Welcome to May

The days have flown by this week.  I have spent some time outside, weeding and cleaning out flower beds, and my knees are certainly feeling it today.  I will avoid being on them for a day or two.  I managed to beat the lawncare people who were spreading mulch in the beds out front and on the side facing the road.  I didn't want them to mulch on top of the weeds as they did last year.  All that did was encourage growth, and those buttercups went wild.  

Our blueberry bushes are looking very good this year.  Can't wait to eat them although I do have quite a few left in the freezer.  I don't like to put the frozen ones in my morning cereal but that might be a good way to reduce our supply.  I made some lowfat granola earlier this week, and today I made some ginger rhubarb muffins.

Allergy season is here in full force, but I keep on keeping on.  Apparently, it's bad all over.  Tuesday and Thursday mornings, I went to a nursing home and a community food shelf to deliver books for their clients to read, keep, return, etc.  The books come from the Friends of the Library book sale area which is bursting at the seams with donations right now.  At each location, I have lined up a volunteer to keep an eye on things and refresh the collections as needed.  So far it's working well, and everyone is happy.

May is always a busy time around here.  We went to a couple of fun events this week, including the annual Primo Maggio dinner and lecture at the Old Labor Hall.  We went with our neighbors and saw quite a few people we hadn't seen for a while.  The traditional Italian dinner was great, but the selection of Italian wines was very impressive.  I had a tough time choosing, so the bartender did it for me, very successfully, too.  Last night, a friend of Paul's gave a talk at the library, and we were glad we went because only three other people were there.  Rick did a great job, talking about the McCarthy era and how Vermonters reacted.

This afternoon we'll be back at the library to move the piano and some chairs up into the reading room for a concert tomorrow afternoon.  We can't have the program in the meeting room because it has been booked, but the reading room is nicer anyway.  It's quite a squeeze with the piano in the elevator, but we do it, and all the chairs are on trolleys, too.  We'll return mid-day tomorrow to get things set up for our singers, Carol and Doc, who will perform traditional folk, roots, and original songs as well as lead a few sing alongs.   It's Vermont Green Up Day tomorrow, too, with folks outside picking up trash.  We hope some people will come to relax after a morning of work.