the day after the return

It is thought that when you return from a trip, impressions from your travel days quickly dissipate and you find yourself thinking hardly at all about your recent adventures. Life takes over and pushes you forward.

But then, how do you explain these:

I wake up at 4 and because I am still in another time zone, I refuse to go back to sleep. For the rest of the day my tiredness will remind me that I have been traveling.

The very first thing on my to-do list is to give Ed a haircut. Talk about overgrown and shaggy! (What a difference a week makes!) Then, we have breakfast of course, even though the fruit supply is low. In fact, the food supply is low. But, there's never a shortage of oatmeal! And on the table, I place the pot of Giverny flowers...





(I do take note of the fact that my sister's oatmeal is better than mine. More lumpy. I plan on changing my oatmeal making routines so that I can more closely approximate hers.)

I set out to shop for food and because Ed is feeling a bit deprived of my company, he tags along. That hasn't happened in years. It's quite lovely actually, even if I then have to put up with him packing the grocery bags. He claims the grocery clerks squeeze in too few items in each bag. Can you tell whose side I'm on in this one?

At the store I buy buckwheat in bulk. Having it in Poland again reminds me how much I like it. It was such a Polish staple during the post war years...

I unpack the groceries. I place the bunch of parsley in a glass with water. I saw my sister do that. I just throw my parsley into the refrigerator where it promptly wilts within several days. Hers was nice and perky. Besides, a bunch of parsley in a glass is really attractive.

And then I really scrub the crevices of the burners on the stove. This, too, is the aftermath of staying at my sister's home. Her stove hasn't a spot on it. Though Ed claims I am a neat freak, I worry that surely my standards must have slackened because honestly there is no question about it -- her stove was even more fresh and shiny. As of today, mine is that way as well.

Yes, my trip is still with me.


Fall has truly set in. (What a difference a week makes!) It's a rainy day and so I don't spend much time outside, but I do step out just to smell that damp autumnal air.






The cheepers greet me of course and I am happy to see them, especially since our night prowler has not gone away. So far, we're winning the fight with whoever it is that wants access to them. May it stay that way.

And in the evening, the young family and the other grandmother are here for supper and that means I get to see Snowdrop! I stick pinwheels in the pathway to the farmhouse, because I know she likes to look at this spinning toy when we pass it each time we go for a walk. (Ed says -- They look a bit cheap and trashy! I like them!)






And now the family is here for our Sunday dinner (except it's Saturday and I am not yet ready to cook, so we do Japanese take out). And Snowdrop is lively and so very grown up! (What a difference a week makes!)






So tall, strong and able!