Labor Day

Anyone living in Madison will remember these days as wet. Heavy storms, flooded city streets. And so it continues. We wake up to more rain. The recurring Groundhog Day of thunderstorms and pounding rainfalls.

Ed and I were awake and mulling the possibility of getting up just after six (well, I was mulling, he was tossing). We have mosquitoes popping up again and so we had scheduled a spraying of garlic and peppermint (it really does help), but the rains make this impossible. I get up to feed the animals...






I look at the wet, drippy everything...





... and go back to bed, waking up several hours later. I don't think I've done that in decades.

Breakfast is, therefore, late.  I'm putting up a photo that's mostly about Ed because he wants one for a profile he's submitting for a future sailing expedition. You'd take him as part of your crew, wouldn't you?






It's a catch-up day for me. Catch up with emails. With finding a replacement handbag online because the one I have has four holes, one in each bottom corner and I'm worried something may escape. Tidy this, straighten that.

And in the evening, the young family comes over for dinner. No, it's not Sunday, but it is a holiday and for us, a holiday means family eating together.

Snowdrop wants to know why we're not eating on the porch.


 


Sweet child! I don't have a good answer for her. After all, it's not exactly raining on the porch. It's just that you're that much closer to the damp landscape. Inside seems snug and friendly.

(Snowdrop and her dad are in a race for the roasted beets!)






She says to me -- you made so many beets! Why? I tell her that Ed likes to have them around. She runs over with slices for him.

And Sparrow? He just listens for the voice of his sister in the room.






Where did she go??






And now we are all at the table. Snowdrop doesn't have to be the center of all conversational flow, but when a space is made for her to enter into the discussion, she seizes it!






Her input is never dull!






There's a wisp of nostalgia as I take out a carton of Jeni's ice cream. I do always miss the youngest family on our Sunday meals. But, the memories are good and strong and the next meet up will take place later this month. For now, I leave you with a snapshot of a girl enchanted with her bowl of cherries and her dish of Jeni's Splendid ice cream.