Monday, September 14, 2015

if it's Monday...

The new routine is that Snowdrop will be spending at least part of Monday at the farmette. It's a superb way to begin the week and you couldn't ask for a nicer day today. We're stuck in that classic glorious September weather and honestly, I cannot get enough of it.

I do have a few small chores to do around the farmette and so as Ed begins the delicate work of building a frame for the new patio door...


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... I go back to my garden work, surveying the flower fields...


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... and picking some spaces for the last of the bulbs I have for planting. Immediately after breakfast (on the porch again!)...


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... the cheepers and I set to work.


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("where are we going to dig?")



And then Snowdrop arrives and this is not the time to go indoors! Instead, we make our way to one of my favorite farmette spots -- the place where my younger daughter was married more than a year ago, under the great big willow and Snowdrop and I spend some beautiful moments playing in the grass with the swaying branches.


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Too, she and I feed the two hens the remains of a blueberry bagel she had been chomping on yesterday. She was very excited about the possibility of petting the hens, but these girls, though not afraid, usually prefer to give a wide berth to the outstretched hand. Someday you'll be able to feed Scotch worms from a spade, but not today, I tell her.


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In the late afternoon, grandpa Ed returns to the hammering and sawing. Snowdrop is highly interested in the project and there is definitely an "I want to try that!" look in her eye. Again, not today, Snowdrop. But, she is distracted...



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... by the carpentry work...


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 ... and we spend not a small amount of time watching nails go in.


Of course, now that she crawls, there is no keeping the girl in one place. She has the will to explore.



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Late in the day, Snowdrop and I go for a walk in her own neighborhood and it is again a grand promenade around the little lake.


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("let's get going, grandma!")



The day passes so quickly! A few more moments of play in her room...


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... and then, a spirited chase of her favorite buddies, the three cats...


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(But as Virgil, the cat, prepares to run, she gets diverted by something more interesting: daddy's slippers.)


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... and our day is done.

At home, Ed is still working on the door. I fix a supper of eggs and local oyster mushrooms. We lock up the hens, noting that Butter has returned to spending the evening on the fence by the coop. She's erasing memories. We're vigilant. The hens don't known this (or maybe they do?), but the predator returned last night and dug up the land around the coop. We're working hard to keep them safe.

The day was beautiful. The evening is quiet. And that's such a good thing.