Friday

Such days come only in May! The world's a riot of blooms and fragrances, the sunshine is still gentle and the greens of new growth are young and innocent.






(And those crabs! In the wee hours of the morning...)






It takes my a while to limber up today (oh that back! -- as Snowdrop would say), but once I do, I try to plunge back into a normal rhythm. I can't quite dig and plant, but I can certainly admire the garden.

And fix breakfast -- in the sun room!






And I can grocery shop. (I must be moving with a bit of stiffness, as the clerk asks -- Do you need help taking the bags to the car? Yes!)

And I can pick up Snowdrop. They are finishing a picnic in the playground when I arrive. She proudly shows me where there is a "library box" of books.






Anxious to head out adventuring!






Then home to the farmette. Ed is (finally!) mowing and she runs happily to greet him, but as she gets closer, the noise of the mower puts her off...






Do you want a ride?
No! It's too loud!

We look at the tomatoes instead.






Ed takes a pause (possibly because he does not like mowing) and she runs up to him with pinwheels twirling!






Inside, they settle down to read. Snowdrop knows this particular book like the back of her hand, but she still treats it as quite the dramatic story.






And outside, the birds sing, the bees buzz and the flowers would make the sternest person's heart sing!

Yeah, only in May!

Post nap vignettes:

An appreciative look at the tulips that are coming despite the inital chomp down by local animals.






The post-nap little one, wanting to sweep.






Watering: a tad hastily, but with great respect for each pot.






What[s this?
Boards. Ahah will be making you a sandbox.
Where is the sand??
In the store. We'll buy it soon.
Now? Can we go to the store now?
First ahah has to build the sandbox.
Can I help? I will build it too!






In the end, she had to be pulled away from her dream of an immediately ready sandbox. Oh, the turmoil this one square piece of nothing has triggered!

In fact, though, it's a non issue. There will be sand in a box, there will be other dreams and days of grand weather. There will be flowers. There will be love.

(A combo that sort of reminds me of the Polish flag...)






So much beauty! Almost impossible to take it all in. Sometimes you worry that May offers too much. But mostly, you're just so happy to be in the thick of spring again.

twists and turns

A day of sunshine and friendly breezes! Of tulips...






... and apple blossoms!






A day of continued thoughts in the matter of the sandbox.

Perhaps I let my feelings take hold too much in our discussions. My guess is that it all dates back to my own childhood.

Way back then, I was such a tomboy! By age twelve, I loved nothing more than to put on my "dungarees" and take my skateboard out on the sidewalks of New York. When I learned we were returning to Poland the next year, I saved up to buy myself something I knew I could never find in Poland -- a baseball mitt. I can still smell that leather and feel the pleasure of putting the damn thing on.

Oh, I learned quickly enough that boys didn't chase tomboys and so when I returned to Poland and joined my high school class, I tried, really tried to become more of a girlie girl.

My own daughters (and I hope they're okay with my saying this) were more balanced growing up. They had a sandbox and to the best of my recollection, they ignored it. But Snowdrop has her own agenda. She loves playing in the sand. And I'm thinking -- is sand like a skateboard for her? (I smiled when I heard that Snowdrop loved the skateboards at the home of family friends who had between them four little boys.)

Or maybe it's just that I am an internet junkie like the rest of America and when someone shows me exciting outdoor gear for toddlers, I succumb and reach for my credit card?


Breakfast, this time with more smiles than sulks. (I caved. We'll send back the gorgeous sandbox and play structure ordered from Home Depot. I'm definitely the caver of the two of us. I can't stand the pained look on the face of the opposition. I'd make a terrible legislator.)





So if not the sandbox with the adorable play structure next to it (made of fine Austrian pine, beautifully finished so both child and grandma can enjoy it), then what?
I'll build you something.
Loudly: thank you. Quietly: it wont be half as nice...

But it's a good thing that we have moved beyond the sulks because within minutes, I need Ed's help with something far more pressing than a sandbox: I set out to work outside in the flower beds and immediately manage to throw my back out. [Odd expression, don't you think? I threw it out, but could find no suitable replacement!]

I haven't done this in several years and so perhaps I'd gotten a little too sanguine about doing physical work of a demanding nature. But honestly, I was just twisting and turning, scraping dirt and fitting in a new flower and boom! One little wrong move and I have bought myself many days of pain.

Ed!

To my knowledge, there is little one can do until the pulled muscle relaxes and mends. Aleve pills, sure: they take the edge off. And back support. I cant sit without it. And initially -- not a whole lot of bending, because once you get down, you may not be able to get back up.

I'll help you with Snowdrop -- he reassures me. For once, his confidence in handling an active two year old sounds wonderful.

And so this is how Snowdrop had the both of us show up as school to pick her up (she herself had had an unfortunate tumble at school! what a day! Remembered by great things and too, for life's tumbles). She was one happy child! The more family, the better, as far as she's concerned.






Snowdrop can get herself into the stroller, but getting out is trickier. Too, hoisting her anywhere at all, including into the car seat is, right now, an impossible task for me. And so Ed does the lifting and I tag along for the ride.

The three of us go to the neighborhood playground by the lesser lake. Of course we do! It's gorgeous outside! And Snowdrop is thrilled to have ahah push her on the swings.
She likes to go high...






Not that high!






And they climb the life guard tower together...






And then, you guessed it -- they settle in to build castles in the sand.

Actually, Snowdrop first wants to fashion a sheep shed...






(It's hard work! Off goes the jacket...)






She then decides that it should be her very own car.  In she goes.






It is a wonderful hour of play!


At the farmette again, she eyes the creeping phlox.
Okay, Snowdrop, you can pick that flower. I mean, I'm reasonable. (And of course, there are hundreds of buds!)





Hey, just one, not a handful!

And after her nap she plays with ahah again. Ball games. How curious that when she initiates ball games, she always asks for Ed!






In the evening, her mommy comes to take her home. The young family is going out tonight and Snowdrop changes from her sandy play stained clothes. She tells me again and again that she now prefers short sleeves (remembering our discussion some weeks back when she refused to take off a sweater because it felt, well, too bare)! I'm so proud of that kid!






On with your shoes, little one. Your mommy has a lot before her tonight!






As for my big push this weekend for me to finish planting -- well, maybe it will be a little push, or maybe no push at all. I suppose there are worse things in life than sitting on the porch in heavenly May weather and looking out at a blooming set of trees, whose fragrance, mixed with the lilac, is so strong that it drifts all the way to me on the porch as I sway in a chair, forgetting everything except how really lovely it all can be.

farmette life

The sun is back! Outside, the temperatures hovered dangerously near freezing at dawn, but bounced back quickly to May levels in the course of the morning. It's a beautiful day at the farmette!

But breakfast is a rather serious affair.





Ed and I are in the thick of a dispute: I have wanted to purchase a sandbox for Snowdrop for a while now. Ed thinks this is the world's dumbest idea.
There's so much for her to explore outside! You don't need to add stuff.
There's so much creative play in a sandbox!

We've been going around this for a while now and I have to say that my lobbying for a sandbox is a scaled down effort, as I originally was ogling a whole playground set on craigslist.

There are play grounds all over this town! (That's Ed again.)
But you always have to get in the car and drive to them. You can't just say to the girl -- want to go out and play for a few minutes?
There's plenty to do here!
There would be more to do if you ever cut back the grass to levels that Snowdrop can navigate! (Lately, he's been on a kick to let the grass grow tall. Really tall. For example, he has yet to cut it at all this year...)

When Ed's friends stopped by yesterday, they were incredulous: you mean you wont build the little girl a sandbox? 

He reconsiders, but reluctantly. How big do you want it?
I show him an example of a nice one at Home Depot. Frankly, it's easier just to pick one up there. 
Ed agrees. To a tiny one.

But at the last minute, I opt for a slightly bigger one with a play area next to it. Ed sulks.


Still,  it's a beautiful day at the farmette!






The cheepers follow me everywhere...






You just have to love this time of the year with your entire soul!


Snowdrop is absolutely ready for an adventure after school!






But I keep our neighborhood walk short. It would be nice to take advantage of the good weather and spend some time exploring spring at the farmette.

Ed is there to greet us as we arrive. Of course, the first glorious thing to show off is the big blooming crab. We're thrilled to hear the hum of bees all around it! (And yes, a beekeeper was to set up a hive for us this spring, but he hasn't done it yet.)






Snowdrop is happy to stay outside. She runs to the barn, feeds the cheepers, discovers an egg...






And now Ed is determined to really get her excited about the simple things around us. Like the pile of wood chips out back.






Snowdrop is much bolder with him than she is with me. This same pile of chips did nothing for her when the chipper dumped it here  a month ago. (Want to go up? No!) But now that ahah's treating it as his own Mount Everest, she must take it on as well!






Me, I do what I would have done back in my childhood days at my grandparents's village home in Poland: I make a dandelion wreath.






Well, Snowdrop's head is large, but not that large! It is, nonetheless, a fine necklace.






She and Ed proceed to build houses out of chips. We listen to the birds and the sound of a distant train...






... and even though he says nothing, I know what he is thinking -- you do not need a sandbox!

And I know what I am thinking -- oh, a sandbox would be so fine for her on this beautiful day! Decked with dandelions!






But the little one is oblivious to this unspoken current of opinion. She is joyous. She is as thrilled to be finally outdoors as I am. She is the king of the mountain!






Oh, farmette life! It is so very beautiful! The old farmhouse is our piece of heaven. The flower beds are sumptuous. The porch envisioned and pieced together -- a piece of art! Work here is never ending but so very rewarding.

And then there are the two of us -- so very different, so very stubborn, so full of (often diverging) vision and ideas. But surprisingly (who would have thought?!), so happy. Only perhaps not this morning at breakfast. Love held, but scowls prevailed.

the week the crabs bloom

I had worried that last week's overnight frost killed the crab apple blooms. The buds stayed shut. They seemed unhappy. But I know now that it was only their petulant protest against the gray, cold, wet days.

Today the biggest of the crabs relented and so you will have the start of an Ocean week where I profess my great love for these trees! It is a magnificent display!

Now all we need is the sunshine and the ascent to May-like temperatures. We're promised that this all will happen tomorrow, but in the meantime, it's not so bad out there! Or, we want to believe it's not too bad and so after breakfast...






... we are outdoors. In jackets, yes, of course, but we get right to the weeding and chipping that has been on hold for more than a week now.

(Another grand bloomer, though still on the young side: the new peach.)






Timing in a garden is important. Some of the loveliest scenes come around when two well matched plants join in unison and bloom their hearts out together. This year, the daffodils came early and the purple lilac is coming in late. They wont be completely in sync, but to me, it'll be close enough.






And of course, the view toward the crabs is fantastic!






It's really hard to believe that just a month ago we lived in a sea of browns!


When I pick up Snowdrop, she is, predictably, hungry for a stroller walk. And I'm okay with that, but I move quickly. It's still so cold today (mid 40sF, so about 7C)!

But when we finally drive up to the farmette, the sun comes out! Just for a few minutes, but it's so welcome!






Snowdrop is instantly drawn to the tulips (she is good at identifying the basic spring flowers by now). I look up to see her climbing the rocks to the flower bed.





Go ahead and admire them, little one, only do not pick.
She pauses, trying to decide if I mean it. I suggest an alternative: you can smell them!





Do tulips have a pretty fragrance? I don't know. But you can ask Snowdrop!


Evening. Have I told you how beautiful out crab apple pathway is this week? (From the kitchen window...)






The sun sets late...  8 p.m. today. The sky is clear enough now that I can see it out the west facing window.  So much beauty in one day! Incredible.