May flowers and ballet

You may call me a day lily person. I love growing them and I cannot imagine a sunny flower field without them. They figure prominently in my garden photos. I spend hours each day tidying them just so that they'll always be at their finest in their season of bloom.

And yet, I have to wonder if my greatest joy really comes from flowers of this season, this month, this moment -- when fruit trees, lilac bushes, daffodils, tulips, bleeding hearts, Virginia bluebells, and the emerging peonies fill me with total rapture. 

Perhaps it's because this period is so fleeting.The daffodils have peaked, the lilacs burst with fragrance then quickly wither. The apple blooms are even more ephemeral. Blink and you will have missed their best moment.

Or maybe it's because the transformation is so monumental and comes so quickly at the heels of winter. The freshness is phenomenal. The air pulsates with fragrance. It's a great moment to be alive!

(Morning walk) 

Breakfast -- leftover cinnamon rolls with lots of spring flowers on the table -- from the market and from my gardens. I dont normally pick flowers, but daffodils do fall down and in any case they are abundant.

Ed is out all day (most of the week actually), as they work on bringing his machine model to manufacturing. For me, today's job is obvious: finish digging in the remaining 50 glads, as well as five dahlia tubers. Yes, I seem to have purchased a few of those as well back in January (what was I thinking??). And of course, there is the nonstop weeding that awaits me every single day of the growing season. Not to complain -- there are days where I barely bother. But after last week's rain, I have to be more energetic or else I'll lose both the battles and the general war on their invasiveness.

The sun is out, the chickens follow me in search of worms (and obnoxiously scratch up the beds, but that's a constant), the birds are out. 

 

 

 

It's a splendid day and by early afternoon, I am done with all planting. I suppose I still have to decide if I want to attack the neglected road-facing bed. That's tomorrow's problem. For now, I feel deeply satisfied. Everything is in the ground. Let the magic unfold.

 

I pick up just Snowdrop today. 

We have an interesting evening before us: the dad is out of town briefly and so the mom has to attend to the two boys. Therefore Snowdrop is stuck with just me at her end of year ballet recital -- significant especially because she's ending dance classes after today's class and performance. 

She has been dancing for some seven years and the rigors of this have taught her much in the way of movement, concentration and expression. Still, the older dancers will begin now to focus on the rigors of technique and this is not something that she wants for herself going forward. The girl is busy enough. This is a good time to start limiting her activities to ones she cares about deeply (and there are many!). 

So I watch and smile at all the growth that has happened in her life, in all my grandkids' lives. 

I already saw this over the weekend when the big three went off into their own world of ideas and games. The two little ones are catching up. I cant help but notice this each time I see them.

 (they do a dance from Giselle at the end)

 

After dance, I have to take her home, but first there is a celebration at the ballet school and of course she wants to attend. And after I do take her home, I still have to stop in at the grocery store for foods for tomorrow morning. It's close to 8 by the time I pull into our driveway.

Ed is back, the chickens are in the barn. I don't cook dinner, I throw stuff together and call it dinner. Busy days demand slow evenings. I am aiming for that tonight!

with love...