Sunday meals

The sleepover continues. Of course it does! We all wake up to a lovely farmette morning. 

Oh, we are lucky with weather! Snowdrop tells me she had a conversation with the weather fairies and this time they listened to her. Well now, thank you. No pouting skies and thunderstorms. No rain either (we could use some more rain, but it was very decent of the weather fairies to hold off on that for at least this one day). Just a mild and sweet set of Sunday hours, where the doors and windows can be kept open to the lily scented air outside.

I do get up very early, before Primrose wakes up. I can't possibly snip off hundreds of spent lilies, but I do tackle a few dozen of them. If the young families look out at the flower fields, they'll see a mostly tidy garden!

The little girl wakes up and we have an early morning meal together.

Both young families will be here for brunch and despite my young guest being with me this morning, or perhaps because she is here, I get ambitious with the prep for it. I'll be making a frittata in a bit, but for now, let's bake blueberry muffins!

And again, my sous chef extraordinaire gets to work: prepare the tin, grate the lemon rind, whip up the wet ingredients, sift in the dry.

(She continues to help as we set the table for the noon meal.)

Because the weather is so good for this, Primrose and I do a lot of going in, going out. In, and out...

And eventually the cousins arrive..

 

 

 

 

 

And her parents return from their little getaway and we are all together and it is grand.

Lingering on the porch after a meal, where you're still nibbling at the leftover muffin or croissant, or reaching for another cup of coffee has to be one of my favorite activities. Really, right on top with all else. And we have the perfect day for it.

Of course, the day moves forward. We can't just stay put. There's beauty in movement as well.

And yes, the younger family has to pack up and hit the road. And the local young family is off as well and all this is okay, because I have this deep satisfaction in knowing that they are all doing well. The difficult year has left its mark and indeed, in many ways it's not over yet, but nonetheless, we are here and together and the youngsters are growing into such good, good kids and that just makes me so very happy.

The day's not over of course! If it's Sunday then it must be family dinner at the farmhouse! Yes, the local guys come over again, this time for an evening meal on the porch -- the usual foods, with the usual joys of eating together, outside again.

So ends a weekend that has all the essential elements packed in to the fullest.

Deeply satisfying. Yep -- happy.

With love...