Coffee, Tea, You, and Me

Hello and welcome to the April edition of The Ultimate Coffee Date with Coco from Running With Perseverance and Deborah from Confessions of a Mother Runner, where we dish over coffee (or tea, if that is your preference) about all things running (and some non-running topics too).

Ahhh…where to start, where to start?

When I wrote the Coffee Date post last month, it was a different world. Bill and I thought we would be in Morocco today, businesses and schools were open, and COVID-19 was something happening elsewhere, not in our towns.

It seems like a lifetime ago.

OK, how about if we begin with some good news?

Readers of this blog may remember I have been on a reduced-sugar diet for the past year in an attempt to lower my cholesterol so I do not have to begin taking statins.

I do allow myself to eat foods that naturally contain sugar but stay away from foods with added sugar, so peaches are OK, cupcakes are not.

It worked!

Even though my good cholesterol was up slightly, my overall number was down by 50 points.

Big sigh of relief!

If we were having coffee, I would describe some of the activities Bill and I have been doing to stay sane in these days of social distancing.

We went hiking in Shenk’s Ferry Wildflower Preserve one afternoon, a gorgeous wooded tract of land in southern Lancaster County.

There were wildflowers everywhere, dainty Spring Beauties, Virginia Bluebells, Yellow Trout Lilies, and (for my sister), even Trailing Arbutus.

March brings the first wave of wildflowers. If we go back in April, and I hope we do, we will see a completely different palate.

On a raw, rainy afternoon, when it was too cold to hike, we drove to Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area to look at the ducks.

The big show of hundreds of thousands of snow geese is over, except for a few stragglers who will not make the trip to the nesting grounds on the tundra but the ponds still contain several different types of ducks, including the one pictured above, the Northern Shoveler.

He is called a shoveler because of his big shovel-like bill, which he uses to slurp up underwater plants.

We also began our annual mulching extravaganza early. Usually, this is an activity we do in May but since we are at home anyway, we might as well be productive. This huge pile of mulch should keep us out of trouble for a while!

If we were having coffee, I would tell you what I saw one rainy evening a few weeks ago. I was sitting in my living room reading when the clouds suddenly parted and the sun appeared.

I jumped up, ran out on the porch, and looked East.

I was rewarded with the sight of a beautiful rainbow.

What a wonderful reminder of promises kept and better times ahead just when we needed it most.

Finally, if we were having coffee, I would share one brief video I saw on social media.

Maybe it’s because I am a retired teacher, or maybe it’s because of the heightened emotions associated with the Coronavirus crisis but this video tugs on my heartstrings. Every. Single. Time.

I’m not crying, you’re crying!

Thank you for joining me for our Coffee Date. See you again at the beginning of May for more coffee and conversation.

 

You can find the places I link up here.