sleepover2

My overnight guest wakes early. This is a good thing. She's of an age where grabbing extra wakeful minutes in bed is a splendid luxury. And so she rests while I get myself and the day off to a good start. 

I fix breakfast just for her. I remind myself of my own Babcia (grandmother), who never once ate breakfast with us. She hovered, we ate.

Snowdrop eats three of my blueberry muffins and many chunks of pineapple. And of course, there's her beloved honey straw, to end on a sweet note. 

Again I think back to my own childhood -- I never cared for breakfast when I was young. But at my grandmother's I ate as if it were to be my last meal. Everything she fixed was awesome! I'm sure it wasn't just the food that made the difference. It was the beauty of the moment: at the table, with my favorite fruit bowl with the dainty flowers, and of course, my Babcia, hovering. Making sure the honey jar was open and ready. Encouraging, tempting, with a satisfied tight lipped smile as I ate.

And even after this rather large for her breakfast, Snowdrop is still left with about half hour to kill. So I tell her about Chopin and the Chopin Competition taking place in Warsaw right now. We study the 40 stage 2 finalists. We listen to some of them. And suddenly I have this gift of a partner in my month of Chopin music. 

 

(packing up her lunch, ready to go)

 

 

School is a five minute drive for us. I drop her off a couple of blocks away from the entrance. Not for a middle schooler the hovering grandmother at school time. She wants to walk in on her own.

 

I return to the Edge and sit down to my own breakfast. With Chopin.

A walk! I need a walk! Mustn't get lazy! Once again I do a neighborhood loop. It's better on a weekday -- not so deserted. I actually pass not one but two other walkers, probably on their lunch hour, racking up the steps. And so am I. Once again we have plenty of sunshine we have gotten a tiny fraction of the rain we usually get in September in October. I'm glad I'm no longer worried about the flower fields. (Am I no longer worried about the flower fields?)

 

And now it's back to the routine of picking up Sparrow...

Then Snowdrop.

A brief stay at the Edge, and I hustle them back to their home, in time for the arrival of Goose, the great big abandoned mutt of a dog. The new member of their household.

(one of the cats is hiding under the bed, the other is up there on the mantle)

 

 

 

 

Me, I have my own date, for another sleepover at the Edge, this one with Ed. And it is equally special -- I make our old chili for dinner and we catch up with our favorite streaming shows -- wonderful moments of pure exhale!

with so much love...