It's an early day for me. My friend has a flight to catch and so we leave the farmhouse before dawn.
It's a pretty time to be out and about! Nonetheless, I return (it's lighter now!)...
... still groggy from an abbreviated night. Back to bed for me! With Ed, cats and all.
When I am next up, the sun is out and the animals are reminding me that I still haven't fed them. I have a better look at the flower fields.
(the Allium dominates)
(Tuxie, the pretty sheep shed cat, is sitting in a field of hostas, but all you can see are the weeds!)
Yep, lots of weeds out there. Too, I need to push down the daffodil stems in the flower beds. They stay there until they're brown and faded, but I push them below the leaves of the surrounding flowers so that they aren't an eyesore and so that the lilies and other flowers can rise above them.
All this tells me that I have a lot of work before me. But first, breakfast. With Ed this time.
And afterwards, I do work hard, even as there isn't that much time. I'll be returning to it later in the day.
I haven't seen the big two kids since last week! I pick them up after school and tell them that yes, we'll go get ice cream. But what about the farmers market?? -- One worried child asks me. I hadn't quite realized that this Thursday ritual belonged to the set of "beloved things that we do together." What to do, given that the other child really wants the ice cream?
Okay, kids. We'll do both.
Could it be that the rain stirred up their growth as well? They seem... so much bigger too, than when I last saw them!
Our habit is to meet up with Ed at the market. They love it when he zips over on his motorbike and when, after we are done with our shopping, we follow him home. (There is a lot of waving and shouting out the window -- I haven't convinced them yet that he really can't here much in his helmet and that he does not have eyes in the back of his head.)
(showing off the free frisbees and sunglasses that they were handing out at the market today)
(At the farmette again...)
I would like to say that we slipped right into our routines again at the farmhouse, but when Sparrow ran into the play room, he came across a dead mouse, gifted, I'm sure, by one of the cats. But when? I think if it had been there yesterday, I would have smelled it. At night maybe? Who knows what the two house cats do when we are sleeping! Well, apart from the stinky horror of almost stepping on a dead mouse, I'd say it's a good thing that the cats are still good hunters!
In the evening, I mow some of the paths between flower fields. Ed had worked the big tractor mower over the larger swaths of tall grasses. Time to do the trimmings.
Supper is late and inconsequential. Neither of us wants a big meal and I haven't yet returned to my cooking routines. But we're back on the couch! With crispy wheat crackers and a TV show that makes us laugh. You need laughter in your life, really you do. Especially these days when there's much to be sad about in this world.
with love...
