tulips and dandelions

If you sit out on the farmhouse porch, this will be your view today:





Sunday morning comes in warm, with a mixed cloud cover. I am up early. My girls are coming with their families for brunch. Porch weather indeed!

Ed is proud of the 18 eggs I use for a brunch frittata: cheeper eggs, with marigold egg yolks, given to us by very happy chickens (the frittata also has shaved asparagus, pan-crisped prosciutto, and crumbled goat cheese. It's got spring written all over it!






The families are here!  Snowdrop comes with a present for Gogs.






Primrose is thrilled to explore the permissible side of the fence in the kids' play room.






Sparrow eats an early brunch. He's still keeping to a morning nap and so he retires just as we are about to sit down for our meal.






An interlude with Ed: Primrose is definitely afraid of the him! Someday she'll laugh at this. He's the most mild mannered big guy I know.






I'm so grateful that the weather gods gave us this most sublime morning on the porch!






With eight of us around the table, Snowdrop tries hard to find a way to enter the conversational whirlwind...






In the meanwhile, Primrose is paying the farmhouse cook the biggest compliment: she gobbles up the frittata, the fruit, the croissant, the apple cake.






The parents are lingering around the table, in the way one does on a beautiful day. I want to take Primrose to the barn to show her the cheepers. Snowdrop wants to lead the way!






She dishes out the corn. Primrose is fascinated!






Afterwards, we head for the young orchard. It's dandelion nirvana there right now!






Barefoot in the grass...






My two girls, loving the flowers, the cool turf, the warm day...






Ed takes this photo...






Garden walk: Primrose and her mom.






Ah, that Primrose proud smile!






Sigh... Eventually, the young family has to leave. Oh, but what a glorious visit it was!!

We're told storms will develop in the afternoon. But, the skies stay mostly blue. Ed and I have a window to do some heavy duty yard work. We get to it immediately.






And in the evening, the local young family comes back for a farmhouse dinner. Let's greet Sparrow, (who so often naps during my family picture taking)!






We eat in the kitchen. There is a rumble of thunder and there surely will be rain tonight...






(Sparrow's first spaghetti noodle...)






She is an old pro...





Yes, the storms do come to us eventually. I'm sure the two dozen plants I put in this weekend will appreciate the rain. I do wish we didn't have a week of cool temperatures before us, but honestly, I'm still in the glow of this brilliant weekend. I can take a few off days. Can't be greedy!

a plethora of pics

The day is somewhere between gorgeous and stunning. And it's a rare one! This year, spring has been long in coming and we've gotten more of a cold spring shoulder than a sunny, here-to-stay, chortling, play-filled new season. I am out of bed early! Can't waste a second of this loveliness!

It is also unusually busy for us: we have the piling up of outdoor work. And there is the first (for me) farmers market downtown. And...!  We have the arrival of Primrose and her parents for an overnight visit! A beautiful, colorful, joyous, back breaking, most perfect Saturday.

But there's not much time for writing. It's a photo day here, on Ocean! And why not? Have you ever seen so much color? It's a post winter feast!

Here we go, a photo run!

(Dance, coming up to ask for breakfast)






(Jacket, strolling)






Breakfast, on the porch!






And then comes the market. Snowdrop, mommy and me. Woah, no sweater?






Pussy willows!






Oh, the tulips!






... the beautiful tulips!






Running races with mommy... right by the Flower Factory truck.






The smile never leaves Snowdrop's face today.

(Barefoot in the grass...)

















And then there is a pause in the gaiety: for three hours, I work hard to catch up with garden work.

By late afternoon, I am at my daughter's house. (Snowdrop is thrilled to be out on the swing. For a long long time.)







And within minutes, Primrose, the Chicago girl, arrives.






A brief play time...






And then we pile into cars (and Ed scoots over on his motorbike) to a pizza place. Sparrow is up from his nap -- happy to be part of our rather large group.











She eats pizza...






He eats pizza...






She draws pictures of people eating pizza...






And then the grandkids pile on my lap... First one...






Then two...






And finally all three!






Last minutes of play before bedtime...






Two youngest cousins. The older one is back on the swing.






(Daughters with younger ones...)






There you have it. Beautiful colors, beautiful moments. Something to think about when the days turn cloudy again. Puff! Clouds eventually go away. Family comes, fruit trees bloom, tulips explode. Magic!

Friday

You know how sometimes, you pay attention to one loved one (say, your child) because some project or circumstance draws you there and at the end of the day, you feel so sorry that you have neglected someone else? Possibly everyone else? This is what it's like when I work hard on a flower bed. I tidy it, prune it, dig out bad stuff, put in some newcomers. I chip it, smooth it, pamper it and at the end of the effort, it looks okay. And immediately I think -- oh! I've completely neglected the other flower fields! How am I ever going to make it up to them??






These thoughts churn in your head particularly on a day like today -- it's actually quite lovely outside.  We begin with a cool but sunny morning and the garden rejoices!






As do I. The sun does eventually hide behind clouds, but it's warmer than this whole last week combined. True, it's Friday and so immediately after breakfast, I hustle to the store to do the weekly grocery shopping.






But I am back in plenty of time to do some solid work outside.






The unfortunate thing is that we are slated to have only 2.5 days that I would call fine spring days. After that, it's back to the wet cold and gray. I shan't complain. We haven't the flooding and storm issues that plague other parts of the country. Still, it's not been a sunny spring thus far.

 (What even a little sunshine can accomplish...)






In the afternoon, I pick up a Snowdrop that's ever so ready to get going.






...to the farmhouse.






Without a sweater, without a care in the world.





In the evening, Ed and I continue our work outside. I plant some day lilies that arrived today, I finish work on the pots, Ed fixes the engine on the tractor-mower.This is how it should be, Soaring spring! For a day and a half more..

Thursday

I got a message from Aggie, the asparagus farmer who comes to our local farmers market each Thursday. The market starts its season today, but she wont be there. It's been too chilly -- she writes. There is no asparagus.

We weren't supposed to get a day of rain, but we got one anyway. The kittens came around asking for food...




... and I have to juggle their demands with the arrival of their mother who is feeding another litter of young ones who knows where. She is not on great terms with her two winter kittens (she hisses at them when they come near, curious to see what she is eating). Possibly she is protecting the next generation. Or, she knows they are more limber than she is. Or, cats grow out of love over time.

Breakfast.





I have a list of outdoor projects to attend to, but I do very little. I wait for the rain to stop. And wait.

And wait.



Okay. The drizzle is almost imperceptible. Ed, let's go to the Flower Factory. I need some calamintha plants and I'm afraid they'll sell out.

I'm not really afraid they'll sell out. I'm sure their traffic is low right now. You don't think about planting when it's drizzly and just 50f (10c) outside. But staying home and waiting for the weather to improve is like standing in the path of a glacier and waiting for it to melt. It's not gonna happen before your eyes. So we head out.

Predictably, there aren't many people shopping for perennials today. In all the decades I've been coming here, it's never been so cold and, well, as the weatherperson described it on our local station -- gloomy. We have had a week of gloomy weather.





Still, walking through the greenhouse, it's easy to get inspired. The weather will change. The flowers will keep on growing.

We pull our wagon of plants to the checkout hut. Thank you for coming today. Just don't plant these immediately. The soil should dry out a little.

Yes, we should all dry out a little.


I pick up a Snowdrop who is deeply asleep at her going home time. The girl who hasn't napped at home for years has been dozing off daily in school in recent months. And that's a good thing, even as she is a tough one to get moving after a nap.






At the farmhouse, a snack and a book revive her. She is full of play!






(She is at work in a store full of blankets. Can I buy one? They're not for sale, gaga.)






In the last half hour, I read her a book that she'd resisted for a while now. And of course she loves it.






Totally. From its plot, she spins her own story.






In the evening, the drizzle stops. You can see a distant break in the clouds. The air is fresh, wiped clean, ready for a fresh start.