weekend at the farmhouse: and the next day

It's a weekend that belongs to visiting Primrose and the weather is glorious! It would be lovely to go swimming or to visit the splash pad, but this year all water activities stopped a week before Labor Day and so we are content to fill the day with stuff that is less, well, soggy. 

We begin the morning slowly, playfully, at the farmhouse.

With breakfast in the kitchen because it is really nippy at night and in the early morning.

(Outside, the cats are wondering -- where is our breakfast? This weekend Ed is in charge of all animal care and right now, he's sleeping.)

Any grandparent will recognize that a visiting grandchild brings with her completely new and different experiences, preferences and reactions from those of a child who lives nearby and comes over all the time. I watch Primrose discover and develop favorites. They are her favorites and she incorporates her own style to each play. Is this the time to emphasize that which we all know? That no two kids are the same?

Speaking of kids, some time in the late morning we meet up with the other grandkids at a local playground. It's a large place with many structures to it, but it reminds me a little of the playground in the Luxembourg Gardens: not all stuff is going to be loved by a three year old. 

We spend a lot of time merely swinging!

(Not Sandpiper. He passes on anything not that's not stable.) 

(This photo comes from my daughter's smart phone, but I like it, so here it is!)

Lunch, outside, at Panera.

In the afternoon, Snowdrop is at the farmhouse with Primrose and me. Yes, masked when indoors, but it's such good weather that we keep doors open wide and indeed spend our share of time on the porch.

When Primrose naps, Snowdrop asks to go outside. She is on a real farmette high right now.

Everything thrills her. Apples, pears, goldenrod.

 

Snowdrop returns home, Primrose wakes. Always with books in her bed which she takes from the nearby bookshelf. Books dating back to days when her mom was a teenager. There's one about architecture, one about garden design and Steinbeck's The Pearl for good measure. 

My little visitor from Chicago is much more dependent on me to make something of the space here. She would love to take charge, show me, teach me, lead me, but she knows she can't. Not during this visit anyway. Not when she is just three and her world is in a neighborhood in Chicago which has been hers from the beginning and which she knows like the back of her little hand. And so most often, when asked, she'll turn down an offer for outside play. The familiar, the beloved art room, all that -- they are inside the farmhouse. We play inside.

She paints. And she is quite good at it!

 

This evening it's just the three of us. Primrose, Ed and me. The little girl and I make a pizza...

And yes, there is popcorn tonight and a movie (Raya and the Last Dragon). I had mentioned watching fireflies, but Primrose reminded me that she needs to sleep at night! The moon, the stars and fireflies. Saved for the next visit. They will always be here for her on those cloudless summer nights, waiting for her curious gaze and happy smile.

weekend at the farmhouse, next day

There is drizzle in he air and at times, there will have been rain, and yet, our day had a good balance of lots of outdoor stuff and some quite play inside. And all kids participated! Remember -- Primrose is visiting me for the long weekend!

But first, at around 4 a.m., when Ed was still working on his machine design (upstairs, next to a dozing me), I worried about the quality of our lakes. My idea for the day included making use of at least a tiny bit of a lake. What if it's overwhelmed by an algae bloom? I ask Ed to look it up. 

Nope, not as of two days ago. It's safe.

Okay, that's fine then. Is it time to get up? Maybe not just yet. Time still to stay in bed and go over the details of the weekend in my my head.

And the rooster crows and somewhere behind the clouds the sun rises and we're up!

 Morning play...

 

 

 

Breakfast number one...

 

 

 

And now we're off. There is a drop of rain. Maybe two drops. But nothing too bad. We head straight for the farmers market. We come at it from the back, without the crowds. And we buy flowers.

 

 

 

I was going to buy two bouquets. I had two ten dollar bills. But reaching into my pocket I only found one. This was more upsetting to Primrose than it was to me. I mean -- my foolish fault. Someone will find it on the street and feel enriched.

But as we approached the car, I see it fluttering on the sidewalk. Did it go unnoticed? Did someone not want to stoop down and pick up "just" a ten? Well, I am the one who is enriched. And Primrose is overjoyed.

We drive down to the Lakeside Cafe, where I pick up my bags of added groceries from the market. Still peaches from Door County! How lucky we are to have them this late in the season!

My older girl drives up with her whole clan and we find a table outside large enough for all of us. 

Snowdrop shares wisdoms with Primrose on what it's like to be a big sister!

 

 

 

Sandpiper offers no comments.

 

 

 

How I love wall art! And kids, recognizing the colorfulness of wall art.

 

 

Here's an ambitious pose: The hope is that with three kids holding onto some part of Sandpiper, he will not be dropped!

The lake was still being pumped and cleaned at Bernie's beach and the water seemed actually okay! Not soupy or smelly!

Here's when it started to rain...

The two oldest kids returned with me to the farmhouse. When in the same room, the masks were out. But no one minded! 

 

 

 

And in the evening, everyone gathered again, at the farmhouse, on the porch. Rain's done for the weekend (I hope)! We're good!

A garden interlude:

Honeycrsip apples in the new orchard!

"Can you help me pick this flower?"

Nibbling nasturtium.

Dinner!

Forming the "Big Sisters Club."

Big sisters taking a strong interest in little Sandpiper who is currently teething. One tooth in!

Later, much later, Ed makes popcorn again, just for Primrose and me. Because the day ends well when we snuggle on the couch over a shared bowl. Believe me, popcorn and something on the big screen, followed by a selection of Kevin Henkes books with maybe Mo Willems thrown in for good measure.

Good night little girl upstairs in the Lemon Room. Good night all beautiful children everywhere.

With love...

a whirlwind of wonderful stuff

You can't blame me for not writing much this weekend! So much happening all around me, so many good distractions. But hey, where one hand taketh the other giveth. Not enough story writing here on Ocean? Here come the photos! Are you ready??

 

The day starts early: I need to be at Sparrow's school for the "first day" picture -- a particularly memorable one because the little guy hasn't been in school since the middle of March. Last year. He is three now. Can he even remember what it was like when he was just one and a half?

Is he ever excited! (Though barely able to hold up his supply-filled back pack!)

 

Back at the farmhouse, my visiting Primrose is full of ideas as to what comes next.

 

 

 

For me, there's no question: I vote for breakfast!

We eat at the kitchen table, it's that cool outside!

And now for the outings. Lots to accomplish today, despite the weather. (Cool and it will start to rain by midday.)

 

 

 

Highlights? Well, Primrose gets a haircut...

And then we have a girls' lunch -- my older girl joins us and it is wonderful.

In all ways.

Home then. Little kids need their rest time. And then my younger daughter and her husband take off and Primrose and I face the Labor Day weekend together at the farmhouse. With Ed. 

Dinner? Well, this gets tricky. We were to eat with her cousins, outside, at the Thirsty Goat. But the rain! Oh, the rain! So we called it off. None of the cousins are vaccinated. One of my daughters is pregnant. Three kids are going to school. Our agencies appear to be bickering as to the next steps for all of us. This is no time to take chances, so Primrose, Ed and I eat takeout pizza alone at the farmhouse.

After that? It's a blur. Painting! Primrose has been asking at each visit here if she could paint and she is always stalled with the grownup choice words of "this isn't a good time..." No stalling today. She paints.

Creatively, determinedly.

 

 

Filling the whole "canvas" with her three chosen colors.

 And we watch a movie! The lovely Luca. And I finally return to popcorn, because she wants it so Ed makes enough for all of us.

And at some point it is bedtime and the little girl is tucked in upstairs in the Lemon Room and Ed and I sit back and do the retired person's exhale. There's so much to be grateful for. So much!

With love.

test, freeze, greet

Such a nutty day! With mango and spices stuck to it as an added bonus.

 

 

 

The thing is, I had it all planned out: groceries would be delivered first thing, with the crow of the rooster. I need good foods for the weekend (a family member is staying with us!) and I need mango. And nuts. And sour cream for good measure. 

Immediately after breakfast I would bake. What’s the occasion? Well nothing really, though my visitor would probably appreciate a breakfast cake. Especially one with mangos. She loves mangos.

But the real reason behind the baking is that I’d agreed to be a recipe tester for someone who is putting together a cookbook. I thought it would be a no big deal: I’ve baked for nearly 60 years and am not too concerned about blowing a recipe. When he asked me to do the mango cake I texted back a hearty “sure!”

As I began, I saw that it was a bit of a bother. Do this do that, add this and beat it ever so long. Okay, at 11:30 I finally popped it in the oven and dashed out to run a few errands. The local nursery has reopened for the fall with lots of potted mums for sale while they last. Those would be nice for the porch! And, too, I had to make a run to Stonemans farm. For the corn. They are nearing the end of the season. I want to clean, steam, freeze and seal some ears for the kids for the winter. So,  lots of corn (just when I’m going to clean steam freeze and seal is a mystery but hey, I got the corn).

The cake had been in the oven for an hour and five mins when I pulled into the driveway. Good timing! Estimated baking time was between an hour and an hour and ten minutes!

I carry in the mums, I carry in bags of corn and I exhale. And then I inhale. With my nose. What’s burning??

My God, it’s the cake, isn’t it? I rush into the kitchen. Ed, who is on a work call in the other room shouts out — you should not leave a cake in the oven, gorgeous.

The batter overflowed (significantly!). The oven is covered with burning cake pieces. The house smells like it probably smells in California or Oregon right now. I’m now one hour and twenty minutes into the baking time and the toothpick test is totally failing me -- wet as can be! -- and I must leave to pick up Snowdrop at school. (I like to come early and be at the head of the line.)

Never agree to be a recipe tester!

There will be no mango cake for breakfast tomorrow.

 

In the end Ed agrees to mind the cake for another fifteen minutes or so. That would put it awfully close to tow hours in the oven. If a nine inch cake isn't done by then, you may as well give up.

 

I pick up a happy girl. 

 

 

It was a "great" day at school! She loved her friends! She loved lunch! She loved art and even the teacher isn't so mean anymore!  As she tells me -- "everyone has sort of settled down."

At the farmhouse it smells of cake. Everything is a mess. Wet towels (not sure what Ed was trying to accomplish with them), crumbs, charred bits of sticky cake. I look at my bundt pan and I tap the cake out and of course, chunks of it stick to the pan. A lovely sight.

 

 

 

But Snowdrop, ever the dreamer says -- I tasted a crumb! It's not bad, gaga. Can I have a bigger piece? And then -- Can I have another?

Sweet, sweet child.

We play, Ed messes with the phone line (which has been more or less dead for the past week). The house is a wreck. I can't believe I have a visitor coming in a few hours!

(As I return Snowdrop home, I encounter Sparrow packing his backpack for school tomorrow. He cannot wait!!)

And the day is not over. I have several dozen ears of corn to clean steam etc etc. And for reasons that I cannot remember, I scheduled my extra CSA box of veggies for this day. Two full boxes of corn, yes, more corn, lots of tomatoes, peppers. And wait, that's not the end: our farmers were selling tomato extras for canning and freezing. Twenty five pounds, to be processed now! I signed up for that too. What was I thinking?

Later, much later, some form of (partial) order is restored and at least a few veggies are properly in the freezer. And this is when my younger daughter comes in with her husband and with Primrose. They're here for a day and then going back or going off or going somewhere while Primrose stays with me for the next three or four days.

Welcome to the September farmhouse, brimming with cake crumbs and corn husks and tomatoes, waiting for their winter preservation. Welcome you Chicagoans! I'm so happy to see you!