Windy!

I share this with Ed today: it's windy there, it's windy here!

I woke up extra early to tract his arrival on the Caribbean island. Or at least into the protected channel of an island. You can't quite place a boat on top of an island. And in their case, you can't easily dinghy over to the shore either, because, well, they lost their dinghy somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic. Long story apparently, but definitely not his fault! 

There were gusty winds that allowed for a fabulous sail and I know this because once they anchored, their journey over, he called. So we are no longer outside of contact range. He's bubbling over with stories (insofar as Ed bubbles), but he's saving them for the return to the farmette, which will happen sometime this week.

Here, it's blustery alright. There are tornado warnings just to the south of us. We haven't the mega storms, but we sure picked up a lot of rain. Things are looking pretty November-ish!

As I was picking up some produce from the Farmers Unite program (you order on line directly from each farmer and you pick up all your produce from a nearby site), I let myself imagine the boat bouncing around 10 footers out at see and I thought how lucky the crew was to have Ed on board. From what I heard, they had no experience in navigation and not much with sailing either. Ed, on the other hand, has had an abundance of experience, though frankly, I do think that sailing comes naturally to him. His dad cultivated the love of being out on the water and I have to say, it's a love that's pretty deep within him now. Ed is famous for always reminding me that everyone has their genius and I am quite sure that many people have more than one genius. In the case of Ed, you would have to include sailing in his own storehouse of brilliance. The guy laughs hardest when he recalls sailing adventures. He is wired to manage the trickiest navigation, the most perplexing meteorological event, the craziest breakage or tangle onboard.

I suppose one's genius may shift over time. You stop sailing, you lose your knack. It reminds me of my daughters who were both math whiz kids in high school. Yet neither of them chose professions that included math and I am sure that ship has sailed for them now (to stick with nautical analogies). Watching the grandkids, I have to smile because it is so easy to impute genius even at this age. Snowdrop is such a word-focused girl! (She is forever questioning my word choices! Yesterday: gaga, why did you say toasty warm? What does toasty add? For her, things don't fall, they cascade. And so on.) Such a story writer too (always her favorite  hour in school), that you're sure she'll be an author person someday. Sparrow, on the other hand, will come up to you and say -- did you know that 4 plus 6 plus 1 plus 14 is 25 and that two of those is 50? I mean, that kid goes to sleep thinking up math problems. Well now. Watch her bypass writing and go into spaceship engineering (this is what she says she wants to do in life -- launch rockets) and him become a dreamy poet. So many things go into developing a skill or passion or genius! Who knows what rises to the top and what stays buried within!

In the afternoon I take a dinner over to the young family. We were to all eat together yesterday, at the farmhouse, but then two out of five developed worrisome upper respiratory infections (worrisome to me, less so to the young set) so I opt instead to cook dinner and take it there today. We can have an outdoor meeting!  I step out with my pot of crunchy chicken. My, but it's windy and wet out there!

What starts out as a drizzle, turns into a cold wet shower. Well that's a bummer! But hey, they are prepared!

They need the outing. Being housebound in this type of weather is never great for energetic little guys. We brave the wet and the wind and make our way to the playground. For a very brief romp on the equipment.

I have to say, Sandpiper loves being outside with his whole little soul. Perhaps this will be his genius or at least passion -- outdoor adventuring! Ed in the making.

I linger in their home as they warm up...

.... with popcorn and some building activity that Sparrow got in the mail and that the whole family helps assemble. They'll reheat dinner later. Me, I need to return to the animals who need to be fed and, in the case of the chickens, locked up before dusk.

Of course I'm going to have soup for dinner! Of course! Only cats, quit climbing all over me! I know you miss Ed. He'll be back soon. He'll give you all the rubs and snuggles you want. Just be patient already!

With love...