Friday

Back when my kids were in school, I remember the last weeks of the academic year as having lots of outdoor special events and activities. You always fretted about the weather and with justification! One year, on the first or second day of June, my daughter went with her grade to a water theme park. You know the kind -- crazy slides into vast outdoor swimming pools. The whole lot of them sat huddled in sweatshirts, trying to stay warm on a particularly blustery, cold June day.

It's not only Wisconsin: one July vacation in Paris had us shopping for warm wool sweaters. We were woefully under-dressed for the cold days that ensued.

In other words, cold days happen. In spring and summer, they can pop up unexpectedly. Again, unless you're a farmer, or an 8th grader wanting to slide down into a pool on a school outing, it doesn't deserve much thought or worry.

And unlike in April, when you have just had it with the cold and the bleak, in May there are so many delicious rewards to the season, that poor weather (as opposed to dangerously violent weather) takes a back seat to other stuff that's going on all around you.

So today's unusual cold air is just one of those things. It has no impact on the utter magnificence of the farmette right now. If it wasn't for the fact that I am such a day-lily nut (and day lilies reign in my gardens in July), I'd say that this week, perhaps this day is at the top of the top. The entirety is just so outrageously beautiful that you can't imagine anything being this grand again. Until next year, all over again.

(The reason for it lies, of course, in the line up of our blooming crab apples...)






(But do not underestimate the power of the lilac!)






(Oh, but those crabs!!)






But breakfast is indoors, which is a shame, if only because the heady fragrance of the fruit trees and the opening lilac bundles is truly intoxicating.






Our morning is busy. Ed has two work meetings and I have my weekly grocery shopping. But more importantly, this morning is "grandparents at school" time at Snowdrop's school. The little one is super excited to welcome me to her classroom. And I am super excited to be there!






She has it all planned out. First, we have to sample the muffins she and the kids baked yesterday!






(a timed release...)






She then shows me her favorite work stations. The art table takes top billings. Drawing, cutting, pasting -- she demonstrates all of it.

This being a Montessori school, there are many many ways to grow in your dexterity, self sufficiency, curiosity. She runs through a good half dozen with me...






(I found this one to be maybe the most smile inducing: you are to polish this wooden, ornate pair of characters. Decades of oil have been wiped onto the bellies of the figurines.)






Despite his various work commitments today, Ed asks if he can stop by. She is delighted. She shows him the magnetic maze. He is hugely impressed by her patient resolve to get it done.





(She insists that he has a muffin. There aren't enough little chairs to go around and arguably, Ed is too big for one anyway, so he sits on the floor.)





(Well in that case, she'll join him there, perching on his lap.)






Snowdrop is utterly serious in her demonstrations.






But at group time, she turns outward...






I know this girl well, but this peek at her school day was special. A child in a school setting is particularly vulnerable: the teachers, peers, demands placed on her, rules thrust upon her -- it's a storm of experiences. No wonder she falls asleep each afternoon. The hour on that mat is the needed quiet time, where nothing else matters but rest.

In the meantime, the skies remain cloudy. The threat of rain is with us, even as a glance outside gives us that spectacular view to the powerhouse bloomers right now.






I pick up a tired but happy girl.






And, what a surprise... She is again drawn to art.






And now it's evening. I made up a pot of soup last night, in part because I thought the upcoming cool weather warranted it. Ed and I are big fans of veggie soups!

I think about the weekend ahead -- there surely is flower field work to be done. But the biggest chunk of it is behind us. We're slowing down already. And once the tomatoes go in, we'll be coasting to summer.