May young people

Did you know that 70% of people my age would benefit from a visit to a podiatrist? I bet you, younger ones, aren't thinking of managing feet as being eventually part of your senior repertoire! And I'm not one to rush to foot specialists either. I'm perfectly capable of caring for my own, thank you, and that includes nail care as well. (I dont object to nail salons and certainly not to podiatrists, I just dont want to take the time to go to another appointment, anywhere for anything.) But of course, eventually problems surface and you need help. So today I dutifully drove over to the podiatrist who was to "fix things." Except that she sent me home doing nothing at all. Her post-care instructions were impossible to meet: stay off your feet for at least 24 hours, soak your feet daily for three weeks, come back with any problem and so on. Can't be done! I'll see you in the fall.

The point is that it is one beautiful day once again and here I am, breaking it up for a visit to a foot doctor. I mean really, what a waste! (No disrespect to the doc intended -- she is a lovely person.)

The morning walk to the barn was lovely...

And I did do some weeding by the sheep shed. And I dragged Ed out to take a look at the proliferation of Jerusalem artichoke plants we have growing there. Neither of us can figure out how they got there (maybe from sunflower mixtures I've been known to sow around the farmette lands?). Local herbivores love to eat them so I'm not sure how many veggies we'll get out of them, but for now, we are quite proud of our dense plot of sunchokes. (By the way, the name Jerusalem artichoke is funny in its total inaccuracy as the plant is neither from Jerusalem nor is it an artichoke. I'm told the name likely comes from the Italian word girasole, which means sunflower. They are a type of sunflower.)

I'd picked up pastries and bread from Madison Sourdough (I need bread for dinner and cookies for Sparrow) so we indulged ourselves for breakfast with cinnamon rolls for breakfast.

And of course, after breakfast there was plenty of garden work, interrupted by a visit from this trespasser:

... and my visit to a foot doc.

 

(While the hens indulge in a sun bathing session)

 

 

In the afternoon I did not have the kids here because I tasked myself with dinner prep. My daughter's two grand college friends are visiting and it has become a lovely tradition for them (along with the young family) to come to dinner at the farmhouse. I cook up the usual kid favorites -- crunchy chicken with noodles, and of course asparagus because 'tis the season. For dessert I make a strawberry rhubarb crumble. Again, 'tis the season. For rhubarb anyway. 

(dinner: Ed is still out biking, postponed from a rainy Wednesday, so it's just the 8 of us)

 

(and a group photo, taken by my son-in-law)

 

 

Evening? A happy one, because there's much to be grateful for.

with love...