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...

Chicago week

Morning walk to feed the chickens? Not today! Morning walk from my AirBnB (or, let's call it my pied a terre) to my daughter's house. 29 minutes of very typical and at times very lovely Chicago blocks with that Chicago vibe that I've grown so fond of since I began coming here to see my girl and eventually my girl and her family. 

I used to live in Chicago while going to graduate school, but that was a different era in the city's history and I lived in the south and the air was charged (for good reason), and I can't say that I fell in love with what I saw then. But, there is so much to like here now and if you could only begin to solve the country's problems, that would surely trickle down to those neighborhoods here that continue to suffer because, well, too many people don't care enough to support an effort to find solutions. Chicago is no different than New York or LA or Miami or Minneapolis. Or Buffalo. It reflects the best and sometimes the worst of human impulses. And let's remember this: our small towns are not free of trouble. Maybe we should dust off that slogan that was fleetingly popular just a couple of years ago -- we are all in this together.

In the meantime, spring is in full swing. Everything is fresh, everything is green and lovely.

I arrive at the young family's home just as Primrose gets ready to leave for school...

... and her parents start their work schedules, sometimes at home, sometimes in an office. So Juniper and I are left to our own devices.

(Let's see a pic without a rattle in her mouth!)

And in the afternoon, I take her out for a walk. It's a path I walked again and again three years ago when Primrose was her age: all the way to Milk & Honey -- a neighborhood cafe that is especially great these days because it has expansive outdoor seating. Not all babes love a long stroller walk. So far, all my grand girls (less so the boys) have been fantastic stroller adventurers! Juniper is no exception here.

We pause for lunch. Well, I munch a frittata, she watches. 

Juniper is 5 months old, Snowdrop is seven, and the other three are spread in the middle. There have been seven years of babies in my life, which is sort of remarkable because they're so young and I'm not so young and they're so impressionable and I'm not so impressionable, and yet grandparents and babies are such a good fit! Well, for bursts of days or hours. I imagine round the clock care for months on end would be pretty harrowing for us older types.

Toward evening, my girl comes home from her work (and her husband stops his) and she and I walk over to pick up Primrose at school. A picture? For me? Thank you!

(Passing lilac: there's lots of it!)

(Dad and Juniper are waiting outside. It's windy!)

The day ends with my walk back to the pied a terre. 

Back in the Lincoln Park neighborhood, I stop to pick up some supper food at the Blue Door (which, after my daughter's cooking, feels just okay!). I was going to get some work stuff done tonight, but all the walking and the early start to the day made me far too sleepy to be productive. No matter. This is my week for Chicago family life. A rich week indeed!

With so much love...