spring delights

We moved pretty quickly this year from cold to very warm! Oh, I know it wont last, but for the record, I'm wearing shorts today.

Good weather means there's work to be done. I am up before 6, aiming to be at the grocery store when it opens so that I wont waste the day on such silliness as stocking the fridge for the week.

But first, a walk through the yard. Must take the tomatoes out and feed the little girls. And admire for the millionth time the beauty of a yellow house against the backdrop of spring greens.






I leave a still snoozing Ed and run my shopping errands. Breakfast, therefore, is on the late side. But oh, how grand it is to be eating in all this warm weather! (The heavy rains felled many a daffodil. All the more reason to clip them and stick them in vases.)






The little chicks see us and run over to the porch area. Like the big hens, they appear to like to check up on us when we make an appearance outside. They watch us, we watch them.



Before I give in to the demands of the garden, I do take the time to meet up with my daughter and Snowdrop at the downtown farmers market.

I find them engaged in a serious conversation about life's peculiarities.






It's hard not to be joyous on a day like this one, but Snowdrop has special talents for being extra joyous!






Well of course! We're experiencing an explosion of spring delights!







Can I climb that?
Maybe not... Spring makes us believe that everything is possible! Well, nearly everything.






In the afternoon, Ed and I make a quick trip to the Flower Factory. Ed has put up a bunch of trellis teepees in the yard and so I can finally plant some blooming vines.

Of curse, I do look around to see what else is blooming at this perennial emporium...






And then I lose myself to work the in farmette flower fields.

(Ed prompts me to pause and take a look in the new orchard. The cherries are blooming!)






(Again, the young chicks watch...)






I stop work when Snowdrop comes for a sleepover.

She, too, can't resist the evening air. I bring out a soccer ball (pink!) for us to kick around...






And she gives it a couple of good ones, but then the sandbox just draws her right in.






It's very tough to get her to give it up for the day.

Pizza party with Ed on the porch...






The sun sets at 8:03 right now and so we can still enjoy its warmth now (at 7)...






Ed and I are slow to put down our forks. Just a few minutes more of this serenity... (Snowdrop brings out a few characters and plays quietly to the side...)






And now I think it's time to herd the chickens to the coop. The process is too long and full of mishaps and misdirections. Eventually, between the three of us, we do manage to catch the little ones and put them into the coop...





...though Ed says this will be our last herding game. Tomorrow, we leave them to wander into the coop on their own.


And now, finally, I insist on books and bedtime -- Snowdrop may think she's not tired yet, but I surely have a response to that: I am so ready to put my head on the pillow and lose myself to sleep! The bats are out, the day is done! Goodnight beautiful summer-like May 5th, goodnight little one here, and little one in Chicago. Goodnight all. Good night, good night.

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.