The air quality is still not as we'd like it to be: it's unhealthy for sensitive souls, which certainly should include the vast majority of of the population, don't you think? Nonetheless, it's better than it was yesterday. We can even look up and see a faintly blue sky. I walk to the barn in the morning with sunshine streaming.
("about time you came out to feed us this morning!")
(an iris in hiding)
(morning visitor)
(Big Bed)
(Big Bed yet again)
I hate not spending the day outdoors. Spot weeding, perhaps cleaning out the bed by the shed, fixing fallen stems... So much joy out there and yet there is this haze...
Wiser people would barricade themselves once again, but Ed and I are only sometimes wise. He asks -- you want to eat breakfast outside, don't you?
Yes I do!
And in our usual way, we pick up a job spontaneously -- one minute we're sitting at the table, reflecting about the horrors in countries at war, the next, Ed picks up the cushions of the white Adirondack and starts cleaning them of cat hairs. And as long as he is taking care of that, I join in with a sweep and a wipe of porch surfaces. And the air is warm and we are happy.
In between cleaning and wiping I tell him about some of the articles I read this morning -- most of them terribly depressing, but one that is quite the opposite. It's about a couple who bought a second home in Litchfield Connecticut (gifted article here). I absolutely love this line of stories in the NYTimes -- where people are looking for a home at a certain price point, narrow it down to three candidates, and then you have to pick the one you'd go with, after which you click and find out which one they chose. (I especially like it when the price range is way under a million. There's something off-putting in stories about buying decisions made by very wealthy people.) This particular couple has quite age span (the older one is 78) and yet here they are, buying a home to "eventually" move into once the younger one (at 48 now) retires from his NYC job. Can you imagine the optimism required for that kind of a turn in life? Planning for happiness rather than for old age infirmities! I loved reading about that!
Immediately after our spot cleaning project, Ed goes on to find movies about people who buy/sell their homes (for example -- Mr Blandings Builds a Dream House, which we both have seen or 5 Flights Up, which neither of us has watched). I tell him this is not the time to watch movie trailers. I have things to do! Soon it will be time to pick up the kids! He replies -- I do too! You have a nice structured existence where everything is preordained, I have to struggle with things. Ha! Ed never has to struggle with things. At least not in his attitude or mental state. A challenge for him is a good thing. And he will never rush to do it or get to it. There is an organic flow to his days that's actually admirable.
I pick up two happy kids. They have only three more days of school left! And today was a bit of a lark for the girl -- games and splash pad fun in the park.
With such a small number of days left, we struggle to figure out what after-school treats are in the offerings. Ice Cream? The farmers market? Which one? Sparrow is desperate for ice cream. Snowdrop, having had ice cream at the park, wants to market.
And so we do both.
(it's strawberry season at Natalie's!)
(Look who is by the market yet again! the young one is growing so fast...)
And in the evening, I pick up my first veggie box from our CSA veggie farmers, and a flower bundle from our CSA flower farmers. How incredible it is to live so close to the people who grow our foods and adorn our kitchen table!
And yes, we do watch one of Ed's movie picks. And it is lovely. As is our evening together.
with love..
