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!