Good Evening, Taylor.

It’s been a long while hasn’t it? Things have been very very very busy on our end, and it’s made for a really tight few months. We’ve tried to set up our time so that any free time we have, Ragdoll gets half and I get half. The problem is, Ragdoll’s free time has dried up. She’s struggling with it herself because she feels like she doesn’t get any time to relax, but that means I don’t have time out either. It’s left us both a little grumpy and upset. She is now working regularly 11 hours a day, with some 16 hour days mixed in. Plus events that eat the weekends up that she feels obligated to do.

I’m still working on cooking. I’ve helped Ragdoll make her dinners now, and I’ve taken over lunches officially. Maybe a little too soon, though. I ruined this week’s lunches. She wasn’t mad at me about it, but she was upset about having to find a lunch very quickly and eat it before a meeting. I felt bad because I put her there, but she just said to try the recipe again some day when I felt more comfortable. She still wants me making our lunches, and that makes me happy. The chicken curry stir fry I made the week before was okay, but needed to be seasoned before cooking – just more things I’ll remember for next time.

I[‘ve been practicing my bread making skills! I made a really nice white bread loaf a few weeks ago, and it was good, if a little dense and heavy. My next try was Japanese Milk Bread. And while it didn’t come out like Japanese Milk Bread, it was really soft and moist. Ragdoll said it was the best breakfast bread she ever had, but that it was too sweet for a sandwich bread. I tried it too, with some butter and jam, and the cardamom and cinnamon in it was really REALLY good. But yeah, it wouldn’t make a good sandwich. Maybe next time I make it I’ll make it without the spices. But it’s probably going to me my go to bread for everyday eating!

The crows aren’t coming around as much anymore, and many of the birds are disappearing. I’m thinking it’s because they’re nesting. I saw Mr and Mrs Crow’s nest across the way a few weeks ago. Shortly after that I was sick, so I didn’t put the feeder out for a few days. Mrs. Crow came by looking for me. I saw her on the camera landing on the empty railing, looking through the glass door making warbling noises to try to get my attention. I wish I had. I think she was wanting to see me before she laid her eggs. I haven’t seen her since, and do expect to for a while. I hope she’s well.

I don’t like being sick or feeling pain. When that happens, I hide inside, and Ragdoll takes over. She doesn’t like that, and has encouraged me to try to get through that. When we got sick, I tried to keep my half of the time. It wasn’t fun, but being sick isn’t fun. And if it’s not fun for me, it’s not fun for her. I hope I took a little of the inconvenience off her.

The crows are getting braver, too. Mr. Crow is now is braving going to the feeder when I’m on the deck. It’s something I learned about them last year. I didn’t know it at the time, but he was pretty desperate for food, so he took chances grabbing food very close to me. Once Junior was hatched, and the pressure eased, he stopped coming around so closely, but still came around, and let his guard down around me. Getting really close was him desperate to get food for the family. Once everyone was safer, he stayed a comfortable distance away. He’s getting really close again, so he’s feeling that pressure. But this time, I’m ready for him with plenty of food and protein for the new arrival.

We had a bird that had a growth growing from the side of his head and we were very worried about him as it was getting bigger and bigger. We didn’t think it was avian pox, but it was certainly some kind of tumour. We were really beginning to feel he wasn’t going to be alive much longer, because despite acting normal and energetic, the growth was getting huge. Then one day it was gone. Just a small discolored area where it was. No idea what it was, but I’m glad he’s better.

We have had to be careful, though – we now bring in the feeder at night because we have a rat that’s visiting. He’s cute, but I don’t want to encourage that. So now we take the feeder in each night, seal it in a plastic bucket, and put it out again each morning.

I’ve started doing walks in VR to visit places! I load up Google Earth in VR, and then walk around and see the sights. I usually just choose some area of the town at random, and start walking down streets and alleys, finding little things here and there. I’ve been to Kyoto, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Venice and next week is New Orleans!

I have a garden! We have a nice chive plant I’m taking care of, and I now have more chives than I know what to do with. Rosemary, too. The strawberries are a little worrying. The green on it keeps coming and going. I hope it survives. We’ve left it alone for three years and it would make a few berries, but now that I’m taking care of the plants, I’m hoping for more berries, and hoping I don’t kill the plants.

Speaking of garden, Ragdoll specifically pulled money and time aside for me to go to the Skagit Tulip Festival. I made up a route, and decided to hit as many tulip farms as I could. But it was kind of a bust at first. All the “pull over and look” fields were empty, and I didn’t want to pay for a bunch of tulip farms over and over again. After I didn’t see hardly any tulips I did pull into the Tulip Town farm, and that’s where I saw so so so many tulips. So many tulips, so many colors, so many people. I’m always blown away by flowers and their colors. And I even thought about bringing home some tulips for my garden. But when I found out they bloom only for a short while, and the rest of the time they’re just leaves, I decided not to. We have a nice daffodil plant in our garden, though. It only blooms for a short while, too, but it’s pretty,

We have some vacation time coming up soon. Quite a bit in fact. We’re going to be going to the ocean for three days in June, finally. It’s all paid for and locked down, and we’re ready for it. In July, we’re going to La Conner, where I’ll have three days all to myself, and I can just enjoy being out for a good long while. We also have a week in August coming, but we’re not sure what we’ll be doing then. Ragdoll wants to roadtrip, but she’s not sure she’ll be able to afford the gas if it gets much more expensive. Maybe we could go camping somewhere. 🙂

It’s been a while since we’ve talked, Taylor. I miss you and Didi.

–Andrea