and now we are three

Is it that May days are full because there is much that is packed into them, or is it that I only imagine them to be full, because I feel so satiated at the end of each one? As if I could not take in a drop more of anything, so don't even think of adding to my bounty-filled plate? If it's not the springtime garden and chicken shenanigans and Ed projects and Snowdrop frolics (not in that order of importance), then it's Chicago walks and fantastic lunches and Primrose antics. Full days are happy days. I've always thought that. And so once again, I feel the luck of having had a beautifully full day.

A glance out my window in Chicago: it seems cloudy, but I know the sun will be out. It's slated to be a warm day!





I hurry to the younger family's home. I haven't the luxury of many days or even a full day with my girl and her girl -- I have to get back to the farmette by nightfall -- but there are plenty of hours to delight in the changes in my youngest granddaughter!

She's left her newborn markings behind. She's a baby, a tall, robust, happy child!






Breakfast? Yes, of course! With her mommy.






If I am disruptive to the littlest one, she does not complain. Snowdrop will sometimes say with affection and perhaps exasperation -- "silly grandma!"  Primrose is still just taking it all in.






(and now we are three...)






The clouds do indeed move on to some far away place and we have a warm, indeed a very warm afternoon. Out comes the Ergopack. We're going for a walk!






... to Hot Chocolate, which has one one of my favorite lunch dishes ever (a quinoa salad with asparagus, nameko mushrooms and a poached egg). The moment deserves a special add-on -- the season's first Aperol Spritz!







Primrose takes in the sounds and smells in her own dreamy dozy way...






After -- a short stroll, a poke into a shop with fragrant lilac branches, a look at summer stuff in shops and then they go that way and I go this way.

Sigh...






I am at the farmette before it is too dark to find the little chicks and herd them in for their safe night's sleep.

And what a surprise! They're happy to see me! (I've never seen them come up the walkway before.)





Just wait a little bit, little hens. I need to check the flower beds. Primrose grew in leaps and bounds in my absence. Did my garden change overnight?

It did! Look at what's blooming here right now!


(helleborus)





(uvularia)





(...and the beloved narcissus)





I retreat inside and watch Ed from the kitchen window -- he's surrounded by chicks, he herds them all to the coop...




Ha! Not so easy! They follow him, then run away. In the end, it takes many more minutes and both our efforts to get them all bedded and locked for the night.

Why don't young ones know that a long restful sleep is good for them?!

Goodnight all the little ones out there! Sweet images, sweet dreams, heady spring days to you all!