I'll start with a bit of potty talk: We have, here at the farmhouse, the best view of the Big Bed, my largest flower field, from the bathroom window upstairs. All you have to do is sit on the toilet and you almost never want to get off. It's that good!
And so today, engaging in my usual morning routines, I looked out... and saw a huge possum ambling over toward the barn. It was early, the chickens were still locked in the coop, but the door would be springing open for them in a couple of minutes (it's on automatic release). And there would be the possum waiting for them as they stumble out. These animals aren't fast, aren't especially smart (as compared to, say us, or a racoon), but they know how to score a win with a cornered chicken.
Ed!
I think I woke him up. In any case, I sent him running toward the barn. (I was otherwise occupied.) Of course, by the time he got there, the possum was long gone. They don't stick around for humans. But I do have to wonder if we would have lost some hens today had I not lingered on the toilet...
The air quality today is "moderate." Still not great. Ed has asthmatic symptoms (this is guess work -- he's not one to go to the doc) and even keeping windows open is irritating him, so we're slated to have another mostly indoor day. And because he is feeling the cumulative effect of a string of bad days, I don't push for a porch breakfast. We eat in the kitchen, in a meadow of blooms -- peonies from my gardens (far right), a bouquet from Natalie (center), and one from our CSA farmers.
I do go out afterwards to do spot weeding. The rain gave a boost to baby weeds. They are not such babies anymore.
This is also my first look at what's growing out there now.
(another Butter and Sugar Iris)
(the next wave of Clematis flowers)
((I picked a strawberry that no animal found -- and put it on my strawberry place mat)
And soon after the noon hour, I head out to the kids' school. Way before pick up time. At about 1pm, they are holding a small celebration of the fourth graders' graduation -- from elementary school to middle school. Snowdrop starts her middle school career next year.
Grade by grade, they pour out onto the playground and form a huge circle. Here's Sparrow with his first grade classmates and teacher:
In the first part of the celebration, the High School seniors who attended this elementary school show up and give the little kids high fives.
And then it's the fourth graders' turn. These are the young graduates. With Snowdrop in their midst.
I had teased her yesterday: will there be long speeches? Singing and dancing? She explained -- we walk in a circle. You're supposed to clap and cry and do all that stuff you do at graduations!
I did not cry. I have five grandkids and many graduations before me. Still, Snowdrop is a very tall girl. She wears a shoe size just one under mine. She looks older than her age. It did hit me that all these kids are really growing up very fast. She may as well be going off to college next fall. She looks like she is ready for it.
(the graduate, with proud parents)
(and a loyal brother, who got up as she passed by his class and gave her a huge hug!)
Evening. For the young family, it's movie night and I know they are watching what was my favorite movie when I was exactly, almost to the day, Snowdrop's age -- Summer Magic, with my then favorite actress, Haley Mills. It's a musical and I loved it so much that I saved up to buy an album of its songs. That's the year I learned that if you don't buy something that has the label "original soundtrack" on it, you're likely to get a cheap knock off (no wonder it cost only $2.99!) -- in my case, a piano rendition of all the songs. No vocals at all. But, it had all the lyrics written out on the cover and I sang those songs with that piano accompaniment over and over and over again. What's more, one of them, which had the mesmerizing words "All I want to do, When the day is through, Is linger here, On the front, Porch with you...." became the song of choice for me as a grandmother, when I put any of the kids to bed in the evenings, or for a nap, or -- in Sparrow's case, on a trans-Atlantic flight in the aisle when I was trying to settle him (unsuccessfully) when he was just one. "As the hours fly, When the moon drifts by, How sweet the air, As we stare, at the sky..." How well I know the love of sitting out on a porch!
And to prove it's (almost) summer, I give you a big fat beautiful day lily. One of thousands that will bloom in our flower fields this year.
With so much love...
