Well, it's a beautiful day -- crisp and sunny, breezy and warm -- a poster day for summer! Still, you can't really enjoy it if bugs attack you the minute you step outside. And I say bugs, because we have ourselves not only a mosquito problem, but a horse-fly problem. Typically when one comes, the other disappears, but this year we have both. If you study Snowdrop's face today, you'll notice a very puffy eye. That's what happens when one of these flies gets on your face.
Ed tells me he is enjoying the days anyway. There is enough beauty and pleasure outside to make up for the deficiencies. I like his attitude and I don't completely disagree. Nevertheless, cleaning out the flower beds and getting a child in and out of a car to the buzz of these annoying insects can rise the ire even in a calm person.
My morning visit with the farmette animals is brief. No lingering inside the sheep shed. I'm mad at the big cats. One of them went on a bird hunt. The telltale feathers in the shed put the blame squarely on these guys. I know, I know, this is what cats do. I get it, but I don't have to like it. (To their credit, they rarely hunt things off the ground and they superbly hunt down mice. Still, every few months they bring in a bird. Shameful cats!)
I do stay out long enough to deadhead most, if not all the lilies, but after about a half hour of work, I just can't take the buzz and bite anymore and retreat inside. The garden looks good if a little rough around the edges! (A few of the raspberry bushes are producing fruit, but mosquitoes are standing guard.)
Breakfast on the porch.
After, I drive over to pick up Snowdrop (she spends Fridays alone at the farmhouse). I say a quick hello and goodbye to Sparrow. I wont be seeing either child for a few days, as they are doing vacationy things with their parents next week.
It's a low key day for the girl and me.
We do tons of reading and some art stuff. I try to give her a pep talk about not being so hard on herself when something doesn't come out exactly as she would wish, but she is not convinced. Her lovely lemon superhero picture leaves her cold.
It's a sweet sweet day nonetheless.
(Ice cream)
Even small things can be fun adventures with a kid. We drive up to the drugstore to do a curbside pick up of Benedryl for her puffy eye. She wants to know more about the medicine: is it a liquid or a solid, she asks.
And you know about liquids and solids from where?
Oh, so many places!
Indeed. The world is full of information sources.
Late, late in the afternoon, after Snowdrop is already home, Ed again nudges me to try working outside.
Too many bugs.
I'll swat them for you.
And we do just that. He stands over me with a paddle swatter and I work with my flowers.
And the berries too. We have some wild blackberry bushes producing delicious black fruits -- nothing like the stuff you'd pick up in a grocery store.
Anyone have a fantastic blackberry recipe I could try out this weekend?
(Berry pickings: not too large, not too small.)
Evening. Our windows are wide open. We never once had to turn on the AC today. Quiet. It's beautifully quiet all around us. Oh, there's the occasional bird chirp and we hear the sound of a distant passing car. The country rages, the infection destroys, but here, at the farmette, it's so very quiet.
