Sorry to hear you were so sick. Some of the flu strains can be real bears, and it can be hard to know just what to do. Take care, and don't let the nice weather lure you into doing too much, too soon. Enjoy what you can do and let the rest go for the year if needed. It's nice the garlic is already in and mostly self sufficient for awhile.

Strep throat has also been going around. I missed that one thankfully.

I am very grateful for any and all the good wishes I get. Thank-you.

Dutch - You have had a rough go the last few years. IIRC you had a bad case of Pneumonia awhile back. I hope you can regain your strength and get back into the gardening swing soon. You still have some time on the cool season stuff and over a month for the tomatoes and peppers. Maybe you can get those seeded indoors now for something to do that doesn't require too much effort?

My brother and sister from Minnesota visited over this last weekend. My brother is starting stuff indoors from seed for the first time this year. He called me last weekend and asked when to start tomatoes and peppers for a June 1 transplant. I told him April 10 for peppers and April 20 for tomatoes....well he started the tomatoes on April 10 but not the peppers. He is going to have some BIG tomatoes!!! I gave him a few varieties of pepper seeds that should do well up there. Ace red bell which is a 70 day peppers and a couple corno de torro types...Carmen and Escamillo. He is also going to try tomatillos.

Jack, I am 68; so I catch easier than I used to, but I am recovering nicely now, if still weaker than I would like to be. I should be back in the garden with frequent rests before the end of the week. I have my onions plants from DixonDale, but they will just have to wait until I am a bit stronger.

"What a drag it is growing old!"

ACE is good and early. Nice choice for a beginner. I also like Sweet Banana (my favorite), also early and prolific for sweet peppers. I am not so crazy about the real hots, but I do like Anaheims for a bit of a bite. Be sure to advise you relatives that peppers need more heat to germinate than tomatoes do. I intend to direct sow my peppers this year about mid to late May depending on what I feel like at the time. Also will direct sow Glacier tomatoes, and probably buy a few plants again, some peppers and some tomatoes.

I'm not too many years behind you Dutch.

I told him to put the peppers on top of his freezer for bottom heat which is what I do. I also gave him a few Anaheim seeds and Jalapenos because he wants to make Salsa Verde with the tomatillos which requires both. I am surprised that you are able to get a pepper harvest with direct sowing...interesting.

I intend to see if I can get a pepper harvest by direct seeding the Sweet Bananas which are very early. Inside I have had great success in the past using a heating pad for the peppers, but not necessary for the tomatoes.

(I will almost certainly cheat a bit and buy some plants, too! I usually do. Same with the tomatoes. I cannot close to be self-sufficient with my tiny garden, but I do try to have some fun and experiment a bit.)

I'm not too many years behind you either, Dutch. Had my round of pneumonia in February... got rid of it fairly quickly, but the cough hung on for another 3 weeks. A very persistent strain going around this year. Glad to hear you are getting over yours, concentrate on growing your health before growing your garden. It's hard I know, when Spring is calling. ;-)

It is the damn persistent cough! Mostly mine is gone and I am regaining my strength. I hope to be back to work by May, and in the garden yet later this week. Possibly some crappie fishing, too. They are putting out the fishing docks on the city lakes right now; I don't have a boat and usually fish from shore, walls or the docks anyway.

I have some coworkers whose cough has persisted for months. They continue to work but just can't completely shake it. I definitely hope that isn't my fate, and it doesn't look like it will be.

When I get flu I eat raw garlic. It's a very potent anti viral.

I'm barely recovering from the flu AGAIN. I had one strain of the flu in January. Got another strain three weeks ago, and still coughing. The first one hit me fast and hard but this one lingered.

B strain of viral influenza has been going around late in the flu season. That is what I had. Bad cough, which ended up sending me to the hospital for 10 days. Thank-fully no GI problems beside sore stomach muscles for the hard coughing. That was late March. It took me almost all of April to regain enough strength to go back to work, but I have now done that with only a runny nose and an occasional hack left. A co-worker has had the cough persist for months. It takes a while to recover, but do not hesitate to go to the doctor. They have anti-virals now and pneumonia is a potential complication.

BTW I was told that this year's flu shot did not cover Influenza B.

I picked it up visiting in the hospital. Then my younger brother got it from me. I have sore stomach muscles also. The flu that I got from the previous flu season had me coughing for a couple of months. I got that strain from a nephew who caught it during vacation.

I am pretty sure I caught my case at work. There were a whole lot of folks sick all over the offices. That included strep-throat which I missed, thankfully. At the hospital, all staff had to don a new clean top coat, gloves and mask just to enter my room and then discard them when they left. An old friend came to visit me daily and she was required to mask up also. Despite being exposed, she avoided catching it, thank-fully. I was there 10 days with blood tests daily and it wasn't until the 9th day that they declared me non-communicable.

One thing about my place of employment is that there are lots of long term seniority folks around there, and so quite a few of us are aging and more susceptible to this sort of thing. We got hammered this spring and late winter and not just by the flu.