Wednesday

It has come to this: at dawn, Ed and I set out for Walmart. He needs cat food, I need baby food, we both need chocolate for our late evening indulgence (Ghirardelli Cabernet dark with a touch of blackberry flavor is our current favorite -- sold, for some reason, only at Walmart) and neither of us has time to do this side trip later in the day.

On the upside, when you travel these rural roads at daybreak, you're likely to come across some pretty remarkable gatherings. This time of sandhill cranes, in fields of gold.







Enjoying the morning quiet.






Breakfast follows. On the porch...






Before the trumpets of my beloved daylilies...






With a walk through the fields of flowers.






And then Ed goes off to "his" (temporary? is it temporary?) office and I clean the chicken coop and give the hens their daily bread. Our girls have bonded fiercely since Oreo left. I'll find Scotch picking bits of dirt off of Butter's feathers. They're quite inseparable. (The third hen, whatever her name is, usually catches up in the course of the day.)





I have real food shopping to do as well -- Wednesday is an odd day for me to do it, but the rest of the week offers not a single hour of time for such errand running and so off I go, with a quick stop at Walgreen's to pick up passport photos. Not really for my passport -- or at least not for my American passport. More about that tomorrow.


And then it's splendid Snowdrop time!

Let's get that feeding photo up -- it shows her continued distrust of mush. Carrots yesterday fared better than pears did today. Bits of pear reach the floor, wall, drapes, chair, table. She is a very energetic "eater."






She's energetic, period. Working on crawling...






Rolling, jumping...



(two pairs of eyes...)


It all takes its toll. Time for a quiet moment.






Maybe a walk?






Evening. It's time for the last summer Concert on the Square. Oh, the magic of this wonderful picnic in the company of, it seems, all of Madison! The music is gentle tonight: Butterworth, Addinsell. The weather? Unbelievable! The storms chased down the humidity. The skies are clear, the breezes are playful and cool. My girl and I eat sandwiches, Snowdrop looks on with adoring eyes.





Take her out into the strange, complicated world and she sails through it all, if only the eyes of a mommy or daddy (or if those eyes are elsewhere, grandma will do) are upon her.


Night. The kind you think about in the bleaker months of the year. Or any time when things just do not line up in a good way. Today, they line up in a good way.