head to the Goldstones. Heather is on the air from 4 to 7 pm and Jed and Ollie go to Kindergarten Curriculum Night at 6 pm. So I’ll hang out with Sam and Jonah until either Heather or Jed gets home. Busy times for the Goldstones.

2018 Life Logs, Day 85—Making Spring Happen
Date: Monday, March 26, 2018
Weather: Mostly Sunny, Very Windy; High Temp 39, Low 29 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA

As I write this it is 34 degrees outside and Weather Underground tells me it feels like 27 degrees F. The high today was 39 degrees, but with the wind, I am pretty sure it never felt warmer than 32. Freezing!!! But I decided to ignore that and proceeded to do things to make spring happen. And I invited the Goldpebbles to join me.

I went to the gym this morning for the first time in three weeks and it felt so good to get back into my routine. I came home and made miracle mineral chicken broth with bones of the chicken I roasted for dinner last night. After that had burbled for a couple of hours, I turned it off and headed to Heather and Jed’s. As I explained in last night’s log, I had asked Heather and family to give me raspberries and rhubarb to plant for my birthday, so this afternoon I went to Heather’s and started preparing places to plant these things. When Sam got home from school, he offered to come out and help me. He is now big enough to carry bags of gardening soil and to dig planting areas. I left him doing that and went to pick up Ollie and Jonah. And when they got home, they wanted to help as well. So we worked together to make spring happen despite the cold and wind. I will return to complete the planting tomorrow. Hopefully the wind will be gone and the temperature will be a bit warmer. Spring must be here somewhere!

2018 Life Logs, Day 84—Snowy Sunday
Date: Sunday, March 25, 2018
Weather: Wintry Mix with Periods of Sunshine; High Temp 38, Low 31 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA

My window on the world was a bit confusing today. There were periods when snow was falling under totally overcast skies making it almost a white-out. Then all of a sudden, there would be a break in the clouds and sunshine. Then the snow would start again, even with the sun shining, and then we would get tiny little balls of hail. Winter is trying mighty hard to hold on in these parts, but the forecast is for warmer weather over the next few days and into Easter weekend. Maybe the lamb part of March is finally upon us and I am looking forward to it. The weather was so beautiful while I was in Puerto Rico, and I do miss that. But more than the sunny weather, I miss seeing Ziggy, Coco, Justin, and Jo every day. I had a wonderful week with them and I spent most of this day working on getting the photos from my time there edited and named. Slowly I will get that job done and have those wonderful memories bottled up.

I took a break in the late afternoon to go over to Heather’s to discuss gardening issues. For my birthday, I requested raspberry and rhubarb plants. But since I don’t have a place to plant them, they will be planted there. The question was where? We brainstormed various locations and then in the flurry of light snow and then tiny balls of hail we went outside to check out locations and made decisions. I will start getting the ground ready tomorrow and hope to have the raspberry and rhubarb plants in the ground as soon as possible this week.

2018 Life Logs, Day 83—March for Our Lives and Ollie’s Bday Party
Date: Saturday, March 24, 2018
Weather: Mix of Sun and Clouds; High Temp 46, Low 33 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA

Although there is still snow on the ground, there was just enough sun and warmth today to give hope that spring will surely come soon. It was a perfect day for Falmouth’s March for Our Lives rally on the Green and for Ollie’s birthday party. Tomorrow will be much colder with a possibility of snow flurries, so I’m glad the outdoor activities were today.

I went shopping this morning for snacks for Ollie’s party and delivered those to the Goldstones. While there, I was introduced to Zuzu, Ollie’s new guinea pig. Zuzu is adopted, so not a baby, but very cute. He is about the same size as Sam’s and Jonah’s guinea pigs. We played with him for a bit, and then I was off to Falmouth’s March for Our Lives rally. I saw one estimate indicating that over 800,000 people attended the March in Washington today. The gathering on the Green was very tiny by comparison, but a good turnout for Falmouth. I am so proud of our young people and how they are doing everything they can to get action on the gun control issue. They are so articulate and so dedicated. Terry and Olivia and Jane and Bruce were also at the gathering. It was a good event and ended just in time for me to get to Ollie’s birthday party on time. Ollie chose a Ninja theme for his party and invited his friends to try the Ninjaline obstacle course and walking the slackline. Both are challenging for 6-year olds, but they had fun trying. We then had Ninja cake and broke open the Ninja piñata. Inside were inflatable swords for all the Ninjas which they loved. It was a fun afternoon and Ollie was a happy birthday boy.

2018 Life Logs, Day 82—Dinner with Friends
Date: Friday, March 23, 2018
Weather: Partly Cloudy; High Temp 45, Low 30 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA

I did work on photos this afternoon and posted my favorites from Puerto Rico on my Facebook page. If you would like to go there to see those photos, you can go to my Facebook page, Judith Handley, or go to this link which I think will take you there:
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100013396515498

Tonight I had dinner with my Newcomers Dining-in Group. This is a group of my closest friends here in Falmouth. Bruce and Jane Woodin just returned from two months in Florida and on Caribbean cruises. Midge and Bill Frieswyk recently spent time in on a ski vacation with family in Colorado. Peter and Karen Baranowski went on a Caribbean cruise in February but spent March here on the Cape. And our hosts tonight, Olivia and Terry White are the brave ones who have been here on the Cape all winter and have endured the past few weeks that have been particularly stormy. Everyone is ready for spring, but tonight’s dinner was a great reprieve. Terry and Olivia put on a full Indian spread that was absolutely delicious and the opportunity to visit with good friends all at once was wonderful. Thank you, Terry and Olivia.

Tomorrow morning I will help get ready for Ollie’s afternoon birthday party. Then I will attend the Falmouth March for Our Lives Rally, one of the 800 gatherings happening around the world tomorrow in support of the Parkland, Florida, students. I will only be able to attend for a short time before I need to head to Ollie’s party, but I do want to show my solidarity with the cause. Then I will change gears and enjoy the six-year-olds at Ollie’s party as they face a Ninja obstacle course. Should be an action-packed day.

2018 Life Logs, Day 81—Getting Reoriented
Date: Thursday, March 22, 2018
Weather: Mostly Cloudy; High Temp 39, Low 30 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA

Today was a day of reorientation–going from vacation mode to back home mode; going from sunny, hot weather to cold, rainy, snowy weather. I didn’t get much done as I think I spent time just wandering aimlessly about the apartment figuring out what to do next. Maybe tomorrow will be more productive. What I did get done was to get caught up on lost sleep, laundry, and communication with family and friends from afar. It was good to catch up on what has been happening in their lives while I was gone. This evening I went to an Open House at Sam’s new school to see a school-wide display of art work and to get a tour of the school. Today I had hoped to get photos posted from the time in Puerto Rico, but that has been moved to tomorrow’s list. And tomorrow night I will have dinner with good friends from here. Slowly, but surely, I will get reoriented.

2018 Life Logs, Day 80—Home for Ollie’s 6th Birthday
Date: Wednesday, March 21, 2018
Weather: Icy Rain Off and On All Day: High Temp 38, Low 33 degrees F
Location: Back Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA

After two wonderful weeks split between Windbird and visiting with Justin, Jo, Ziggy, and Coco, I made it back home today just in time for Ollie’s 6th birthday. It was also the first full day of spring, but you couldn’t tell that by the weather in either Boston or here on the Cape. When I got to my car, I was greeted with the snow from last week, but thankfully nothing new. There was icy rain off and on all day. We might get snow tonight or it might pass us buy, but I know for sure that it is not 82 degrees and sunny. That’s Puerto Rico!

I arrived in Boston at 10:15 am and was on the bus back to the Sagamore Park ‘n Ride to get my car by 10:50 am. On the way home I stopped to do some birthday shopping and food shopping and then went home to make Ollie’s chocolate decadence birthday cake. I delivered the cake and presents to the Goldstones and had dinner with them. It was great and it was so good to see everyone. Ollie enjoyed opening his packages from his Grammy Marti because one was wrapped in Sunday comics from the newspaper and two others had photos on the front of the package. He seemed pleased with all of the presents, a book and light-up Legos from Grammy Marti and Legos from me, but he was particularly in love with a stuffed panda Heather gave him. He has a book called Panda Kindergarten that I think he got when he was at the National Zoo in Washington. Now he has the panda to go with it and he was truly pleased. Happy Birthday, Ollie!

All together I got about 4 hours of sleep last night since I was flying and changing planes. I am just too tired to post photos or even write a coherent log, but I hope to spend tomorrow posting photos from Puerto Rico and Ollie’s birthday and recapping the time on Windbird and in Puerto Rico. But now to bed.