Thursday

To be fair, the storms were a very real possibility all along. And they did not begin immediately. I had a fairly pleasant stroll to feed the animals...

(not all daffodils are yellow)

(not all Virginia bluebells are blue)

(weirdly, not all American Bresse chicken eggs are the same color)

And though it wasn't warm enough to eat breakfast on the porch, still, the chill that we felt earlier in the week is definitely history (well, for now). 

(eating and patting a cat on the floor takes practice)

Looking at the weather maps, I decided I had a window of calm to work on the meadows (weeding and sowing seeds). And I made some progress. For example, I seeded a new mini meadow where the sandbox once stood. And I dug up some crab grass in the new peach orchard so I could seed that as well. And Ed, trusting his instincts as to the weather, set out on his motorbike to run some errands (which included reading the entire card section of the bargain store near us).

And then the rain came down and the thunder rumbled and I came inside and Ed got very very wet. I'm watching him now wringing his socks over the kitchen sink. One can hope that his purchases stayed dry.

We had total weather ambiguity in the afternoon. The sun came out, the air warmed. Then the clouds returned and we got put under a tornado watch.

When I bring Snowdrop to the farmette after school, the storms threatened. But they passed us by, and the little girl had her outdoor romp.

She has been asking many times to plant flowers from seeds and this seemed like a good time to build up the orchard meadow.

In the evening, after Snowdrop leaves, I go back to my never-ending work to establish these meadows (though I'm holding off on the annual seeds until the weekend cold snap passes). As I finish up for the day, Ed comes out and we walk the farmette lands together. Occasionally, we pull out stray honeysuckle, but mostly we simply admire the incredible beauty of the landscape! 

And so ends another day, another year, another decade. Like the weather today, it had its seesaws. I mean, who can forget the political horror show, the Covid years, the deterioration of the environment.

But throughout, I stayed lucky. My family and friends felt close as anything. The kids flourished, the Great Writing Project (see sidebar) was completed, published, and awarded. And the flowers bloomed like crazy and Ed got wet in search of a card. A totally beautiful seventh decade. I am so deeply grateful.

with so much love...