End of The Reunion

Good morning, world!

(this one is for my friend Regan, who loves Gauras as much as I do!)

And it is a good morning. A beautiful morning in south-central Wisconsin! 

(Tuxie, in the barn, taking in the sun...)

First order of business: check in with my docs at the clinic. Lovely people, all of them, though I have to smile at the tennis game that we are playing here: it was a bacterial explosion! No, it was a viral menace! Maybe even Covid! Though maybe not! Well, I'm okay with any of these, because so long as the ball stays within the court and doesn't land in some stratosphere of scary places, it doesn't really matter to me whether it's on this side of the line or the other. I'm well at the moment and that week of feeling ill is getting to be but a memory. 

Next, I meet up with the Polish group downtown. Gosia, Piotr, Inga, Jacek. There, on the last day of their American visit, I decided to put names to the faces that you will have seen here the last day or two and then before. We are old enough now that total anonymity wanes in importance. What matters more to me is that I love my friends, I grew up with them, and more were added and they deserve something other than a pronoun in an Ocean post. (One of them did say that visiting the farmette was like stepping into a movie set -- so much of my days here have been played out over the years in Ocean writings, that it's all so familiar, even as none of these friends have ever been to Wisconsin, let alone to the farmette.)

We start off by doing "lite shopping" at Little Luxuries. This small, esoteric gift shop on State Street had been my go-to shopping place for when I needed wee gifts for important to me people for a very long time, but I haven't been there in years! It was sentimentally sweet to be with Polish friends there today.

From there, it's a hop skip to the Capitol. 

(we wait for the other shoppers to catch up with us... my friend is enamored with all the flowers that grow in our city center...)

Here they are -- the traveling foursome, together.

They'd poked around inside the Capitol on their own. Our goal today is to do something else -- have breakfast. For this we go to Marigold Kitchen...

My head has been swimming with ideas on what "typical American" food I want to introduce to these people. How about blueberry pancakes with maple syrup? A hit!

It really is time for them to drive off to O'Hare. Their return flight to Poland leaves in just a handful of hours. But we make one more stop and because of the weather, the flowers, the occasion, the significance of it all, it is a beautiful stop -- at Frank Lloyd Wright's Monona Terrace.

("the girls")

You can't help but be reflective.

("I met you in your Warsaw apartment on Aleja Roz, more than fifty years ago...")

The span of years, the decisions made, the wide gully between their lives over there and mine over here... and yet, despite everything, we remain friends. This is the stable element through it all, against all odds, despite our profound differences in lives lived, paths followed.

And then after many many hugs, they turn toward their return trip and I turn toward the farmhouse. And I think how at the end of trips, visits, events, after incredibly packed and beautiful days you return home and you either feel a let down or you feel quite the opposite -- uplifted by the memories, and for me it's always the latter, perhaps because I love my memories, but I also love, love, love my home.

Hi Ed...

Afternoon? It's with Snowdrop who is out of school today because there's some reason why schools are closed and so she comes here and now we are back in our life of routine and that's just fine too!

(Loves to pluck fruit from the trees; right now we're flushing out decent apples and okay pears...)

(She was curious today about how much rubies cost... I have no idea what brought that on. Ed took it upon himself to teach her how precious stones are priced. Basic math quickly convinced her that her allowance would not permit for a purchase of anything that even looked like a ruby. Ah well. Kids switch focus with lightening speed. Rubies are so yesterday!)

Evening: I hear my friends got on their plane without fuss or issue. They're halfway across the Atlantic already. 

The moon shines brightly over the farmette lands today. I hope it shines brightly over you as well, wherever you are.

With so much love...

Sunday

You could say that the day is a culmination of everyone and everything, of a summer of swings and swirls, of interesting possibilities and incredible rewards. And that probably doesn't fully describe it all.

(Venerable farmhouse and the Big Bed...)

(Some lilies are so-called repeat bloomers, but here up north, that second bloom is modest. Still, you love every secondary bloom, because, well, it's September!)

(Breakfast greetings from the farmette!)

The plan is for me to meet up with everyone. The two young families, and with the Polish gang if the timing is right, all together at the Union Terrace.

At first I'm with just the kids and their parents.

But just as the Chicago young family was getting ready to head back home...

Just as we managed to sit the cousins down for one last photo...

... the Polish group arrived. And we had a chance to meet. All together... (well, a few of the men are parking cars, or getting cars, or taking photos!)

Still, the timing is right. We had that lovely moment together. 

And now the young families leave and the Polish group remains.

Since my pals are here only for 24 hours, I decided that we should calm down the sightseeing and concentrate on something else -- take in a whiff of Wisconsin as I know it from this wee corner of the state. It's all well and good to climb to the top of skyscrapers and to visit the musts of San Francisco. But if you step out of that tailspin and look around you, there's a bit of interesting America right here, on the Wisconsin campus...

 ... and on farmette lands. 

And so after the Union, and the campus, and after they check into their hotel, we come out to where I live.

Ultimately, we settle into an evening around the kitchen table...

And a wonderful dinner on the porch, with the song of crickets adding music to our evening. 

And it is all so grand...

Ed tells me I laughed a lot tonight. Yes, that would be right. We were feeling celebratory. And grateful for all these years of friendship.

With so much love...

Saturday

Talk about day that is not what it was supposed to be! 

My Polish friends are now in Chicago and I was to join them there. We were going to "do the city" together, much as we "did" New York before I got myself sick and landed in the hospital.

I'm close to my old self again, but not enough to trust myself to be away from home. I'm still on medications and under observation, and though I think I'm done with the toxins and fevers and god knows what else, I'd rather not take the chance. Not just yet. 

And so I sent detailed instructions on what to do when and where and I am happy to see that they have the weather for it. Chicago is not hard to navigate. I trust them to have a fine old time. I'll see them on their final day of their grand American adventure when they travel here, to Madison. But for now, they are in Chicago and I am here.

(Door County peaches, market flowers)

And guess who else is here? Well, as it turned out that, since everything got flipped, my Chicago girl brought her family to Madison tonight. And so after a morning of tidying and straightening and getting stuff in order, I meet up with the two young families for dinner. I haven't seen the both of them all under one roof since May! (We go out for a taco dinner and it is wonderful! Extraordinarily wonderful.)

("me and the girls")

(she is on the move these days!)

It's all a fantastic treat for me.

Too, I've wanted there to be an occasion where my friends and my kids and grandkids can come together, even if only for a few brief moments. Looks like that can happen tomorrow. 

But tonight, I just want to smile at how quickly the week flipped, from somewhere near some bottom, to this:  

After dinner, we retreat to my daughter's home where it's just so good to talk around the table, while the kids play...

(Sandpiper: a rare serious moment...)

(Primrose: same for her...)

(the big kids: on stage...)

And of course, the two that started it all for me...

There's a light rain as I drive home. Refreshing. Purifying. Deeply delicious. Or maybe it's that everything is feeling deeply delicious right now.

With so much love...

exploring

Things are looking so September good out there! 

The paths add balance to the farmette lands and today, I took the hand mower out and cleaned up the narrow alleys linking one segment with the next. The tractor mower doesn't fit in the alleys. 

The asters are starting to throw down their purple color, the phlox will give an occasional bloom from now until frost, even the lily will show that she's not fully dormant yet. And it all smells so autumnal! So rich! So heavenly.

Breakfast. 

Ed is pushing for a walk in the Hook Lake wildlife area. We've rarely explored it, possibly because access to it is limited. Indeed, it's been closed off lately -- overgrown and unwelcoming. Still, he thinks there is a path...

We ride out on his motorbike and we look every which way...

Nothing. No path to the lake. Lots of private property signs, despite the fact that there is a chunk of land we know is under the stewardship of the DNR. 

Indeed, a couple comes out of their house in the woods and questions our presence there. Should I sing them the refrain from Woodie Guthrie's song? I'm always dismayed how much rural folk guard their property against walkers. I suppose I get it: you protect what's "yours," keeping the right to chase someone off with a gun, because that walker may harm you with his own gun. Fine, but this mindset  does not make for a happy and welcoming landscape. I think about the right to roam laws elsewhere and I have to say I'm envious. Our roaming is limited to designated public spaces. 

In the end, we do find a swath of DNR wildlife land and we explore it to the max: corner to corner.

And I like it! The tall grasses, the giant oaks -- it's likely the way it was hundreds of years back.

I tell Ed it's a fantastic little walk, but I know he's hungry to probe deeper. Ed doesn't travel far, but his great desire to explore his immediate surroundings is profound. In the years we've lived here, we've gotten to know every bit of public land, every corner and crevice of it. Today, we add this small fragment to our list of explored local lands. It was the perfect day to take in its September beauty.

In the afternoon, Snowdrop is here once again. Though Friday isn't her typical farmhouse day, we are making up for lost time!

(I show her my crazy beanstalk!)

(we pick a few peaches...)

(she loves our watermelon patch!)

(... and the meadows...)

Oh and look who is here to pick up his sister?!

In the evening, I cook up some soup and life feels pretty close to normal once again.

With love...