second day of summer

The clouds stay with us. Ed comments that it's not shorts weather. I'm stunned: Ive seen him in shorts in February! I blame it on the constancy of the grayness. Here, in the Upper Midwest, we're used to a mix of brilliant sun and puffy clouds. The overcast skies tell me that the second longest day of the year wont seem very long at all. Indeed, we turn the kitchen light on as we come down, just to give a little glow to our morning.

Early Friday is always set aside for grocery shopping. The drizzle doesn't really bother me, though I know Ed will be wet on his motorbike trip to his tech meetings. Splish splash, back and forth, back and forth, wipers, rain, wipers, rain. I can take it.

But at the farmette, the rain gets to me. The puddles on the driveway are immense! The weeds -- they grow and inch and hour. It's one of those gardening moments when you almost want to toss it all aside and say -- I'll come back to you next spring.

And then you look up and you see the emergent day lilies and you roll up your sleeves and trample down the mud and pull as many weeds as you can in the time you have.






Of course, all this happens after breakfast. An indoor breakfast. Ed has deemed it to be a chilly morning.






(On the upside, a few pockets of colorful blooms have crept into the yard. Coupled with the potted annuals, they do make the gardens shine, even in the gloom of a cloudy day.)






And at noon, I'm out to visit Sparrow. It's his sleepy dozy time. He eats, he naps.






I give him his tummy time... He likes it! Well, either that or it fosters his sweetest dreams.






Side time -- likes that too. Did I mention that this little one is pretty easy going?






From his house, it's straight to Snowdrop's school for me. I am shocked to enter her class and find half the kids sleeping on their mats helter-skelter (with the exception of Snowdrop and a few holdouts). The little one is on the youngest end of the continuum and so it's not surprising that most everyone in her room has moved on to a nap-free existence. But the end of the week leaves everyone tired.

It doesn't take much to get her spirited and playful again. We go to the playground...






Yeah! Get that swing going!






Finally, at the farmette, I tell her it's time to check on the cherries. It's a group excursion to the young orchard!






Yep, we find our young fruits..






Her favorites: the golden red ones.





Too, I let her pick the few pea pods that have appeared this week.

I feel we have finally struck summer gold. Cherries and foxy phloxy. Day lilies and peas in a pod. True summer indeed!