Chicago week

Good Morning, Chicagoland! So, you're promising storms today? I can't be surprised. First comes the hot air, then come the winds and with them storms.

I'm off to a late start because I am moving: from the lovely pied a terre, to the beautiful home of my daughter. Too, Juniper has a morning date with her working dad (who is taking her to a meeting -- she is much in demand) so that I don't quite have to be there before the school bell rings. We make complicated plans, don't you think?

Other changes, or rather additions to note here: you can still preorder my book, Like a Swallow,  directly from Little Creek Press, following my link at the side bar. Or, if you prefer to stay with Amazon, you can now order it there. I will write a tiny bit more about the book on its official release date (June 3rd), but of course, the best way to understand what went into the writing of it is to pick it up and dig in! (Insert cartoon here of girl digging a whole into which she drops book with a smug smile.)

Okay, I'm out of my pied a terre, out of the interesting Lincoln Park/Sheffield neighborhood...

... and back with little Juniper. Hello, Juniper!

As I bathe her, play with her, feed her (we eat breakfast together, albeit it is my first and her second), I think back to an awful dream I had last night. It was so bad that I asked all those around me (dream people, all of them) if maybe this could please be a dream from which I could wake up. Pinch me! Nothing happened. Dream continued. For however long dreams last. And I thought -- my reality is so wonderful, but the dream, too felt real. I suppose the only perceived difference was in the length of time it took to bring an end to it. The greatest luck belongs to those of us whose reality is so good that we don't want to switch it with whatever dreams come our way. Ever. Of course, there are people like Ed who rarely have bad dreams. His reality may be better, but his dreams are not so bad either. How fair is that?! Still, you need only imagine how many people have nightmares that are the real deal. That's tough to accept. Everyone should have the joy of waking up to the promise of something good.

Okay, Juniper: splash, read, bounce.

Eat, play, nap. A baby's good life.

And I get my last selfie of the trip. I'm returning to the farmette tomorrow and this is my last solo day with Juniper. Happy break for me: she loves our camera games!

In the late afternoon, Juniper and I take a short walk to the small grocery store that happens to also sell flowers. The young family has been feeding me and attending to my whims and needs -- surely I should leave some bunches of blooms behind. Tulips and sweet peas! 

Flowers are my balm -- perfection, even with all their rough edges, bent stalks and faded petals. I suppose it's trendy to discover your own thirst for a connection to the natural world. Me -- I've been lucky to have been immersed in that world before I could even walk. Sure, I had some city years -- rough going for me! -- but good parks were always within walking distance. And my daughters -- both are lucky that their homes, even though near urban centers, have plenty of sprouting things and leafy trees everywhere. Just from my brief walk with Juniper, I could admire this:

(Juniper loves looking up at trees! I can't blame her -- they're all magnificent.)

The Chicago neighborhood where the young family lives is mixed -- some very old and very modest homes, some apartments, new condos, old condos (theirs is that), and then of course, the expensive homes that belong on the Netflix series I've been watching -- The World's Most Extraordinary Homes.  One can only hope that these blocks will retain a mix, so that these trees -- some of them quite ancient -- can always provide shade for you and me and that old lady sitting on her porch in her plastic chair, taking sips from a chipped cup that must be as ancient as the trees towering above her.

Toward evening, we pick up Primrose from school: it's a super windy day! Can you tell?

So here I am, siting at the dinner table with this wonderful young family and thinking -- I hope my life isn't one big dream. It's nothing I would want to wake up from. 

(Primrose works on her art, parents cook up a fantastic dinner, we eat.)

How good it is to spend this time with all of them!

Don't you just find yourself wishing that good fortune, as measured by the peace in your community and the deliciousness of fresh meals eaten with those we love wouldn't be so concentrated in so few pockets in this beautiful yet complicated world? 

With love...

Chicago week

And back we are to feeling warmish, well, more than that: we are hot hot hot. I turned off the heat in my pied a terre and were it not for the fact that the unit is half underground (isn't it cool down there?) I'd expect the AC would have to come on by sunset. Hot, sticky hot. 

But only for two days! Afterwards, we'll again chill ourselves with temperatures that are downright hostile to young tomato plants.

What's with the weather bounce this year? Cold cold cold, hot hot, cold cold cold, hot hot, cold cold cold. I mean, it's as if we are on a treasure hunt and haven't a clue as to its location: No, not there! Cold! Really cold. Oh, you're close now! Hot! Nope, cold again.

I want the treasure!

Here in Chicago, I join the early rush of those heading for work. 

(Things you notice when you really do full stops at stop signs!)

Except it's not really a rush. There are speed cameras everywhere so when the sign says 25 MPH everyone goes 23, leaving no room for error. Last time I was here, I got a ticket for not making it across an intersection during the yellow light. It may have turned red by the time I got to the other side -- I can't remember! I watched their video of my car a million times -- it demonstrates nothing except that I was there, passing through. Go fight that in court. So we slog along because no one wants to dish out $100 for a camera's mean gaze.

At my daughter's home, everyone is getting ready to head out.

Well, everyone except for me and her.

The two stay-at-homes. (I give my delayed timed release camera function a real workout today!)

But we will go too: you can bet your sweet snow booties that we will take out the stroller and stroll. The sooner the better (before the heat sets in).

Want to go now?

She does.

My daughter suggested that we walk over to Bang Bang Pie and Biscuits. It is about 40 minutes if you take the lovely greenway, but I could use that walk there and back to nap her.

Sounds good to me! And her.

Unfortunately, once the stroller stops, she is wide eyed and curious. 

At some point her hand slips into my sandwich and try as I will, I cannot get all the goat cheese off of her sticky fingers. 

Ah well. She enjoys sucking on her fist for a good part of the walk home.

Home at last. 

Shed the sticky damp clothes, start again!

Wait, what did I forget?

The photo with the smile!

Okay?!

Today I take a pause in hanging out at my girl's home. It's tempting to just linger there into the late evening, but I need to catch up on stuff and I'm sure they do as well. I pick up Primrose at school and spend a little time with her on our circuitous walk home...

Then I return to my pied a terre and pick up a seafood roll in one of the many restaurants nearby (to be eaten at home).

All this time with the littlest granddaughter has given my a lot of hours to think. About writing. About describing something. About growing things. About our responsibilities to each other. About being kind. It's all there in your play with someone so young who depends on you for everything. Everything.

Lots of walking today though means that I am sleepy tired.

In the best of ways.

With love...

Chicago week

I feel like by the third day I've shaken off my farmette habits completely and taken on the Chicago routines as if they were mine all along. I leave my pied a terre, joining the crush of morning commuters, being ever so careful because there are kids everywhere, trying to beat the clock (I'm staying just across the road from Chicago's Lincoln Park High School). I pull into the flow of cars, crawling west, listening to the radio person tell me the highways are  standing still with congestion today. It's cloudy, with rain, Good morning Chicago!

At my daughter's house, Primrose is there at the top of the stairs, waiting to greet me...

And now there is a series of photos where Primrose leans. The girl definitely has creative ideas on how to set an image.

Once everyone has left and the youngest babe is fed and napped, I take on the project o giving her a bath. Easy peasy with a girl who loves water. And the fluffy towel wrap after. 

And speaking of leaning! Juniper!

There, that's better. I think.

Smiley picture for today, because really, it's not fair to not include at least one little grin when she offers so many!

All routine by now. Play, sleep, feed. And repeat. Many times.

Despite the really cool air today, I bundle her up and we go for a walk. I don't dare go far. There is a persistent threat of rain. Still, the routine to take that walk is as solid as a morning walk to the barn back home. So we walk. For the lilacs! And for all that's growing and good outside. 

In the evening, I once again stay for dinner at my daughter's home. For Primrose, but really for me as well.

So much for giving them space to settle into their own now back-to-work routines! Ah well, they don't have to twist my arm hard for me to stay. The food is always great, the company -- exquisite.

(a toast!)

And as before, I return to my pied a terre very late. I flick on the TV which actually has no TV channels at all, even as it does seem to have Netflix and possibly a bunch of other streaming services. I mention this to my daughter and she surprises me by saying -- oh, we don't have any TV on our set either. How could you possibly schedule your evening around TV shows! You stream them if and when you can find the time. 

In fact, Ed and I aren't TV hounds either, but still, it's there and we've been known to pick up a PBS documentary in its regularly scheduled time slot. I knew this was rather quaint -- my older daughter also never watches any "television" -- but I did not know that this generation just doesn't bother to even hook up TV channels. I remember being surprised when they gave up on phone landlines. It took me several years to give up on mine (and Ed even longer, but that's because he doesn't have cell service). Adopting new technologies is way easier than giving up on old ones. 

So tonight I half watch another one of those British architectural shows as I finish up my Ocean work and I think -- it took me a while to reconnect with Chicago in any meaningful way. But these repeated immersions into the neighborhoods where my daughter hangs out is much the same as my immersions in my older girl's neighborhood back in Wisconsin. Their neighborhoods have become mine as well. And that's a good thing if you believe, as I do, that stepping out of your own bubble and slipping into someone else's is good for you. 

With love, for all that's good here and in all peaceful neighborhoods the world over...

Chicago week

I'm scaling down my walking ambitions for the day. It's cooler, I'm lazier, less curious about my neighborhood (because I gave it a good once over yesterday), and I'm conserving time. I so often start in on a new place (or new as compared to my usual orbit) with excessive energy, packing it all in, taking the photos, doing all that I feel needs to be done to enrich a time away from home, and then I step back and say (to myself) -- hey, slow down. The world wont go away. Don't push yourself.

So today I drove to my daughter's home. (9 minutes, as opposed to the 29 minute walk.)

I came in to an excited household. Or, at least an excited little girl.

Grandma, did you know it's Norwegian Constitution Day? -- this from Primrose as I come up the stairs.

She spins around and shows me the Norwegian colors in her hair.

Her sister looks on, with her usual wide eyed gaze of wonder: "No one told me about Norwegian Constitution Day! Will I get ribbons too??"

Of course, all this only affirms Ed's standard line that every day is a holiday. It's not that Norwegian Constitution Day has any great meaning for us, but it's a reason to wear ribbons and make the day sparkle. 

She goes off to school, the parents plunge into their work.

The house grows quiet. Juniper and I play. 

As I take the occasional picture of the little one, I have to ask myself if I am being fair to her. A story about a child is as much (perhaps more?) about the story teller as it is about that child. Writing on Ocean for so many years, and then publishing Like a Swallow (see sidebar!) makes me acutely aware of this. In the case of Juniper -- I am enchanted by her gaze, so that most of the pictures I take (and nearly all that I post here) have this classic Juniper look of utter amazement. Like this one from this morning:

But don't I owe it to her to be more balanced? After all, so often, she is like this:

And that's equally precious of course, except I do so associate her with the wonder-filled eyes. Yes, these:

It's just one of the many reminders that Ocean isn't supposed to be about the kids or grandkids. It's about being a grandparent (and a parent and a partner and a farmette person and a writer and a traveler and whatever else creeps into my life and sucks me in whole).

Today again I take this youngest grandchild out for a walk...

Though as I said -- it's a less physically ambitious day. We go to Olivia's, the sweet little grocery store in this neighborhood -- a place where I routinely pick up flowers for my daughter's home. No cafe plans, no distant bakery trips.

But speaking of flowers, Juniper and I do take many pauses to smell the lilacs. They are blooming heavily and everywhere!

I have my fill of that bewitching fragrance. And today, Juniper gets her fill as well.

At home, she shows off her skills. She rolls, she reads (or at least turns pages), and when he's done with his work day, she snuggles into her dad's face. She does not mind beards.

In the evening, I stay with the young family for dinner. I don't want to mess with their schedules too much, but Primrose has pointed out the unfairness of my spending a whole day with her sister and not a fraction of that time with her. So tonight, I try to balance it out just a tiny bit.

And much later, I return to my Lincoln Park digs and think about how lucky all my grandkids are and by extension, how lucky I am too. That's the thing about luck -- it tends to trickle down by association. It trickled down plenty for me. I am so very grateful.

With love...