going slowly

Did you ever notice how July lingers and August sprints forward with alacrity? Is it because you want summer to linger a while more, or is it that you hope to squeeze every bit good weather and vacation out of it before returning to the grind? Or maybe it's that kids start school again, or at least get ready to start school again? It does feel to me like one day it's August 1st and then next it's the 31st.

So today I slow down a bit. I get up later, spend more time cleaning up flower beds, and think at length about what to do about breakfast: granola or cinnamon roll? And only after breakfast do I go to the downtown farmers market, which puts me there just as the crowds swell, with shoppers and protesters. It's hard to tell who is there for what reason. I suppose my blueberries and flowers are, along with me, momentarily, part of the protest.  It is past noon by the time I get back home.

And it is late afternoon when Ed suggests a walk in our local park. Not too buggy. I am grateful. 

This, to me, is a day at a crawl. Am I deliberately slowing down summer? Seems I'm going against the current. Maybe slowing down is something you should reserve for the dead of winter. But for this early August weekend, I'm giving it a try.

Let me post some photos from my slow-moving day.

(a delicate double)

 (three yellow lily plants in three shades of yellow)

 

 

 (these guys are not afraid, as my hand weaves around them, snipping away spent lilies)

 

 

 

 

 

(bees do like day lilies, but I think other pollinators like them better; bees go crazy, on the other hand, around my hyssop blooms and they're pretty attracted to these heliopsis heads as well)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 (breakfast: granola won)

 

 

(at the market: my flower-growing friend and her granddaughter)

  

 

(shoppers and protesters and tourists and me)

 

 

(the last blueberries of the year)

 

 

(back at the farmette, Ed picks the first peach from our young peach orchard) 

 

 

 

 

 

With so much love.... 

 

August 1st

Today I snipped very many lilies and it took up a lot of time. I have also begun to cut off empty stems. More time. But I have stopped counting. It's August: instead of numbers, I now have songs in my head. 

A few pictures, a few more frogs, a lot more color:

(where is the frog, puzzle no.1)

(where's the frog, puzzle no. 2 for beginners)

(where's the frog, puzzle no. 3)

It's a significant day -- it is my older girl's birthday. In combination with this, we have the opening performance of Midsummer Night's Dream -- the Shakespeare play (full length production) in which both Sparrow and Snowdrop have parts. This makes for a complicated and very busy day! 

We could not fit in an evening birthday celebration, what with the Shakespeare play and the call times for the two older kids, so we arranged to have a late breakfast feast for my girl, with her two older kids and me, at Ancora coffee shop.

Happy, happy birthday, oh incredible daughter of mine, with a heart of gold and a whiz-bang head on those lovely shoulders! With thanks for all those years of passion and infinite enthusiasm!

It was a very beautiful morning.

Meanwhile, back at the farmette, the wild turkey family comes for its daily visit...

 

 

 

Ed attempts to patch up the roof over the mud room...

 

 

 

And the flowers are blooming their heads off, letting us know that August can be just as showy as July.

 

 

 

In the late afternoon, four grownups (two grandmothers and two parents) meet up for a pizza before the show.

And then the play begins. 

I know I should not be nervous before a grandchild's performance. In the scheme of things -- it's just one show and the significant benefit of being in the cast has already been achieved -- it's in the work you put into learning your role, your lines. In working with the group to do it right. And because the performers are young people (between ages 7 and 18), you can assume that the audience will be mostly family and friends. So why spend time fretting about any of it?

And yet, it is Sparrow's first appearance on the stage and he is by far the youngest in the production. Can he handle being Egeus? And quickly change costume and play Snout -- a part that requires a wickedly energetic stage presence? And will Snowdrop, who plays the love struck Hermia, be solid in her character, her many scenes, many lines? Of course I want them to be happy with the night!

And they are happy. And with good reason. Three and a half hours of Shakespeare (with two intermissions) and they churned out emotion after emotion (that would be Hermia), strength of will (as Egeus) and a hilarious playfulness (as Snout). 

No photos during the show, but here are some from right after (Sparrow is in the end in his Snout role):

 

 

I drive home smiling.

with so much love... 

 

hazy days of summer

We knew it without even looking at the local numbers as compiled by air quality monitors. We are in the "unhealthy for all" category. It's so hazy outside that I feel like I just stepped back a few decades to a summer in New York City.

A beautiful, sunny day, not to be enjoyed outdoors. 

I have no idea when the Canadian forest fires will let up and stop sending smoke our way. Maybe tomorrow, maybe in a month. For now, we live with hazy skies and polluted air.

I hesitate with lily picking -- a whole hour, outside? --  but only for a minute. It is the last day of July and July belongs to my flower fields. I missed only one time of lily pruning -- the day I went to Chicago. I don't want to end the lily season with a messy garden. I put on my KN95 and go outside. Bugs, smoky air, wet foliage. Am I having fun yet??

Well, you know the saying. all good things come with a price tag. One not measured in dollars or Euros.

601 snipped lilies today. So ends July, the month that belongs to lilies.

(can you find the frog?)

Breakfast, inside. That goes without saying.

Everything is inside.

There is one outing for us today: the local market. Ed and I both wear masks. The air is that bad, even as the temps are lovely and the sunshine -- a welcome change from yesterday's rains.

I think back to winter days: I worry then that my physical activity slows down too much when it's bitter cold outside. A few walks during the week hardly count for me as exertion. But I tell myself -- never mind, I'll make up for it in warmer weather. And I do -- in spring I work steadily and heavily in the fields. I rediscover my bike. Ed and I check out the awakening world of prairie and woodland in our local park. And then comes summer. Sorry, but lily snipping doesn't cut it. It takes time and keeps me off the couch. What a low bar that is! So I try to fit in bike riding, as does Ed. When the air quality allows for it. And when it doesn't? Here we are, in the farmhouse living room, doing our "living," eyes glued to reading material. 

[Hey!  -- cries the flip side of me -- I do balancing exercises when I wait for my milk to heat up for my coffee! The goal is 60 seconds on each foot, eyes closed. And there's more -- I clean, wipe, cook, water, feed others. Mightn't that count? You're right, it doesn't. Thank goodness for travel. I still push myself each day on the road.]

There's no such thing as a perfect gardening month of course. But if a lily count is an indication of anything, then surely this year has been just outstanding. So much so that, given the work involved, I'm not totally sad to be moving into August.

with love... 

 

Sunday schedules

They're made to be broken. Things evolve. Plans change. And the weather can shake things up for you. Luckily your online scheduling calendar can stand many erasures and modifications. So, I went from having a benign day, with lilies and one phone call in the books, to a totally chaotic but ultimately sweet day of rain, bugs, lilies, markets, and morning buns. And some good company and very many hours of reading. Out loud. With cups of tea to keep my voice afloat.

Do you see what I mean?  Only the lilies were there, on repeat, as predicted. All 648 of them snipped in the drizzle and wetness of a morning that had way too much rain for my liking.

(three little girls...)

(three different little girls...)

(first frog sighting...)

(Big Bed)

(second frog sighting...)

 

 

 

 

 

 

(fun fact: meadows like rain)

 

 Breakfast. Out of the rain. Away from the bugs. What a relief.

 

 

 

And what happened next? Well, my daughter asked me if I could fit time with Snowdrop into the day. The girl had time off from her drama program and she was angling for a farmhouse visit. Yes, of course, but I was going to go to the market downtown. I'll take her along for that first. Oh, could I maybe join you? Sure! We'll grab some lunch after and then I'll take her to the farmhouse. 

Great, except the prediction was for rain, storms, and more rain. Could we handle that?

Yes we could.

(she spotted me!)

(Market shopping: veggies, sure. Also flowers for me...)

 

 

(... and flowers for them)

 

 

(Lunch at Madison Sourdough. Though not for the girl -- she prefers the stuff I fix for her at the farmhouse. Which includes Ed-grown tomatoes.)

There follows an afternoon at the farmette... 

 

 

 

(Tomato first...)

 

Followed by reading. For all the hours of the afternoon.

Why a long reading session? Well, we were halfway through The Silver Sword -- a 1956 book about three sibs who survived the Warsaw Uprising during World War II. I've read a lot of World War II books with Snowdrop -- they are not about the war per se, but about families that lived through it, whether in England, France, Denmark, or Poland -- what they endured, how they managed to survive. I think this was the tenth one from this group and it gripped both of us. Since I'll be traveling next week and the week after, she wanted very much to finish it so that we wouldn't be forced to hit a pause for several weeks. Yes of course, she could finish it herself, but where would that leave me? I'm just as interested in the story line as she is!

So we read. And read. And read some more. And I forgot about my very challenging lily snipping morning, and about much of the ills of the world, because the story was that good and the plight of those Polish children was so dramatic!

 

In the evening, it rained some more but by this time I just didn't care. The fact is, most plants love the periodic drenching they're getting this year and as you know, I have stopped trying to keep everything neat and tidy. Bad enough that I snip lilies with such obsessive regularity. I can let other things slide. No one will notice. Right?

with love...