My, but it's quiet here! Shockingly so. I think it's because we had a summer of (construction) noise and my week away was so concentrated on cities. Today -- a gray and somewhat serious looking day -- everything is very very still.
I never have much of a jet lag on the return: sure, I wake up early and get sleepy early. Sort of like getting ten years older in a handful of days! As I walk the farmette land at dawn (somewhere there, behind the cloud cover), I take in what is still blooming.
But you can't coax many photos out of me today. The garden looks pretty grim right now. It's not for an absence of color. The golden yellow helianthus sunflowers and blackeyed susans, the persistent pink cosmos, the purple of the little asters -- they look so seasonally appropriate! Lovely, in fact.
Still, most of the summer flowers in the beds are over and done with. I should take a good pair of sheers to them. Maybe this weekend. Not today.
As always, Ed had slipped into his guy habits in my absence (though these days, he knows he can buy himself at least a few appreciative smiles from me by merely turning on his robotic vacuum cleaner just before I arrive). I don't mind. It's his space too after all and if he can have a vacation from my oversight and tidying tendencies every now and then, I'm sure we're both the better for it.
But it does mean that "tidying" is on the top of my list for the next day or two. (Ed, did you notice that there is a dead mouse at the bottom of the stairs to the basement? No? Oh, well then. I'm informing you now.)
Breakfast, with whatever sad looking fruits he left for me, for himself...
Grocery shopping is also a must immediately after I return!
In the afternoon, I pick up Snowdrop. The girl had been sick while I was away and so I am especially happy to see her bouncy and chipper once again. Initially, she and I play upstairs. Ed is busy with a work issue and his unavailability throws her off a bit. But not for long. When he is finally free, she is thrilled.
Snowdrop is, as ever, full of stories. If I had to use just one word to best describe Snowdrop right now, it would have to be imaginative! She is unbelievably imaginative.
"Irrepressible" is good too. The stories are always bubbling over.
Wednesday is storybook ballet class day. She has learnt in school not to just speak out when she wants to say something. She is not shy about jutting her hand up to be heard.
(But she is also a very good listener.)
Trying out a dance for today's story.... (The book was about Raggedy Ann and Andy.)
Exploding with glee...
Afterwards, her mom joins us for a snack across the street at Pasqual's. Here, Snowdrop has to wait for my daughter and me to catch up a bit.
But not for long. She wants to contribute too.
And she does.
And so I'm home. That place that I always think about when I'm away. With good reason. The heart's here. It's that simple.
I never have much of a jet lag on the return: sure, I wake up early and get sleepy early. Sort of like getting ten years older in a handful of days! As I walk the farmette land at dawn (somewhere there, behind the cloud cover), I take in what is still blooming.
But you can't coax many photos out of me today. The garden looks pretty grim right now. It's not for an absence of color. The golden yellow helianthus sunflowers and blackeyed susans, the persistent pink cosmos, the purple of the little asters -- they look so seasonally appropriate! Lovely, in fact.
Still, most of the summer flowers in the beds are over and done with. I should take a good pair of sheers to them. Maybe this weekend. Not today.
As always, Ed had slipped into his guy habits in my absence (though these days, he knows he can buy himself at least a few appreciative smiles from me by merely turning on his robotic vacuum cleaner just before I arrive). I don't mind. It's his space too after all and if he can have a vacation from my oversight and tidying tendencies every now and then, I'm sure we're both the better for it.
But it does mean that "tidying" is on the top of my list for the next day or two. (Ed, did you notice that there is a dead mouse at the bottom of the stairs to the basement? No? Oh, well then. I'm informing you now.)
Breakfast, with whatever sad looking fruits he left for me, for himself...
Grocery shopping is also a must immediately after I return!
In the afternoon, I pick up Snowdrop. The girl had been sick while I was away and so I am especially happy to see her bouncy and chipper once again. Initially, she and I play upstairs. Ed is busy with a work issue and his unavailability throws her off a bit. But not for long. When he is finally free, she is thrilled.
Snowdrop is, as ever, full of stories. If I had to use just one word to best describe Snowdrop right now, it would have to be imaginative! She is unbelievably imaginative.
"Irrepressible" is good too. The stories are always bubbling over.
Wednesday is storybook ballet class day. She has learnt in school not to just speak out when she wants to say something. She is not shy about jutting her hand up to be heard.
(But she is also a very good listener.)
Trying out a dance for today's story.... (The book was about Raggedy Ann and Andy.)
Exploding with glee...
Afterwards, her mom joins us for a snack across the street at Pasqual's. Here, Snowdrop has to wait for my daughter and me to catch up a bit.
But not for long. She wants to contribute too.
And she does.
And so I'm home. That place that I always think about when I'm away. With good reason. The heart's here. It's that simple.
