Saturday

I'm still working with my camera -- different lens, different settings -- and this means that the kids will occupy more than their fair share of Ocean space. Just a heads up on that. If you're one of those persons who thinks kids should be neither seen nor heard, today is not your Ocean day.

It's still gray, still a little cool. But here's charming news: I only needed an hour in the flower fields. The number of spent blooms was that low. Sure, I could weed the fields some, but it's a bit buggy out there right now, so I choose to forgo that tiresome task and keep my eyes focused on flowers rather than all the invasive nonsense that's creeping in at the ground level.

Breakfast, on the porch.

And then I head out to the Farmers Market on the Square. I tell Ed -- I really only need some flowers. Later, much later I come back loaded down -- with tomatoes, with beans, with beets, with summer spinach. What can I say -- you see the stuff, you imagine its place on your week's menu.

On this market adventure I have company: my daughter brings her three kids to it. We meet up by the Children's Museum.

They are such good kids that when they ask for treats, it's tough to say no to them. Nonetheless, when right off the bat they spot a balloon shape maker and plead for one, I point out that inevitably, the balloon pops and someone gets upset. My suggestion -- at least get it on the way out, so we can have a nice run around the market without balloon drama. They are agreeable. We get balloon "wands" at the end of the market trip. 

They bring them back to the farmette.,

One immediately pops. Drama ensues.

The market trip itself though is lovely. The flowers! Oh, the flowers!

And the veggies. Snowdrop loves to eat things right out of the bag: she polishes off all the baby tomatoes and coaxes me into the spinach so that she can munch on a few raw leaves. What, you're going to say no to your kid's request for spinach?

In between, there's the cookie, the lemonade... All fun stuff

And as is our tradition, toward the end, we give the kids some free time to romp on the lawns. For this, Sandpiper joins the older two.

It's a beautiful sight to watch them here...

The two older ones come back to the farmhouse with me for lunch, for books, for play. 

(Ed brings in a melon from our own produce patch. It's huge...)

It's late by the time I return them home. Too late to go for a walk, too late to write a book or even read a book. Too, I'm starving for a big meal. With lots of corn!

I could not have had a more typical Madison family Saturday. Textbook August stuff! Lovely, all of it.