I saw that on the news about your snow, PB. I don't remember it snowing in May there while we were in-country. Am I mis-remembering, or is this a freak weather event?
My 5:
1) The Daughter was rumpling around in the kitchen quite late last night, baking a cake for me. I went out to check the status this morning, and because I would like nothing better than a slice of cake for breakfast with my tea, but the cake seems to be very firmly stuck in the Nordicware fluted pan she used.
https://startpage.com/av/proxy-image?piurl=https%3A%2F%2Fencrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com%2Fimages%3Fq%3Dtbn%3AANd9GcS-Af4cE2npAzjAE9ZcDXsuuZ2sycopvruRldMr_OKjzgsuJRs%26s&sp=1620392308Tafe8811e1203da9167d1e601efd023892b4cc68b5e3ed739e74f59473f37988c She'll be unhappy when she wakes up and can't get that cake out of the pan. I think that recipe probably needed for the pan to be buttered and floured. I know she buttered it (found the butter wrapper) but I doubt she'd have known to have floured it. I'm sure it will taste great, but she's so into the presentation aspect that if it doesn't look right she'll be unhappy. I think it's rather sweet that she baked me a cake at all, though.
2) Finally got back out to the garden yesterday (it's been raining all week). They had announced that a large load of composted cow manure had been dropped by the barn, but by the time I got out there it was pretty much all gone. (Apparently most of the community shovels have gone AWOL as well.) So while we were out I checked in a nearby garden center and they were having a sale on composted, dried cow manure. I picked up a few bags and was able to put a light layer on the two beds that are not currently planted. They will have tomatoes and peppers, eventually. I was kind of leery about messing with really waterlogged soil (as a lot of the area out there in the allotment overall seemed to be really squishy), but I took the turning fork and checked to see the status. In most of the two beds I could push the fork all the way in and wiggle it around a bit with no issues. At the northern four feet of one of the beds I got the sound of vaccum-in-water - a kind of nasty schluuurrrrp sound - when I put the fork all the way down and moved it a bit. So I know which end of the garden is the soggiest. It's on a slope, and the plot next to ours is down-slope. They have dug a ditch along their side of the fence. It's got standing water in it. So I can approximate where the water is running through under the surface of our soil. I think instead of putting peppers there I might save it for the squash.
3) It's blue skies and forecast to be in the 60sF today. I would very much like to take a good walk this afternoon. I actually found a straw hat that fits so I can avoid part-in-my-hair-sunburn.
4) We are going to Pizza Hut (they actually still have an old-style hut here) if it's not crowded to celebrate my birthday today. We had thought about going to the steak place (which we might do if the Hut is crowded) as they have an early-bird special but I kinda want to go somewhere from "BC" - someplace that hasn't changed in 10 years. And that has Pac-man machines.
5) The Daughter has had a nibble from a government job in her field. The catch is that it is in New Mexico. I guess if she is offered the position and takes it she'll go out there on her own to try it out. I like New Mexico quite a bit, but I'm not going to move again unless she has a good job there (not a temporary one) and she intends to stay in for a few years. If it looks like she'll be bouncing around jobs for a while, to build up her career, I will probably stay here. I guess I could go back to Scotland, though, if she's not going to be "home" very much... [Need to check the status of the Scottish elections from yesterday. Last I saw the vote count wasn't in yet.]
Happy Friday!
