Tuesday, April 07, 2015

Tuesday

I look outside, hoping for rain. It surely is gray and cold. There was a night shower, but no gardener or farmer would be satisfied with it.

We eat breakfast in the kitchen. To me, the kitchen exudes a warmth of the best kind. It's fitting for a day like this.


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Snowdrop comes to the farmhouse earlier than usual. My schedule is flexible. It tracks the needs of the young couple. They know Snowdrop is always welcome here.


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Ed notes her energetic and cheerful disposition.


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She still looks awfully tiny when he holds her!


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She plays hard, but she is also more patient with books and quieter activities.


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surprising



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wryly amusing



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shocking



And then it's lunchtime.


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And we move smoothly into the afternoon. More cold weather. We're not tempted to go out for a walk, even as I remember a month ago thinking that anything above freezing was spectacular!

Snowdrop's mom comes over and lingers for a while before taking her babe onto her next set of adventures, while I make my way to a local voting place. It's an election day and I'm volunteering to be an election observer (on behalf of a local mayoral candidate). It's boring work, but somebody has to do it! I think about my garden, imagining the new flower bed that I will be creating in several weeks.

When we look forward to spring, we forget that sometimes April, at least April in Wisconsin, can be a tricky month -- full of welcome and unwelcome surprises. We're so set on loving every last bit of the renewal --  the greening of the landscape, the exploding buds --  that any stall in that process makes us impatient.

I wont be impatient. There is plenty to keep me happy now. Consider, for example, the dainty first leaves on the willow branches.


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And maybe there will be rain tonight -- the kind that's so loud that we can hear it on the farmhouse roof. Spring dreams. All magnificent, all full of hope.