and now we are three

Is it that May days are full because there is much that is packed into them, or is it that I only imagine them to be full, because I feel so satiated at the end of each one? As if I could not take in a drop more of anything, so don't even think of adding to my bounty-filled plate? If it's not the springtime garden and chicken shenanigans and Ed projects and Snowdrop frolics (not in that order of importance), then it's Chicago walks and fantastic lunches and Primrose antics. Full days are happy days. I've always thought that. And so once again, I feel the luck of having had a beautifully full day.

A glance out my window in Chicago: it seems cloudy, but I know the sun will be out. It's slated to be a warm day!





I hurry to the younger family's home. I haven't the luxury of many days or even a full day with my girl and her girl -- I have to get back to the farmette by nightfall -- but there are plenty of hours to delight in the changes in my youngest granddaughter!

She's left her newborn markings behind. She's a baby, a tall, robust, happy child!






Breakfast? Yes, of course! With her mommy.






If I am disruptive to the littlest one, she does not complain. Snowdrop will sometimes say with affection and perhaps exasperation -- "silly grandma!"  Primrose is still just taking it all in.






(and now we are three...)






The clouds do indeed move on to some far away place and we have a warm, indeed a very warm afternoon. Out comes the Ergopack. We're going for a walk!






... to Hot Chocolate, which has one one of my favorite lunch dishes ever (a quinoa salad with asparagus, nameko mushrooms and a poached egg). The moment deserves a special add-on -- the season's first Aperol Spritz!







Primrose takes in the sounds and smells in her own dreamy dozy way...






After -- a short stroll, a poke into a shop with fragrant lilac branches, a look at summer stuff in shops and then they go that way and I go this way.

Sigh...






I am at the farmette before it is too dark to find the little chicks and herd them in for their safe night's sleep.

And what a surprise! They're happy to see me! (I've never seen them come up the walkway before.)





Just wait a little bit, little hens. I need to check the flower beds. Primrose grew in leaps and bounds in my absence. Did my garden change overnight?

It did! Look at what's blooming here right now!


(helleborus)





(uvularia)





(...and the beloved narcissus)





I retreat inside and watch Ed from the kitchen window -- he's surrounded by chicks, he herds them all to the coop...




Ha! Not so easy! They follow him, then run away. In the end, it takes many more minutes and both our efforts to get them all bedded and locked for the night.

Why don't young ones know that a long restful sleep is good for them?!

Goodnight all the little ones out there! Sweet images, sweet dreams, heady spring days to you all!

slow down?

More storms pass through, more rain feeds the thirsty plants. Hey, that's enough! They're not that thirsty! The day is a little cooler, the clouds a little denser.

Maybe I should use this opportunity to slow down.

True, there is so much that I could do right now. Plant -- yes, of course. Put in the post-frost seeds. Dig in the day lilies that arrived from Oakes. And pick out the millions of maple seeds that have sprouted this year. Everywhere! Ive already plucked out more than I could count. Weed out creeping charlie, garlic mustard, quack grass... spread more wood chips... Put in a Clematis vine by the new trellis built by Ed. Oh, the list is endless!

But it will remain endless all spring and most of the summer season. And so perhaps I should tread lightly.

It's tempting to just take a pause. Brew a cup of tea -- whoa, I haven't paused for tea since the good weather came to us! But, I go out, just to take a breath of fresh air and Ed is there too and I tell him how some day we should clip some of the bushes by the driveway and he says  -- wanna do it now? And we never even get to the bushes, because as he takes out the big clippers, we pass the giant crab apple that has some dead branches, and now we're clipping and hauling, and moving on to the peach trees -- clipping and hauling and the idea of a pause is lost in all those sawed and clipped branches and maple seedlings pulled from the ground.


A few photos from the day:

Our beloved farmhouse always looks good to us, but it especially looks grand now, in the beautiful month of May.






One of the daffodil fields: it's struggling a little after the downpour, but is still lovely!






The big girls, showing off:






Breakfast!







In the afternoon, I bring Snowdrop to the farmette. She has bits of leftover pain au chocolat in her hand. We throw out some crumbs to the little girls. It's their first croissant treat!






Snowdrop had spied the dandelions growing in the front yard. She knows she can pick those without limit. Off she goes!






(I also let her pick any fallen daffodils. Oh, happy child!)






Perhaps you can't see it, but in her right hand (below), she's clutching a few forget-me-nots. I had planted a clump yesterday and I asked her this afternoon if she remembers their name. I had to nudge her toward the answer and she laughed hard when she realized that she forgot forget-me-nots!






(Ready for indoor books and snacks...)






Toward the end of Snowdrop's visit, it looks very much like the rains are going to come down hard again. I suggest to Ed that he corral the little chicks and get them into the coop. He goes out, but comes in after a few minutes looking a bit troubled.
I can't find them.
Did you look... -- and I list the usual places where they like to roam. Nothing.

Snowdrop and I go out to help in the hunt and very quickly we find them marching along in the old orchard -- a new favorite of theirs. But herding them toward the barn proves to be difficult.
I'll help! I can run really fast! -- this from the sweet girl, who sees how ineffective we are.

It's comic, really. The rain begins to splatter on them, on us. We chase them, we manage with one, she escapes. This continues for a long, long time. Ed is ready to give up. Eventually, they will learn to go in the barn, but this is their first rain and they seem so puzzled by it all.

We try again and with all of us moving this way and that, we eventually succeed.

I am relieved. We are all relieved. I'm sure the young chicks are relieved. But for me, it is especially important to get this done quickly. After Snowdrop goes home, I throw together a salad, reheat bowls of chili and put in a few necessities into my backpack. After supper, I catch a late bus to Chicago.

Tomorrow, I'll be spending the day with little Primrose and her mom. For now, I'll leave you with a view out my window tonight.







What, not as fun as a twelfth floor room view from last week? Ah, but it's a treat nonetheless -- the room has windows on three sides...


 


... and the clerk, remembering me from my last visit and intuiting my tiredness, handed me a Goose Island, an Anti-Hero India Pale, plus a Fiji water to enjoy as I looked out onto the city. I'm not much of a beer drinker, but tonight, I popped one open, for the sheer fun of it.

transformed

It rained and stormed all night long. I woke prepared for a very wet Wednesday. But no! The day dawned with misty skies and deliciously humid air. And before me -- a lush and verdant landscape!







As I survey the flower fields, I am reminded of a conversation I had with Snowdrop yesterday. We were driving to the greenhouse and my daughter was noting that a few colleagues are thinking of retiring. Snowdrop asks -- what's "retiring?"
We talk about people getting older and stopping work at their jobs to perhaps pursue other interests for a while. But you have to have enough money saved up before you can do that!
Snowdrop thinks for a while and then announces -- when I have a money, I will retire and I will travel!
Where to, Snowdrop?
To China!


My own retirement has elements of the expected (travel, gardening, writing -- albeit at a slower pace than I would have thought) and the unexpected (life with grandchildren!). Nothing about my days now would surprise anyone who knows me, even as some may say that I tend to be excessive in all these undertakings!

And sure enough, when I see that we are to have a good weather day, after a lovely porch breakfast...






... I go out and stay out. For many, many, many hours.

I must note that this morning I had some worries about the chickens -- all six of them were in the coop for the night. But as I step outside and look toward the barn, I can see that all's well.






The chickens aren't yet moving around as a pack of six (rather -- two packs of three), but they definitely are aware of each other and they seem to be getting along. I am sure Java is responsible for setting the proper tone!


(Ed, herding the little ones...)






(The three big girls, watching...)






I check off a lot from my list of tasks for the day. (I am trying not to think about the fact that I also add a bunch of new tasks to that list.)  Let me close off my morning labors with a photo from a bed of double daffodils.






And now it's time to pick up Snowdrop!

Because she has dance class, we haven't a huge chunk of time to mess with, but still, when I tell her that I can't quite locate the little chicks and need to look for them, she is excited to tag along and help me search for them.

I find this to be the right time to explain to her that there are animals out and about who love chickens, but that we try to keep the little girls safe.

We look in the barn...

(Look! I'm walking with Java to the barn!)





Nope, not there. We circle the writer's shed... Not there either.


And now out eyes are drawn a dab of white underneath a large fir tree. Could it be Cupcake?

Yes! We find the little girls!!






Climbing up and around the felled tree is almost as satisfying!






Today is Wednesday and so it must be Storybook ballet day. I am amazed at how much heart Snowdrop puts into the class, given that she is a tired little girl! It's been a full day and she hasn't napped. (Working on an arabesque...)







She is delighted that both parents come to pick her up after class. She is a child who is super close to both parents and when both are there within her field of vision -- her cup runneth over.





Tired little one, tired Gaga. But so very very content with all that the day offered.

May 1st

The funny thing about May 1st is that I always associate it with Workers' Day -- as "celebrated" in the post war Poland of my youth. A holiday. A day off from work. And yet, since I've moved to the farmette a half a dozen years ago, May 1st has never ever been a day of leisure. There's too much going on in the garden right now.

True to form, today I really killed myself out there. All the more so since Ed, in an effort to help, whacked his back out and was left to groan on the floor all day long as I struggled to stay on task.

I know I preach a slow, zen like approach to gardening, but with a late season start and an Ed who is often busy with work projects and an ever expanding gardening space, things can get a little whacky at this time of the year.

So, I worked today. Endlessly, energetically. (Well, at least initially it was with energy.)

Just a few notes and comments for Ocean:

First, a morning look at the daffodils. Finally, vibrant and abundant!






On the picnic table, you'll find the flowers I wanted to put in today. (I only managed to work with five of them. Who know that there was garden fabric to dig up and tear out?)






And here is my beloved Java, hovering over the baby chicks. Today, they learn to follow her a little. She is their mentor, their mom, their kind old friend.






Breakfast on the porch -- this is just before Ed gave into a spell of back spasms.






And the rest of the hours of the morning and early afternoon are a blur of heaving, digging, oh, the usual May 1st stuff.


The late afternoon is a little special and offers a bit of a break: Snowdrop's mommy and I both pick her up at school...






And we drive over to Kopke's Greenhouse to pick up a flower basket for their home.






"This one!"






Snowdrop is charged with caring for it. I think she'll do just fine!







Snowdrop and I tackle some of the lighter gardening demands at her place as well. The girl keeps me entertained as I prune last year's spent flowers.







We don't work for long. By early evening we stop and take our drinks to the back deck, where I take one of my curious and not unfunny time release photos.






It's a lovely evening respite!


Home again. Ed's feeling a tad better and we talk yet again about what to do with the young chicks. I had done a thorough cleaning of the coop earlier and I told him that if he thinks everyone's ready for it, we can place the little ones there for the night.

We do it. It feels like I'm sending off kids to college. There will be rough times! I'm so sorry I can't always be there for you! Sigh...

I'll end with evening daffodils. I ache in the good way that one aches after a day well spent. An amazing and amazingly productive day! Even if it seems I hardly made a dent in all that I had set out to do.

for the beauty of the earth...

A splendid sky, a warm breeze, an awakening landscape.

True, it is dry. We need rain. The forests, prairies, fields are parched and waiting for a good steady drizzle. It will come. For now, I am completely lost in the sunny beauty of the season.

It's the kind of day when you can't stop singing in your head.

...hill and vale and tree and flower...la la la, la la, la la, la la..
...brother, sister, parent, child...

Breakfast on the porch! How grand it is to eat the morning meal outdoors once more!

We go about our morning routines. Chicks out, box cleaned, big cheepers fed, flowers and tomatoes taken outside. The tomatoes right now are Ed's job. They're doing well! All 96 of them!

And then we walk the farmette lands.

The construction of the development to our north has just begun. We want to look out at the trucks and diggers that are moving back and forth...






And we want to check up on our young orchard. So far so good! (The cheepers follow us everywhere!)

But all this is small stuff. We have a goal for this morning: to make my annual pilgrimage to the Flower Factory -- the perennial wonderland which happens to be a mere twleve minute drive from the farmette.

We take the circuitous country roads and this takes us right past a place that we rarely visit, because we see these people weekly at our local farmers market.

It's a small business (Natalie's Greenhouse) and it's run by two lovely people who grow their own everything! And right now, even though spring has just this week taken hold, their greenhouses are incredibly rich in color and beauty!

We just can't get enough of that whiff of greenery and the rich palate of color!

But it's only a stop over. The Flower Factory is our big time destination. Here is where my gardening habits really took hold!

There's little about this place that I don't know or love. It has grown and I have grown with it. The dozen greenhouses, the rows of potted plants inbetween -- they follow a master plan established decades ago. I know exactly where to find a false indigo, a siberian iris, a daylily with a pink blush.

Our constant flower bed expansions make it possible for me to introduce a few new plants each year. It takes me forever to decide what's best. I'm always surprised that Ed puts up with these long flower hunts. (These days, he brings along a book.)

Done! The fun of planting is still before me. It's best when I don't rush it: preparing the beds, tending to them in critical times during hot summer months -- that's all fine, but planting is uniquely special. This task of planting will fill most of May for me.


And suddenly, it's time to pick up Snowdrop!

Long time readers of Ocean may notice something different this season: she is no longer  fiercely attached to her sweater!

She can't wait to come to the farmette and attend to her bug pies in the sand box!

It is a spectacular afternoon! 80F (26C)!  Who would not want to be outside?!






Snowdrop asks to pick a flower. I steer her toward some toppled daffodils (thanks, cheepers). She is so happy with her nipped bud! She brings together all farmhouse flowers -- real and not so real -- just to behold their enormous beauty.






Inside, it's as if she hasn't seen her toys for years instead of a mere week!





... but eventually she has to return home and Ed and I have to attend to our routines, only in reverse: put away the tomatoes, the cheepers, the chicks.

(Chasing down chickens who have just discovered the world is.... a challenge!)






After a supper of leftovers, Ed and I collapse into a solid recline. A beautiful day needs to be followed by a restful sleep! We are so ready for it.