Maria woke up early this morning and said she was excited about today. “Kitty and Charlie” are coming over to get some of our donkey manure for their garden.”

Kitty is in Maria’s belly dancing class and Charlie is a friend who loves books and gardening. I call our manure pile Mount Manure, and the manure – most at least a year old – is wonderful for gardens.

We give it away free to any friends and neighbors who want to come by. And we were excited about the visit, not that Charlie and Kitty aren’t exciting, but we both realize how much we miss seeing people more often.

I am not as social as Maria, but normally, I see and talk with a lot of people during the day, including the staff and students at Bishop Maginn and the residents at the Mansion.

I’ve been sheltering in place pretty faithfully – today I did go to the pharmacy with mask and hand sanitizer. If felt good. I also felt good to see Kitty and Charlie, they wore masks and we stayed about 12 feet apart, joking and shouting at them.

Asher was interested in the manure project, I think he wanted to jump into Kitty’s car and ride off. I’ve offered manure to Scott Carrino – they have beautiful gardens at Pompanuck Farm – and he usually comes by to get some.

We normally would have invited them in for tea or lunch, but they didn’t hang around to chat.  Still, it was very nice to see them in the flesh, even from a distance.

We are always happy to see the manure Maria shovels every day is getting some use. Soon, a lot of it will be doing into our gardens.

Our donkey manure is the best fertilizer we’ve ever used on our flowers.

The governor is asking for people to stay at home as much as possible for a while. I am learning that I do like talking to people, and miss the people in my world.