departure

If you want to rest, I'll get the chickens...
No, you'll be getting them all those days, I'll go.

Such a pretty sunrise! The promise of a gorgeous day! A gorgeous week, in fact.
Why are you going? It's the usual question, asked not entirely seriously and with no expectation of an answer.







Yes, the day lilies are now showing off, but if you count the buds, surely you'll count enough for them to bloom for me when I return?






They're just starting, really they are.






The farmhouse at sunrise. To me, it's so very beautiful now, when the sun just hits the tips of trees. Too, in the afternoon, in its joyous brightness. And especially in the evening -- you know, with the fireflies... Oh, it's splendid for us all the time! Venerable indeed!






Breakfast on the porch.
I'll put on my new shorts for you...






I had organized my packing last night and so I have a little spare time before I need to get to the airport for my afternoon flight. I split it almost evenly between watering this year's new plantings and taking Snowdrop for a walk. Her parents are insanely busy and besides, I love the idea of having one more conversation with her up and down the streets of the familiar to her neighborhood.

But first, I give her a dish of freshly picked raspberries. She's thrilled!







And then we set out.

We do eventually make it to the playground and there are children there, bouncing off of the equipment and as always, she loves to watch them and she even tries a slide, but honestly, this isn't her high point. She is the one who will find a field of clover and pick a bud and study it carefully.






She'll look around, run a little...






And then she'll be ready to move on. We go to the nearby coffee shop where we sit outside and she enjoys her raisins from the cookie and of course, she takes in the world from her seat.






She never stays in the stroller on the walk home. Happiness is walking next to me and listening to the explanations, adding her own words to the conversation...







And now I have to say good bye. This is always the tough part: the leaving.

Ed drives me to the airport. The weather here is so perfect -- there should be no delays. My next post will most likely be from France.