Tuesday

Warm air, early wake up, sinuses itch, but hey, it's such a pretty day!

I miss the half of the family that's not here.

Ed sleeps, I wake him -- it's going to rain! You should move the wagon and tractor! He mumbles from upstairs -- can you do it? I cant back up a wagon! Yes you can. I back up the wagon and haul the machine into the barn. 

It does not rain.

Breakfast -- we both have fruit, I have oatmeal, he has leftover popcorn. What is wrong with that -- he asks.

I check my computer. My friend, the affable and ever resourceful George, who has ties to the printed press, ties to the world of professional photography, even ties to the world of lawyers, and now newly formed ties to the folks at the University Memorial Union, sought clarification on the photo policy that lead to the guard's telling me yesterday to not take pictures of my family at our outdoor lunch. His inquiry produced this response (which he forwarded to me):

We are so sorry. This was an incorrect application of our photo and video policy. Our policies do not prohibit personal photography as long as the photography is not occurring on the Outdoor UW and Hoofer docks. We will contact our building management team immediately.

Now all I have to do is confidently assert my rights next time I'm challenged.

What's blooming? Every day reveals something new.

Those peonies started right here, today: against a backdrop of an emerging yellow iris, and the somewhat less common yellow false indigo. (I know you've heard me sing its praises of this combination in previous years! There is a reason why older people have a reputation for repeating their stories!)

Pink irises...

Lupines in the peach tree meadow...

And yes, the earliest day lilies have begun to bloom. I have this theory: if the lilies start flowering here in May, then all is right with the world. I know, I know -- all is not right with the world. Working theory, disproved. Sigh...

Snowdrop comes here after school. Yes she is agreeable, yes I can take a photo. Can it be by some favorite flowers? She prefers up in the tree. Same tree, same limb, same shot that you have seen here so many times before. The girl grows up, but some habits stick around for a very long time.

And some of her younger childhood games make a later come back. She coaxes Ed into babysitting "her children..."

... while she conducts a (pretend) picnic for a select few. Dolls have been absent from her life for several years now, but for some reason, this spring they have reappeared in her stories.

Tomorrow, little Juniper starts "school" in Chicago, and Snowdrop and Sparrow end their school year in Wisconsin. Though technically school continues until the end of the week for them, they're handing their house over to a cat/house sitter and are taking off for a brief vacation. Me? Oh, I'm tagging along, though not in lockstep with them. But when have you known me to pre-announce a trip! More on our adventures will follow as the week unfolds.

For now, Ed and I open up our windows, we watch the swallows chase bugs high in the air and listen to their compadres tweet their songs late into the evening. A beautiful day to end the spring month of May.

Madison Monday

Ed is up at 6, shoveling dirt for the extended meadow project. It's cooler then. 

I'm up just a little later, taking stock, feeding animals. I notice that we are in that period of quiet flowers. It always comes right about Memorial Day -- a time of beauty in the flower fields that's a little bit hidden. Not obvious. And it's not easy to photograph well. The false indigo, the nicotine -- delicate flowers on long stalks. Or the emerging white iris. Photographing truly white flowers on a sunny day? Well, it'll test your strength with the camera, or at least with the tools of photo editing.

Breakfast, on the porch. On the early side.

And then I am off to spend a final day with my daughters, their husbands and the kids.

The plan is to go downtown, start at the Capitol Square, and walk down State Street -- our mile long street that links (intentionally) the Capitol with the University campus -- all the way to the Memorial Union (an iconic campus meeting place by the lake) and then, after lunch, to hike back to the the Capitol Square. 

It's an ambitious idea, especially with two kids that are four-ish (the babes at least will be in strollers), but it is additionally challenging because of the weather: it has now decided to be very hot, so you're going to be thirsty, and they're going to be thirsty and we will need bathroom searches and shady moments.

Nevertheless, we do it and it is wonderful. 

Energetic!

Comfy

Reminds me of: going on a bear hunt...

Kids love the iconic Terrace chairs and especially this large one, which lends itself to these kinds of photos.

Lovely docks extending onto Lake Mendota. But hot today!

Climbing the Bucky mascot.

Sandpiper is getting to be such a strong walker! But never holding both hands. Ever.

This is where it gets interesting. We're sitting around a bunch of tables. 

We're taking brat orders. Who wants what. I want to take a photo of our brat lunch. A guard comes up to me and says -- no professional grade photos on the Union Terrace allowed without a permit. Do you have a permit?

I protest. I'm taking photos of my family and you're telling me I need a permit? I am NOT a professional.

You are using a professional camera.

Am not!

Are too! 

How do you get a permit?

Go online, fill out forms, wait for an answer.

You're joking, right? I am a Lifetime Union member and I can't take pictures of my family on the Union Terrace without a permit?

You can use your phone. Or a non-professional camera. That, to me, is a professional camera.

I would have continued this conversation (it is NOT a professional camera by a long shot), but my daughters are not fans of me challenging stupid rules in public, so I put away my camera (which actually doesn't fit in my purse, but that's because I do not have one of those oversize bags women seem to love). But if someone can explain this rule to me, please send me a note. It just makes no sense at all. 

In the meantime, here we go -- an iPhone selfie!

And another iPhone special!

The walk back up to the Square.

And now one more must do for this weekend: get a photo of the five cousins together! True, Juniper is due for a feeding and everyone is on the tired side things, but they cooperate. And I am grateful.

       

Oh, I suppose I could have fussed and adjusted this or that, but I love the implied movement within, the sibs trying to keep the little ones focused and still, even as we seem to have kicked up flocks of young mosquitoes from the Capitol  lawns. 

Oh kids, all five plus four of you, how I love you!

Thank you for being so so sweet to me, to each other, to all who cross your path.

the reason we all picked this weekend...

Once the weather turns delightfully warm, it's tempting to come up to Wisconsin from Chicago for a weekend of family time, outside time, visit the old haunts time. So it's not surprising to see the younger family here, especially since the longer weekend means no one has to rush home on Sunday. But there is a particular reason to be together in this moment: Sandpiper just passed his first birthday and Sparrow is about to mark his fourth. The weekend is perfectly sandwiched to celebrate the two of them. En famille!  

My farmette time is very short. Ed and I do a morning walk together, because he wants to help me extend the meadow (where I seed some wildflowers) in the new orchard and we plan out the space for it between the young fruit trees. The chickens help.

Sorry, Dance helps too.

Then I make a quick dash to the bakery to pick up two birthday cakes and I squeeze in a late breakfast on the porch with Ed (it's such a beautiful morning for it!)

And then I'm over at my daughter's house for a day filled with wonderful, joyous family time.

(Precious moments with visiting Juniper: if she is surprised at how much energetic play all these cousins can engage in, she doesn't show it!)

Lots of family time.

Lots.

(Family Portrait!)

Grandparents (not us!) provide lunch, kids play (hugs are common)...

And finally, the boys open presents. With help. (Additional help needed from the several of us especially talented at putting things together.)

(Ed truly can fix pretty much anything. Holding a baby? Fifth one now passing through his lap and it still remains a challenge.)

We eat pizza, then, important moment coming up -- there are the two cakes...

(someone needs a little help blowing out a candle)

... And we squeeze in some group pictures (thank you, Ed!)...

Though we have to laugh at how there is never the perfect moment to take that shot of the five grandkids together because the two young babes are not always in sync with their naps and hunger spells and the three older ones have patience galore, but not bottomless patience (sort of like us grownups), but we manage some pics and we put off others and it's altogether great fun just to even try!

I'll leave you with a photo of mom and her three kids -- two of the boys from today's celebrations and their older sister. (Oh! Is that cake frosting in your hair, Sandpiper? It is! No surprise there: cake frosting always makes it into the hair on your first birthday party!)

I ask you, how can you not love a day like this?

Family Saturday

Ed laughs at my intensive house cleaning campaign when my younger girl is scheduled, along with her family, to visit us at the farmette. As if I worry excessively that she should find our home a little neglected. He's wrong, of course. My girl would be comfortable here even if I didn't clean, wash and tidy before her arrival. But her visits create an excuse to really be more thorough, especially in our control of clutter. Because we both get careless. I love an immaculate, well organized, minimalist house, but not enough to want to put in the effort on a daily basis to get it to that state. We have both decided that we have better things to do than to be fastidious about every last detail. And that's fine -- I can live with that, but sometimes I like dig into their roughly pushed aside piles of toys in the play room, or my mounting stack of papers on the kitchen counter, or his stack of clothes tossed to the side of the couch. Today was such a day. All morning long I worked on cleaning and clearing our living spaces.

After the morning walk of course. Today, you get to say hello to our second oldest hen -- Henny.

What flowers are blooming? Well, it's the start of the iris show. These common irises bloom first and they are probably the only flower that has been here since before I moved in. Do I love them? Well.....  But, like the tiger lilies, they are emblematic of a Midwest garden, so I let them be, putting only some limits on their expansive nature.

Breakfast, on the porch, with peonies. Unfortunately, not my own. I have at least 8 or 9 peony bushes in the flower fields, and they probably will be in full bloom when I'm away in June. They, like every other flower this year, are late.

The Chicago young family hasn't been here for a visit since Juniper was born and so it is especially wonderful to welcome them here today. A bright and beautiful day. I'll post a few photos from the visit and then, too, from when the local young family joined up, finished off by our dinner, with all of us, plus another set of grandparents, stretching the limits of our long kitchen table to the max.

("This is different! Where am I?")

("Oh, hi grandma! Wait, weren't you just in Chicago a week ago?") 

(Oh, come here, you little one!)

(In the meantime, Primrose remembers all the favorite corners and secrets of the farmhouse. Very quickly, she settles into the children's corner in the art room.)

(Golden cherries are always so special because they are so rare...)

(Primrose was so engrossed in her play that she chose to stay in the farmhouse under Ed's watchful eye --haha -- while Juniper explored for the first time the farmette lands. Highlights? The tomato plants, the cherry tree, and the willow, under which her mom and dad got married just about 8 years ago.)

(The cousins arrive. From the youngest on upwards!)

(Familiar play routines: dress up and food preparation)

(The two older girls go with me to pick some asparagus for the salad. First a few dandelion puffs, then a lesson on how to snap an asparagus stalk.)

(Dinner...)

(Let's zero in on the youngest guys!)

It was a beautiful day, and every moment was extraordinarily special. If you're a fan of big family gatherings around the table, especially in the season where you can start adding foods from the garden (asparagus), then you'll understand. Oh how lucky we feel on such occasions! How extraordinarily lucky!