How odd that there would be such vast changes in the skies from one day to the next! That yesterday I spent no more than a half hour working outside and today, I'm putting in an entire morning.
It's a cool start to the day -- of course it is! The night before nearly wrecked our tomatoes. (Yes, "nearly." We were lucky -- at its coldest, the fields registered 36F degrees. Never have four degrees felt so toasty good!)
Cheepers first. They are so insistent in the morning: bread, do you have our daily bread?
Our breakfast then. In the sun room.
And the remaining hours of the morning? I throw kisses at the flower fields. Because this is what it is now -- what's left is the small touch: a few flowers to move, a couple of branches to clip, a handful of weeds to pull out. They're little pecks, tweaks, caresses. Against a brilliant sky. I offer you a bird's eye view from the glass roof, where I'm doing a spring sweep of the spring debris that collects there.
Too dizzy? Okay, here I am, surveying things from the ground again.
Yep, looking up into the eyes of a... a man and his rooster.
I've promised you a show of perennials from now until the end of September. Here's today's combination: two perennials, two annuals, all in full bloom. Such a grand partnership!
Then comes the afternoon with Snowdrop. Oh, happy child, you could lift the spirits of the most stubborn grump!
Today she shows off her love of the upright.
There is energy in that girl! (And in that girl's hair!)
And because it is such a beautiful day and we have time for this -- my daughter and I decide to take Snowdrop to the zoo. It's a 40 minute walk each way and Snowdrop is thrilled to have a chance to sit back and exhale in the stroller.
You are lucky: I am going to post five and only five photos from the zoo trip. If you think about it, a first zoo visit is a game changer, no? You show the baby book after book with pictures of animals. You give her stuffies that are called lion, or tiger, or bear. What does it all mean?? Ah, there are animals out there! Here, want to see? Enter -- the zoo trip.
giraffe!
tiger!
an animal whose name wasn't in my vocabulary when I was a kid and still isn't today!
flamingo!
and finally -- goats!
Snowdrop is surprised, puzzled, dare I say it -- amazed.
On the way home, she naps. Maybe when she wakes up, she'll think it was all a strange dream. All the more reason to go back soon, to reinforce that reality: we are but one part of that wonderful kingdom -- of giraffes, of monkeys and goats, and of flowers too!
It's a cool start to the day -- of course it is! The night before nearly wrecked our tomatoes. (Yes, "nearly." We were lucky -- at its coldest, the fields registered 36F degrees. Never have four degrees felt so toasty good!)
Cheepers first. They are so insistent in the morning: bread, do you have our daily bread?
Our breakfast then. In the sun room.
And the remaining hours of the morning? I throw kisses at the flower fields. Because this is what it is now -- what's left is the small touch: a few flowers to move, a couple of branches to clip, a handful of weeds to pull out. They're little pecks, tweaks, caresses. Against a brilliant sky. I offer you a bird's eye view from the glass roof, where I'm doing a spring sweep of the spring debris that collects there.
Too dizzy? Okay, here I am, surveying things from the ground again.
Yep, looking up into the eyes of a... a man and his rooster.
I've promised you a show of perennials from now until the end of September. Here's today's combination: two perennials, two annuals, all in full bloom. Such a grand partnership!
Then comes the afternoon with Snowdrop. Oh, happy child, you could lift the spirits of the most stubborn grump!
Today she shows off her love of the upright.
There is energy in that girl! (And in that girl's hair!)
And because it is such a beautiful day and we have time for this -- my daughter and I decide to take Snowdrop to the zoo. It's a 40 minute walk each way and Snowdrop is thrilled to have a chance to sit back and exhale in the stroller.
You are lucky: I am going to post five and only five photos from the zoo trip. If you think about it, a first zoo visit is a game changer, no? You show the baby book after book with pictures of animals. You give her stuffies that are called lion, or tiger, or bear. What does it all mean?? Ah, there are animals out there! Here, want to see? Enter -- the zoo trip.
giraffe!
tiger!
an animal whose name wasn't in my vocabulary when I was a kid and still isn't today!
flamingo!
and finally -- goats!
Snowdrop is surprised, puzzled, dare I say it -- amazed.
On the way home, she naps. Maybe when she wakes up, she'll think it was all a strange dream. All the more reason to go back soon, to reinforce that reality: we are but one part of that wonderful kingdom -- of giraffes, of monkeys and goats, and of flowers too!
I had covered my one tomato and two pepper plants and they still got zapped the other night. Last night, we were scheduled to hit 36 so I covered everything again. I'm grateful it's still early and I have plenty of time to replace the dead plants!
ReplyDeleteHenry Vilas Zoo is one of my favorite places. I have pictures of me in front of the animals there when I was about Snowdrop's age! I wonder what she'll think of the aviary or the baby orangutan once it's on exhibit! What an adventure, tapir and all. :)
Snowdrop at the zoo... love it! Are there polar bears in the winter? Hope so!
ReplyDeleteAnd the smells at the zoo, imagine her nose!
ReplyDeleteRuth in Oxnard CA
We took our first son to the zoo when he was snowdrop's age. He slept through everything. Other zoo-goers chuckled as they passed, perhaps at us, the overeager young parents. :) All good.
ReplyDeleteChuckling at the energy in Snowdrop's hair comment. ;)
ReplyDeleteDH and I use to take SD to the Toronto zoo every year. Oh, what a huge walk! A whole day's journey. But the selection of animals is amazing.