Thursday

Oh, the flowers of July! Soak up the sorrows of this world and keep our collective smile alive.

Here are my pink girls, fitting in with the yellow flowers that I planted so long ago that I don't even remember what they are.






Here's an unusual and beautiful day lily:






And here's the field of them, today:






Breakfast.






And now it's all about Snowdrop. She has gym class early in the morning and I'm there with her.

And yet... do I note that dance stretch creeping into the tumbles and climbs?






Ah, Snowdrop... I hope in life you do not have to carry the burdens of the world upon your head...






This is one of her favorite moments -- when she gets to play ball. (Soccer champ? Maybe...)






Afterwards, we go to Paul's coffee shop (right next door to the gym!) and I buy a batch of pickles and a cookie to be split between Snowdrop and Ed and I have to say, I am too lazy (tired?) to haul over a high chair, so I tell the little one to just stand in the big chair and eat. She obliges, though there's that look in her eyes that seems to ask  -- am I understanding this right? you want me to stand? Correct?







Okay. (Or, as Snowdrop says it -- okay okay okay!!) We go to the library next. Chaos. Some group of young ones is running wild. Snowdrop is not sure what to make of this. Neither am I. We don't stay long.

Back home, she has her bath and then we move to her play space. I put on a record. This child is no stranger to music, but the record player just mesmerizes her.






Here's something impressive: our mosquito population took a nosedive overnight. And so Snowdrop and I head outdoors to explore.

She is a bit tentative... Until I take her to our blueberry patch and let her taste the warm berries straight off the bush. She stuffs them into her mouth... So good!






The cheepers see us. They come running.






Stand back, girls. I'm trying to take a picture of the lilies in the heat of the day.






We retreat to the farmhouse where Snowdrop practices the set up for a somersault (expecting me to flip her over, and I do) again and again and again.






Lunch, nap -- it all moves so quickly. Here she is immediately after her nap with that look of sleep still in her little face...






I give her fat crayons and a piece of paper and, as an afterthought, a cup full of blueberries and all this amuses her no end: what's a girl to do with all this stuff??






(Focus on the blueberries.)





She goes home soon after.

Near evening at the farmhouse. Admire the day lilies, water some distant beds. Go out with Ed to the local market, talk to the cheese guy and, too, to the guy from Greece who sells his olive oil (come pick olives with us in January! Meh... I don't think so. Travel less, be here more...), eat dinner, admire the lilies...





The world is a troubled place. Finding peace is so very hard. But here, at the farmette, it isn't hard at all. So lucky to look out and view fields of flowers. So very lucky.