Last night at 6:30 our town had people go outside and ring bells, preferably cow bells, but area churches were involved as well...saw a bunch of our neighbors...safely at a distance.

Sue, there's something so evocative about that photo. It says something profound about our situation, don't you think? So sweet.

When making dinner last night and looking out my window I saw our neighbor had turned on their all white Christmas lights on the front bushes. I thought ”ah there is a light at the end of the tunnel “.

Today I had to spruce myself up more than usual for a video call with our friends in Germany - 10am our time. Out of my robe, hair brushed and presentable and a little makeup. It was such a joy to see and talk to our friends. They are hunkered down pretty much the same as we are in MInnesota. We talked a lot about life with coronavirus and a bit about life in general. Germany is still in relatively good shape though they believe it's because testing is more widely available and anyone with the slightest symptoms goes to get tested - hence the low mortality rate so far. We also talked about Spain and the difficulties there - 20% unemployment pre-CV and reduction of healthcare facilities due to the country's economic woes.

I did ask if they had the run on TP there - yes they did but not so much any more. In Europe they joke about how the French have a run on condoms and red wine, the Germans on TP and the Americans on guns. Always interesting how we are perceived in other countries.

@3katz -- on a French group I follow (and the story could be fake), in a small village the mayor stopped by to check on the welfare of an elderly couple. They joked they were fine but almost out of wine. He later returned with bottles from his own collection.

It's been a good day here; a beautiful spring day. I can't believe how much things are popping the last couple of days! Redbuds, dogwoods, even azaleas in full bloom in some places! My front azaleas are blooming and those in the back buds are open enough you can see the color. The back area doesn't get as many hours full sun as the front. We planted one new hot pink azalea (added to a mixed bed); 3 white azaleas (had 3 pretty much die over the winter), 4 pots of lavender creeping phlox and two pots of candy tuft today. Oh and a new rose bush! Actually my husband did most of that after weed-eating! I placed the plants and watered. I grocery shopped this morning and nothing I needed was out-of-stock. Toilet paper and paper towels are still absent. I had to go to 3 pharmacies to find my dad's eye-drops (he has MD) and deliver those to his Assisted Living (someone met me in parking lot, they are on lock-down). Drove home the long way, beautiful backroads and just enjoyed SPRING! I'm going to make banana bread and I did make a small pan of brownies last weekend, but we are getting lots of exercise, so hoping that will all even out.

I thought I would share this because I think it’s a pretty cool thing. My niece is a SAHM by choice and has taken up her hobby of art in the last couple of years. To help give her kids another ‘adventure’ they have started ‘hiding’ one of her small paintings in their end of town, showing a slightly blurred partial image of the location in the background. Usually it’s been one of their favorite places so far, a coffee shop, restaurant. She posts it on Facebook. Most of their friends live in their area of town and even if they aren't the finders, it’s a wonderful, fun thing she is doing. She includes a little note on where to post on FB if they find it. Here is today’s.

Outside, I love that!

We got together with a few friends with our chairs spaced 6’ apart on our patio this afternoon. We’ve been doing this about once a week. We’ve got a lot of rain in the forecast so we’ll be hibernating again for a while.