I have been meaning to post something for a week or so and somehow something just keeps getting in the way. While being stuck at home should make our schedules easier, we are both finding ourselves very busy. I've started to reread a series of books that are really engaging and when it has come time to decide about doing some reading or typing this blog - the reading has been winning. Of course, it could also be some naps might be getting in the way of writing. We have started to enjoy using our new outdoor furniture by having some friends and family over for conversation and meals. My parents have joined us for brunch a couple of times in which we area actively working to maintain the correct social distance (the above picture aside - I'm farther back than it looks, just in case it looks like we have thrown caution to the wind) while still enjoying the sunshine. Most important it has been nice to have some conversations with people besides each other.
Our garden is starting to produce a weekly vegetable haul that has made meal planning more interesting as we try to figure out what to make with the recently harvested goodies. For the first time ever, we finally had a pea crop that took more than one meal to eat. This was a nice surprise especially since I had told myself this was the last year I was going to plant peas if they didn't produce a healthy crop. I have been trying to get a good pea crop for six or seven years back in Milwaukee. Of course, maybe the peas knew about the threat and decided to not hold back this year. We have also enjoyed multiple lettuce harvests along with some yellow squashes, onions, beans, radishes, and basil. While the weeds remain an ongoing challenge at our community garden the produce is nice to have and with my parents in town we now have someone else to share the bounty with. 
Our other big outing recently was to hit a pick your own strawberry farm to get enough for a new batch of strawberry jam - well at least that was the plan (the last time we made jam was 2004 and we are still finishing a few jars of that). As we could see the end of our jam we figured it would be good to make a fresh eight jars or so. But as our usual when out picking strawberries we grossly misjudged how many quarts were in our bin. So instead of making one batch of jam, we had had to make four batches of jam to have any hope of using up all the berries. Even with that, we still needed to freeze several bags of strawberries (strawberry margaritas and daiquiris are in the future). Even with the major mistake, we still had a fun day picking, cleaning, and canning. That and we will be eating fresh jam - probably for years to come.
We continue our daily hikes and are starting to work in biking several times a week either outside or on our recently acquired spin bike to provide some aerobic conditioning. Yoga is keeping us semi-limber and we have found a means to do some weight training at home. Not sure when we will feel comfortable back at the gym especially with the current explosion in Covid cases. Other than that, we are having fun, missing our travels, but catching up on some long delayed home activities. And yes, Jo is still cranking out sourdough item after sourdough item. 
