I was ready for our farmhouse guest. Well-rested even, as Ed offered to do the cheeper run in the early morning. I was to pick up Snowdrop at 10 and bring her over, suitcase and all. For a longish stay. While her parents attended to important work related events.
I played the role of a grandma who wants to please her granddaughter: I snitched Snowdrop's favorite dinner recipe -- a one pot black bean enchilada bake -- and started chopping ingredients even before breakfast, so that I would only need to pop it in the oven come dinner time.
I check on the garden and tell it to hold tight for a while. My attentions are going to be elsewhere this week.
(In the road-side bed, I planted seeds of a unique burgundy toned nasturtium. To say I had trouble coaxing it to growth is an understatement. Today it produced its first bloom.)
(Oh, the rich colors of the season...)
(The emerging garden...)
A quick breakfast on the porch...
And I'm off to pick up a barely waking girl, bringing her to the farmhouse still in her pj's, with night-time penguin tucked under her arm.
You're embarking on a farmette vacation, Snowdrop!
Our day is full. It's warm, sunny, breezy, delicious!
A pool, a wagon and chickens.
(Scotch: I've never seen an octopus before.
Me: Scotch, put away your envy. Chickens can't swim.)
Wet faced, with a globe flower in hand. (She never picks any of my flowers. I snipped this one for her.)
And then she helps me push the wagon and like a little pied piper, she has her entourage...
I take her to the young orchard and lo, there are just a few cherries and they are ripe and they are delicious!
(A yellow one too...)
(We save one or two for Ed, who comes out to join in on the cherry raid.)
It is hard to believe that this little girl once distrusted the red wagon. She loves it. LOVES it. Yes yes yes! (Her catchall word that means "I want more of this please do not stop please please keep going, don't you dare stop!")
Three acres give me space to take her this way and that. My, oh my, I never noticed the inclines before... puff puff...
Alright, enough. Let's stop and smell the roses. Or at least admire the flower pots.
Come inside, Snowdrop!
Okay okay (her newest word.)
In the farmhouse now. She "reads," we play...
...and then comes the phone call telling us that postponements and delays have crept into the young parents' schedules and so in fact, they've a wee bit of time on their hands tonight and maybe Snowdrop can spend the night at home and vacation with grandma can officially start tomorrow?
Snowdrop and I are ever flexible and so after a lunch, which we eat outside (which delights her no end)...
... where the girl devours half the blueberries in the farmhouse...
You want more? Okay, let's get you some more...
... she and I get in the car and we pick up her mommy so that we can all seek out music together! Make Music Madison is in full swing today. (Were you in any number of other countries on Solstice -- France comes to mind -- you'd see this event in every town and village -- musicians taking to the streets, attracting listeners, dancers, onlookers. I am so happy that Madison has adopted this musical tribute to the longest day of the year!)
Our first stop is at a Madison institution. What? You've never had frozen custard??
Snowdrop has her first taste of this rich and wonderful dessert. (Thumbs up!)
We then go next door to Wingra Park. There's another musician there, but he isn't the draw. Snowdrop has her run in the park...
... a play with mommy...
... and a long gaze out at the boats that come in, go out...
And finally, we walk over to Glenwood Children's Park. Families have spread blankets and suddenly we are among friends. The music is good, but it's the mood that draws us in. An invitation to sit on a blanket, to share in some snacks, a beer perhaps... Children listening, just a few moving to the sounds that drift up up and away...
This feeling of communal well being is what you want for your little ones. Of inclusiveness. Of music.
In the evening, I wave goodbye to the little girl and her mom and return to spend a quiet evening at the farmhouse with Ed.
I played the role of a grandma who wants to please her granddaughter: I snitched Snowdrop's favorite dinner recipe -- a one pot black bean enchilada bake -- and started chopping ingredients even before breakfast, so that I would only need to pop it in the oven come dinner time.
I check on the garden and tell it to hold tight for a while. My attentions are going to be elsewhere this week.
(In the road-side bed, I planted seeds of a unique burgundy toned nasturtium. To say I had trouble coaxing it to growth is an understatement. Today it produced its first bloom.)
(Oh, the rich colors of the season...)
(The emerging garden...)
A quick breakfast on the porch...
And I'm off to pick up a barely waking girl, bringing her to the farmhouse still in her pj's, with night-time penguin tucked under her arm.
You're embarking on a farmette vacation, Snowdrop!
Our day is full. It's warm, sunny, breezy, delicious!
A pool, a wagon and chickens.
(Scotch: I've never seen an octopus before.
Me: Scotch, put away your envy. Chickens can't swim.)
Wet faced, with a globe flower in hand. (She never picks any of my flowers. I snipped this one for her.)
And then she helps me push the wagon and like a little pied piper, she has her entourage...
I take her to the young orchard and lo, there are just a few cherries and they are ripe and they are delicious!
(A yellow one too...)
(We save one or two for Ed, who comes out to join in on the cherry raid.)
It is hard to believe that this little girl once distrusted the red wagon. She loves it. LOVES it. Yes yes yes! (Her catchall word that means "I want more of this please do not stop please please keep going, don't you dare stop!")
Three acres give me space to take her this way and that. My, oh my, I never noticed the inclines before... puff puff...
Alright, enough. Let's stop and smell the roses. Or at least admire the flower pots.
Come inside, Snowdrop!
Okay okay (her newest word.)
In the farmhouse now. She "reads," we play...
...and then comes the phone call telling us that postponements and delays have crept into the young parents' schedules and so in fact, they've a wee bit of time on their hands tonight and maybe Snowdrop can spend the night at home and vacation with grandma can officially start tomorrow?
Snowdrop and I are ever flexible and so after a lunch, which we eat outside (which delights her no end)...
... where the girl devours half the blueberries in the farmhouse...
You want more? Okay, let's get you some more...
... she and I get in the car and we pick up her mommy so that we can all seek out music together! Make Music Madison is in full swing today. (Were you in any number of other countries on Solstice -- France comes to mind -- you'd see this event in every town and village -- musicians taking to the streets, attracting listeners, dancers, onlookers. I am so happy that Madison has adopted this musical tribute to the longest day of the year!)
Our first stop is at a Madison institution. What? You've never had frozen custard??
Snowdrop has her first taste of this rich and wonderful dessert. (Thumbs up!)
We then go next door to Wingra Park. There's another musician there, but he isn't the draw. Snowdrop has her run in the park...
... a play with mommy...
... and a long gaze out at the boats that come in, go out...
And finally, we walk over to Glenwood Children's Park. Families have spread blankets and suddenly we are among friends. The music is good, but it's the mood that draws us in. An invitation to sit on a blanket, to share in some snacks, a beer perhaps... Children listening, just a few moving to the sounds that drift up up and away...
This feeling of communal well being is what you want for your little ones. Of inclusiveness. Of music.
In the evening, I wave goodbye to the little girl and her mom and return to spend a quiet evening at the farmhouse with Ed.
We loved going to Glenwood Children's Park last summer! Lots of natural areas for kids to explore and excavate in.
ReplyDeleteI'll be interested to hear how the extended visit plays out. We've cared for Cadence overnight in her own home and bedtime was so easy,
ReplyDeletebut at our house she popped up over and over. She did not want her blanket, her bear, her "Goodnight Moon" -- as if she thought "I'm wise to this bedtime routine and I'm not having it!" Long before she could say "no", she mastered a most decisive headshake. :)
We let her just basically run around the house in circles dragging things behind her, knowing she would have to run out of gas sometime!
It may be easier at your home, because it's really a second home to Snowdrop.
Love your colorful flower closeups. The beds are looking lush. I don't have much in bloom right now. Echinacea, daylilies, coreopsis. Some pots of colorful annuals from my preschoolers.
Your girls were pretty in their dresses at the park. I just know your daughter chooses coordinating dresses, am I right? :)
Last time Snowdrop spent several nights at the farmhouse was nearly a year ago. She, the perfect sleeper then at home, woke up nearly at sunrise here and wrecked havoc with her regular patterns. This time we've been warned: just this week, she has been waking up at night (teethign? stomach? nightmares? who knows...) and so we expect trouble. Judging from the first hours of her night -- yep, this most easy going daytime child is struggling to keep her calm at night.
DeleteAnd no, not coordinated. My older girl dressed for a flight and meeting elsewhere. None of those happened (oh, airlines!). It was a grand surprise to have the both of them -- Snowdrop and my daughter -- for the Solstice evening.