Monday, October 06, 2014

coming home

Traveling to and from Madison requires an extra slug of patience. Typically, after the end of a nine hour flight from Europe to a major Midwestern city, there is yet another wait and then another flight for me. Only many hours later am I truly home.

But on this return, after my haul over the ocean, I was done for the day. Ready to soak in a wonderful visit with my little girl in Minneapolis.

Of course, those first nights after a shift in time are tricky. Last night I fell asleep in midsentence on their couch, woke up to take myself to bed, fell asleep immediately after that, woke up a few hours later wondering why it was still dark outside.

In other words, jet lag.

The best advice I have for all this is to ignore it.

I did just that this morning as I set my internal alarm (I have one! It's magic and it always works!) for 6 a.m. No problem! My little girl came down to say good bye and then I tiptoed out of their apartment house to meet up with my friend, the one who is in the Twin Cities just for a short while, coincidentally on these very days when I, too, am passing through.

We go out to an early treat. I can't believe these places really open for breakfast at 6:30 on a weekday morning, but they do and we are there, at French Meadow, ordering our poached eggs and scones and sitting down for a lovely long talk. (With a little camera play thrown in!)


msp-farmette-5.jpg



This, then, is my reentry to the Midwest.

After all those lovely hours with my girl and her husband and my friend, too, I turn now toward the very cold but very bright and beautiful return to Madison.



msp-farmette-6.jpg
(flight out of Minneapolis)


From the Madison airport, it's just a short hop and skip over to the farmette.


msp-farmette-7.jpg



Ed is right: the season has really shifted now. The leaves are falling rapidly. No more vegetable harvests. And yet, there are still flowers! We have not yet had a hard frost. The garden is not yet dormant!


msp-farmette-9.jpg



Oh, it's lovely to see Ed's shaggy head! I wont post a photo - there will be so many in the days to come! And of course, it's great to be back at the farmhouse.

Even though my clock is messing with me still. It's four o'clock. Shouldn't I be going to sleep soon?