Well, if yesterday's Madison weather made you grumpy, today's will have made you grumpier. Same gray skies, same coolness in the air, add to it occasional showers -- you get the idea.
September weather here rarely disappoints and so I don't expect this to last, but it does remind me how quickly poor weather pushes us inside. How reluctant I am to work or play outdoors when the sun disappears. How sedentary many of us become with the coming of winter.
But today, it's all for the best. There's cat care...
a glance at the garden... (so autumnal, don't you think? A chaos of gold and purple and fading green...)
(the lily bed isn't devoid of color, just not lily color!)
(though even now, occasionally, a lily will pop open in one of the flower fields)
(looking out from the path to the door)
And then there are the final pages for my photo book to put in place.
And of course, there is breakfast.
Ed is bravely venturing out to the eye clinic in Janesville on his own ("if I put a patch over the injured eye, I can see okay out of the other one!"). A roof guy comes to give us an estimate on what a new roof would cost. In other words, we're moving through a regular old Monday. Not especially a pretty day, but a day that's beautiful from within!
And in the afternoon, Snowdrop is here once again.
We've been reading Ramona books (a series out of the 1950s by Beverly Cleary) -- ones that I loved reading with my girls decades ago. Snowdrop is fascinated by Ramona's naughtiness. There's a bit of a desire to be like her: to be that spunky, that full of mischief.
The genius of Cleary is to know that every kid has an inner Ramona, itching to eat one bite of a dozen apples. But in the end, most of us, like Ramona herself, take a deep breath and say "I'm ready to behave now." Because being kind and good is the better path. Snowdrop is old enough to get this. But oh, is she fascinated by the misdeeds of those who haven't quite gotten there yet!
In the evening, Ed and I spend a bit of time with the cats. It seems ludicrous that we should be suddenly tending to so many. And yet, this is where we are. Life pushes you in interesting directions.
September weather here rarely disappoints and so I don't expect this to last, but it does remind me how quickly poor weather pushes us inside. How reluctant I am to work or play outdoors when the sun disappears. How sedentary many of us become with the coming of winter.
But today, it's all for the best. There's cat care...
a glance at the garden... (so autumnal, don't you think? A chaos of gold and purple and fading green...)
(the lily bed isn't devoid of color, just not lily color!)
(though even now, occasionally, a lily will pop open in one of the flower fields)
(looking out from the path to the door)
And then there are the final pages for my photo book to put in place.
And of course, there is breakfast.
Ed is bravely venturing out to the eye clinic in Janesville on his own ("if I put a patch over the injured eye, I can see okay out of the other one!"). A roof guy comes to give us an estimate on what a new roof would cost. In other words, we're moving through a regular old Monday. Not especially a pretty day, but a day that's beautiful from within!
And in the afternoon, Snowdrop is here once again.
We've been reading Ramona books (a series out of the 1950s by Beverly Cleary) -- ones that I loved reading with my girls decades ago. Snowdrop is fascinated by Ramona's naughtiness. There's a bit of a desire to be like her: to be that spunky, that full of mischief.
The genius of Cleary is to know that every kid has an inner Ramona, itching to eat one bite of a dozen apples. But in the end, most of us, like Ramona herself, take a deep breath and say "I'm ready to behave now." Because being kind and good is the better path. Snowdrop is old enough to get this. But oh, is she fascinated by the misdeeds of those who haven't quite gotten there yet!
In the evening, Ed and I spend a bit of time with the cats. It seems ludicrous that we should be suddenly tending to so many. And yet, this is where we are. Life pushes you in interesting directions.
