living with a pup and all the rest

There is much that you cannot do on a warm and beautiful Saturday morning if you have a young pup at home. For example, you cannot go to the Farmers Market -- not the downtown one, not the west-side one. I can understand the downtown restrictions. The place is so crowded that it's tough to walk nimbly. A big dog could spell trouble. But the spacious west side one? I truly don't get it. Yes, of course, I could leave Millie home alone, but I'm already doing that this evening. Twice in one day is pushing it. So I pass on the market. And therefore I pass on the flowers that I almost always pick up for the week. I'll make do with grocery store tulips, farmette lilies of the valley, and a few stems of lilac from Sally's House.

It really is a gorgeous day!

Breakfast? On the porch of course! In a sleeveless shirt and shorts. And with Millie. And flowers. All very beautiful.

I want to plant my tomatoes in the big pots today. Yes, there will be a couple of cool nights this week. Tomatoes like warm weather, 24/7. Still, I have a busy set of weeks and I want to get started on acclimatizing them to the strong sun, the breezes, the vicissitudes that come with the growing season.

Why am I growing tomatoes? Truly for the fun of picking and eating, for slicing them into a salad, for the kids to snip off! 

Millie watches. She likes my work out on the porch. And I like having her there.

 

 

Toward noon, the two of us go over to the farmette. Ed shows me the fallen tree branches from last night's storm. Wait, there was a storm last night? I was so tired I slept through it!

(What's blooming at the farmette right now? Clematis. False Indigo. Bleeding hearts. Allium.)

 

 

We go to the small dog park. I would have liked to go see the lilacs in the arboretum, but guess who is not allowed to walk there?

You know how in January, if the thermometer shoots up to an unseasonable 50F/10C you feel positively toasty? Well, when it spikes to 80F/27C  in mid-May, it's like you've stepped into a steam bath. I can't believe that this would be considered cool in the summer!

 

 

 

Millie definitely feels the heat. Like Ed, she is quick to seek out the shade.

At home, I build cages for the tomatoes. The door to the porch is wide open. It has it's disadvantages: Millie hears every sound of every human and every animal and every mechanical device. She thinks they all deserve a riotous session of barks and puppy growls. Suddenly I am glad not to have a patio door at Steffi's House. Millie's opportunities to spy on neighbors will be limited to her time out in the yard.

 

 

 

In the afternoon, the big event of the weekend, indeed of the season, is upon us: my younger daughter arrives by bus from Chicago. Tired of waiting for me to come down, she managed to squeeze in a trip up here to see me. And I do feel at once thrilled and sorry -- that she had to do the traveling, that I wont see the kids this month. But truly this is an exceptionally wonderful gift for me. Millie is still a puppy handful, and her gastrointestinal development and potty training have been slow going. Keeping her to a schedule helps move things along for her and therefore for me.

The two daughters spend some afternoon time together -- another rare treat, since typically we plan family-centered activities when they are here or we are there. Eventually my girls come to Sally's House. 

 

 

 

Dinner is for the three of us, at Cadre -- a place I've never tried, not being one to go out much these days. It's always fun to be with them. The stories fly nonstop, interrupted with bursts of laughter. It always makes me wonder if it's their age that lightens the mood so much, or if it's that I have two especially funny and fun to be with girls.

And the food is fabulous! Like being in France only without the overnight flight!

 

I can only hope my pup wont disturb my overnight guest, especially at the indecent morning hour Millie calls "normal wake-up time." My sweet, sweet youngest ones! How good it is to have them both under my roof tonight, tomorrow!

with so much love...