beach day

That is a very real post heading, albeit no one is going to any beach on this hot and sticky day. The two older grandkids, however, are celebrating school spirit by showing up in beach attire. Swim suits not allowed. You cannot imagine how fun such small things are for kids. Snowdrop was plotting all day yesterday for this, as we searched for sunglasses and she deliberated on what to take with her to school that counted as "beachy." We should learn something from them: any day can be beach day, any small creative surge can squeeze a smile into your life. Yowza! It's beach day today! Without the beach.

And yes, it is muggy. Damp from all those rains, sticky summer weather. Early June has always been a low blossom period for me -- we finish up the peonies, the irises, the allium and we wait for the lilies, the phloxes and the sunflowers. It's pretty, it's lush...

... but most of the color right now is in the annuals.

(tall meadow grasses in the peach and strawberry orchard...)

Breakfast feels summery. For the first time, I dont need a hoodie out there in the morning.

Later, we take our bikes out for a quick spin to the park - the one with the Vicious Bugs. My theory is that the prairie trails will be fine and so we dump our bikes at the edge of the big beautiful expanse of prairie and take a walk.

It's humid, and there will be storms again, but honestly, this morning it is extraordinarily beautiful!

They're still building a bike trail that will cut through this quiet space. We explore that as well.

It's such a splendid corner of our world... You can never be unhappy here!

(Oh, watch out for the deer to your right, Ed!)

(he tells me later that he never even noticed its crossing the road! his head was down...)

 

In the afternoon I touch base again with my mother. And she is... better! For the first time in a long time, she is not on the attack. She reports as she has always reported -- the ins and outs of the day. Well, mainly the outs, but the harshness is gone. I dont know how this happened, but I assure you -- fingers crossed very hard that it will last!

 

And then I pick up the two beach bound (but not really) kids.

Isn't it a perfect day for ice cream?

(to the farmhouse)

They leave toward evening,  just as the storms return. To repeat: this has been a very stormy, wet spring!

But the flower fields are thriving and the kids are thriving and we are thriving too. And isn't that just wonderful...

 

with love...