stress

Every once in a while, your doc will ask you -- when was the last time you had a stress test? Mine did that just before the pandemic. Predictably, throughout the Year of Crisis, I avoided the idea of going in to pant in a room full of strangers. But, there's no reason to avoid it now (or at least there's less reason) and so the day came when I was again scheduled for one of those run until you drop deals in my clinic. Last time I did this, my doc noted (with admiration or disdain, I couldn't tell) -- my, you're competitive. That was then.

 

Today, I wake to rain. The walk to the barn is wet, but very very fragrant. The last load of wood chips dumped at the end of the driveway was all pine and every time it really rains, the farmette smells of a pine forest.

Things are slowly picking up in the flower fields...

(a day lily in front of a true lily)

(day lily doubles with their awesome scrunched faces!)

(so pink, so wet!)

(bold!)

(this my dears is a true lilium...)

It's not a day for outdoor work. Breakfast is on the porch. 

Unfortunately I am not allowed caffeine today and the combination of rhythmic rain drops and absence of morning coffee makes me so sleepy that immediately after breakfast I join Ed upstairs for a very protracted nap. Seriously!

Then comes the scheduled stress test. I tell myself that at 68, I no longer need feel competitive. It's not you against them anymore. It's just you, passing through life, doing your best to stay steady and calm. Still, as I start my trudge up their treadmill, I brush off suggestions of shedding the mask. On a scale of awful to great, how do you feel?

Great! Fantastic, as if I'm sitting down by a lake with a fishing pole!

You want to continue to go more uphill and faster?

Don't make me laugh! Of course!

So there's a lesson in all this: maybe when you get to be 68, you are as you were at 58, only more so. Hmmm.

In the afternoon, Snowdrop is at the farmette. 

 (last cherry earings of the season...)

The girl is at a wonderful age of still very young, playful, delightfully silly, at the same time that she can be serious, thoughtful and strong, both inside and out. (I could not get her to break into a giggle here and believe me, I tried!)

Reminding me of my own more advanced years, she beat me in all rounds of Memory, but hey, I can still carry her when asked and she does ask, fairly regularly!

Back at her house, a quick visit with the boys...

(he looks twice his age here...)

(He looks... his age here)

 

 ("hey, I'm not that young anymore!")

 

Then home again to survey the rain drenched flower fields.

The beautiful rain drenched flower fields.

Not bad. Really not bad. Are we out of a drought yet? I hope so!