Spring has finally sprung here in northern New England. It’s about 3 weeks later than usual, but the trees sprouted their leaves this weekend. It’s nice to see the new green leaves against the deep blue shies we get. The view of Mount Chocorua from my deck gets covered up when the trees fill in. When we first moved here, we could see the mountain year-round. The trees grew taller and the view is blocked in the summer now.

We’re at 44 cases of Corona Virus in the county now. That’s a bit of a surge. Only one new one actually right here in town. It’s likely going to jump a bit more, now that there are more people from out of state making their way here. The hotels haven’t opened back up yet. Restaurants are operating with outdoor seating in addition to take-out. There are 4 cases north of us (last county before you hit Canada). I’ve still been wearing my gaiter when I go into stores, except on Sunday when I expected to only be in the outdoor section of Lowes to grab my vegetable and flowering plants.

I was talking to my daughter about it this morning, and I wonder if we could actually see a bit of a surge in the real estate market up here. There’s a lot of second homes to begin with, but with the virus hitting the cities so hard I was musing that people who don’t already have one and can afford it might look for a second home in a rural area. For them, it would be a place to escape to if and when the virus surges again or if it happens again. That’s not to say our area could handle it if everyone who owned a second home suddenly decided to move here in an emergency. Our hospital only has 25 beds. Even if the year-round population had been hit with 10% of the people showing symptoms of Corona, it would have been overwhelming.

Today I plan to finish organizing the old photo albums I brought over from my parents’ house. I want them in date order and for the bins to be labeled so when I look for a specific time-frame I can find them easily enough. I need to get the 3 large bins out of my living room. I bought a rolling drafting table to set up with my Diamond Painting. It’s been hard setting it up on the kitchen table. We need the space for playing games, crafts, and cooking. I can’t keep the large one I’m currently working on hanging on my window all summer. I need the airflow once it starts getting really warm. I have an idea where I can place the table in the corner of the living room, but I need to clear it out a bit first and those photo albums need to be out of here.

This isn’t a large table and it should be just perfect for holding all of my Diamond Painting supplies. I can move it around on the wheels – I could even put it outside in the screen room for the summer if I wanted to. Our home is just too cluttered. I wanted a small home when we retired and I wasn’t expecting to have kids till living with me. Still, I am thankful for the company. It’s a lot of fun having my granddaughter here and being a part of her life.