excellence

Ed and I have a different approach to the Olympics: I love watching medal rounds, he finds the commentary to be excessively nation focused. Why gloat if your country sweeps up the medals? Who is left behind then, disappointed? 

It is true that we have been increasingly preoccupied with the competition of nations rather than individuals. We get less and less background about athletes from other countries. Still, you can have your own meter of what's exciting in the Games and for me, it has always been about individual excellence. Watching young athletes rise to such heights after years of work -- it's just beautiful. Not unlike watching a chef preparing her finest dish or a painter putting finishing touches of his masterpiece.

So in the evening, I slow down and take to the couch to watch the young women do their Olympic routines, and Ed revs up and gets off the couch and goes out to water the young trees we planted, and we are both content.

The morning, on the other hand, was tricky: it began to rain just as I snipped lilies and clipped spent stalks. I was too quickly delighted with the prospect of showers. I stopped my work and went in to fix breakfast and the rain stopped and we got hardly a trace of water out there. 

A few photos for you. Can you tell we are nearing a bold season finale? 

Breakfast, on the porch. 

 

 

 

It was pleasantly cool there, but within an hour we soared back up to the 90sF (above 32C) and I was glad that I had a date with Snowdrop at the farmhouse so that I would not feel compelled to finish my work in the flower fields.

 

We haven't been to the orchard meadow recently. Ir's lovely now!

The young girl missed her morning swim (because of the light rain and threat of storms) and when I proposed a walk to the playground in the new development, she was happy to get up and get moving.

It's funny -- I'd been looking forward to having a playground to which we could walk ever since the grandkids started coming here, but the play structure has been up for a couple of years and this is the first time she and I actually walked to it. I'm sure it wont be the last. Snowdrop loves climbing, hanging and doing all those other kid things that seem to me now to be impossibly difficult. I say that after allowing myself to swing from this very same wheel (Snowdrop insisted I try, like five times).

(Back at the farmette, with her fav)

(When I drop off Snowdrop at home, nearly always I get a super greeting from little Sparrow.)

 

 

(Sandpiper is more modest in his excitement. At two months, his excellence, I feel, is in his intense stare into your eyes as you make silly faces at him. Here, he's getting ready to head out with the family for a parent colleague picnic in the park.)

 

It's dark outside and the farmette is exploding with fireflies by the time Ed comes in and fixes us popcorn. Did I mention how good that popcorn is? Talk about excellence!