The week flew by. Faster than usual, I think. Thursday, in particular, had me flying to be in multiple places at once.

Mamma said there’d be days like this…

Key people were out. The number of carts that had backed up waiting for my attention was staggering. We were running out of work for the dozen or so people in data entry. There was no one present trained to generate more work for them. Sign and paint configuration prototypes needed to be brainstormed for the Gaithersburg store renovation. I was anxious for a map prototype showing the proximity of that location to the Shady Grove Metro stop: 4 minutes—2miles. I’d assigned a craft person to create prototypes of very large books wrapped in linen duck cloth and stained with tea as well as coffee. (I’d had an eye appointment coming in and stopped to buy the cheapest black tea Walmart had—I needed to pick up and Rx there as well. My eyes appear to be fine. The new doctor isn’t sure what the others were thinking.) That project ended up being more problematic than I’d anticipated. But I think they look pretty cool.

Can you tell which is coffee?

The books being used are an obsolete bibliographic reference set we acquired from the Folger Library.

At 4, I had to rush off to Pennsylvania to see my younger son’s child Owen. He has a strict sleep schedule and is only awake a couple of hours at a time. I don’t remember it being that precise. The visit went well. The baby is very cute and giggly and wriggly.

When I got home, I was beat. I forced myself to load a cart with firewood and pull it to the barn. There will be no more fires in the woodstove til next fall. I need to remove the remaining firewood from the driveway and stack it. I hate stacking wood. One of the descendants of Barbara Mertz’s cactus is beginning to bloom.

I have propagated a lot of them and given many away. This pot also has an amaryllis that lives there about to bloom.

The gardens are lovely. There are fewer daffodils, but those late season varieties can have charming faces.

Now it is Friday. I wonder what I will face today.

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Holy Monday.

A bear visited the mountain right on cue.

Texts from neighbors came in early this morning with images of their mess. They got all chatty and over 20 texts chimed on my phone. The bears come out at Easter and hibernate at Thanksgiving. They must have a calendar. If you don’t put food in your trash, there’s no attraction for the ravenous creatures. If you hadn’t eaten for 5 months, you’d be hungry too.

I’m heading down to Gaithersburg. Bryan is driving. I haven’t seen the latest installation of bookcases. Nor have I experienced the new entrance. I will need to brainstorm the next category relocations.

There’s still a long way to go, but the store is fully operational.

It was a churchy weekend. Pope Francis’ passing put an exclamation point on it. Easter Sunday, I went to Virginia. My older son was having his second child christened. It was a beautiful church and ceremony. The 4-month-old baby behaved very well and didn’t complain when water was poured over his forehead.

We were regular churchgoers when the kids were young. Christmas and Easter every year without fail. I made a point of reading stories to the kids so they would know about Moses and Jonah and Judas and Noah and Daniel… Without knowledge of the Bible as literature and history, there is a big gap in your learning and ability to understand later references.

“…an eye for an eye…”

Before yesterday, I hadn’t gone for years—except as a tourist at some European religious sites.

My devotions are made at home.

But I enjoyed the service. The words and spectacle and traditions brought back childhood memories. Some brought tears welling in my eyes.

Being away most of Sunday meant I didn’t get as much work done at the warehouse as usual.

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We are on our way back.

It is still very overwhelming.

I sent an email to contact the glass people about putting doors on all the glass bookcases.

There were about 10 customers in. That’s good for a Monday morning.

I made decisions. Move animals and nature. The British Isles will take their place. France and Italy will relocate so the very deep shelves they are on will take in an art expansion. (We have thousands of art remainders in the warehouse.)

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Wednesday

I think the fire season is over. No more cold mornings. I’ll have to cart up the wood on the driveway and roll it into the barn. The branches and fire starter deadfalls I’ll put on the truck and drive over mulch road to the brush piles I’ve built as bird and small animal habitats. I’ve been gratified to see a lot of songbirds—mostly titmice—flying in and out of them as if they are nesting in there.

I’ll miss the fire ritual. In very cold weather, there’s not much attention to it as the stove fire almost never goes out. At the end and beginning of stove season, I sometimes need to start a small fire daily.

Now comes the firewood gathering ritual. That’s not really necessary as I’ve got a couple years’ worth still stacked in the barn.

I took down four trees to open the canopy some in January. I need to gather those up so they can season and be ready to burn next fall. I finished carrying in the first one last night. They were the big chunks that will need splitting.

I filled the cast iron rings on the front porch with the pieces small enough to fit into Vermont Castings Defiant.

I find a Zen-like peace in cutting wood. With ear covering muffling the Husqvarna roars, I get into a “zone.” Paying attention to my footing (and my feet!), my eye and mind almost subconsciously pick where to cut so the firewood won’t be too big or too small.

Hauling and stacking, not so much Zen there. Toil.

So much transplanting to do. And I should make an expedition to the Hosta Hideaway for some new varieties. Maybe some rainy day.

There are two patches of honeysuckle—the creeping kind—that need to be eradicated. They’ll take over and smother everything if I don’t. I thought I’d gotten everything out in the small bed behind the kitchen. But, nope, the rooty tendrils reappeared.

The ferns are extending their wispy green fingers everywhere. I’m blessed with acres of them in large patches on the once barren forest floor.

I’m finding trillium in a lot of different beds.

Success!

Maybe I’ll do a census. I’ll put soft soil around them, in hopes that more seeds can find footholds.

I need to finish any work in the fern brakes near the house. I don’t want to tread in them when they are much bigger. I’ll leave “footprints.”

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Ernest is driving us to the Gaithersburg store. I’m meeting the sign contractor. The landlord has been gracious enough to give use of a freestanding sign on Shady Grove Rd. Another tenant kind of abandoned it. It could be a game changer getting people to pull off that major thoroughfare to find our “hidden” location.

Then I’ll brainstorm the category moves and resizing for the next phases.

It is amazing this process started only a couple months ago. I’ve heard a few comments, “It looks like a new store.”

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The week also got my housekeeper in for the first time in months. Either I was sick or she was or she was away or…

The place looks shiny.

I got my haircut at the end of one day. It had been months. I get this manic mindset that I’m too busy for some of these daytime chores. It feels so much better not having the stuff flop in my eyes.

The potted plants have begun their migration outdoors.

There are 75 or so. The largest cacti are now 5 feet tall and require a cart to get them outside.

The bleeding hearts are in ascendance.

I’ve transplanted seedlings all over, but their main spot is near the side door I use every morning. There are so successful there they make a sort of hedge. About 1 out of 5 are white.

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Probably the most exciting event this week was a flight in a friend’s private plane. It is a beauty!

He oriented me on the safety protocols and then did his checks inside and out. It has a parachute should that last resort ever be required. He flew us to Lancaster, where we had lunch at a nice restaurant in the airport.

Then it was back to Frederick.

I’ve flown over these areas many times, but the view and feel are far different at 5000 feet versus 30,000.

I had tingles the whole trip and felt like I was walking on air the rest of the day.

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The Caps won their first two playoff games, which was a big relief. I’ve invested a lot of time in their wonderful season. But in NHL hockey, all that counts is the postseason. About half the teams qualify for that.

Next week will be massive. Wonder Book is exhibiting at the Capital Rare Book Fair. May 2-4.

Annika is handling almost all of it. That was my challenge to her because she really wanted to do it and I was not excited about the work and distraction.

I hope it is a success.

I know we will do well in Frederick, as a number of rare book specialists will be visiting the shop looking for bargains. Many are friends and I look forward to seeing them again.

The show is well worth attending. Its venue, the iconic University Club, is worth the visit just to see inside.

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We have an urgent order for a movie set today. 65 linear feet of black-spined books.

It is so urgent that they are spending $5000 to overnight them to Texas.

The books cost a fraction of that…

Sigh…

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The week was eventful.

The weather beautiful.

Spring is one third over.

The dogwoods are in bloom.

Something in me is sad, however.

The passage of time. The missing pieces. There being too many moving parts in my life—a problem of my own creation.

I’m certainly not bored.

I wonder what’s next?

More books, that’s for certain.