a Saturday like no other

I'm sure we're toppling records: the sun is strong, the air is still and so very warm! It's 62F (17C) right now and I honestly contemplate joining Ed in shedding pants in favor of shorts. It would have been a February 18th photo of the two of us for the ages.

But hey, maybe we can simply take pleasure in having a day that itself is surely for the ages? It's so grand to look out and think spring thoughts and to imagine it all to be just before you!

The day is made special, too, of course, because of Snowdrop's weekend visit. Oh, these are going to be familiar vignettes because they tell a story already documented here during previous visits.

She likes to help with the pancake preparation...






She loves to eat breakfast with the two of us...






And she loves that I bought her her very own honey bear.











It is also no surprise that I want Snowdrop to spend lots of time outside. That's a bit of a challenge. She is supremely focused on indoor play.

Perhaps she's apprehensive about the rumbling machine outside. We watch Ed through the window as he moves the monster back and forth over the flower bed. In the end, the desire to do stuff with him trumps and she finds her jacket and heads out.






We join Ed on the front flower bed. I show her the stubs of spent flowers and point to tags that often have a wee picture of the flower that will be growing there again. She loves these identifiers and would very much like to take them all back with her!






Oh, but Snowdrop, that's last year's stuff! (A valiant attempt to distract her from that project.) Look at all the new space we're creating for this year's plantings!





I'd like to believe she's impressed.


So yes, she does enjoy our outdoor moments, but the smile is never more heartfelt than when we come back inside and eat play foods that she dishes out for us.






Still, in the afternoon, I try to coax her out again.

No, gagie. I want to play in the farmhouse.

But but but little one, there's this!






I sweeten the deal: do you want to go to the sheep shed to visit ahah (who is spending a few hours working on a new and improved hatch release for the chicken coop)?
Yes!

She has lovely minutes in his big black chair (purchased a long time ago to entice me to spend more time visiting him) studying a listing of invasive species that are endangering Wisconsin flora...






... then, predictably, she lures us both to his kitchenette -- which boasts nothing much these days, but does offer a spectacular view of the fields to the north of us.






On our way back to the farmhouse, we have a spirited visit with the cheepers. You perhaps may recall that Snowdrop has very real conversations with them. She's having one in the photo below.






And there is one new game we like to play these days. It's "can you find the statues that ahah's mom made?" The bronze figurines are scattered throughout the yard. Last I counted there were nine and she knows them all. But counting them off is great fun and giving them names, too, adds to the pleasure of searching them out.






I'll end the outdoor adventure portion of this day with one remarkable find. I think Scotch, our brown hen, is equally astonished. Crocus leaves! Can you see them?






Evening. Pizza making! Now if that isn't a reliable farmhouse thing! (She's sampling the tomato sauce here.)






(Always so happy to get her share. Always mushrooms and garlic. Always with lots of cheese.)






We watch a little TV -- always a nature show. This one about the exquisite smartness of cows, monkeys, cormorants...





But perhaps this weekend must be recognized for Snowdrop's incredible love of stories. She tells them to her various stuffies, or her duplo characters. But she also loves to listen. Read her a good tale and she will love you for life. We must have gone through a hundred reading sessions today.

Night time. Ed asks -- you exhausted?
Sure, but in such a good way.
Goodnight.
Goodnight.