eyes on the prize

Last night Ed came up with a terrific and sweet idea. Knowing that I feel despondent at all the shade that's taking over my Big Bed of flowers, he suggested that we move the picnic table to the side, which would allow for the extension of the Big Bed -- one that would remain sunny for the requisite six hours each day. The picnic table is never used for picnics. It's a work station for him (mechanical stuff) and a work station for me (gardening stuff) and sometimes it is a place where we pause, sit down and take stock of all that's around us. You have to understand that my flowers are visible from the courtyard and really only from the courtyard of the farmette. So it is vital to make that courtyard a place where you can do your work, but, too, where you can soak in the wonders of the growing season.

We implemented his idea this morning. And it is one glorious morning!

 

After breakfast, of course. We had leftover treats from Chicago's Daisy and they are so very delicious that even Ed couldn't resist them.

We get to work then. It's a major overhaul for us. We have heavy stumps that framed the table, and we have flower bins that now need a new placement, and, too, we have old strawberries in containers that require some thought as to their future. And the visuals! They will be completely different now! You can't really appreciate this until I fill the tubs with annuals, but the courtyard will now be along these lines.

Wait, we revamped it even more. Ed brought in some stones from the stockpile of dug-out boulders and we created a two-tiered bed. 

 

I'm glad I ordered some more lilies online! I have a new space to fill! And maybe, just maybe, I'll be more careful in what I place in this very visible extension.

 

We go inside for a quick rest. Ed brings up a a video from the NY Times and we watch it and I marvel at how absolutely Polish it is! A perfect capture of a border dispute! But of a less heated one. You'll understand the pun if you watch it.

 

And out again. We dig up the ground cover that abutted the picnic table and I replant it by the sheep shed. And the sun keeps going strong so that we are down to our shirts and even that feels like it's too much.

 

 

Working alongside Ed is right up there for me. As good as Paris! Perhaps better. The fields around the courtyard are my domain and he let's me have the final word on all of it, but the fact is, he is a design guy and making things work together in an integrated fashion is his lifelong passion and skill. He sometimes has a bad gardening idea, but not very often.

 

Okay. We do need to stop in the early afternoon. No, I don't have the kids today. I have eye surgery instead. Did you know that cataracts can come back for a second run? Yes they can! Out they come once more. An easy peasy laser thing. I'm home by late afternoon.

 

For the rest of the day I review all the perennials I ordered back in January. I feel the loss of our own local perennial farm -- the Flower Factory, but I have to say, there are so many places that will pack up your loot and mail it to you these days that I can hardly mind. And, of course, there are the annuals still to be purchased. Hey, did you know that Kopke's Greenhouses open their doors on April 18th? That's nine days from now! How did it suddenly become spring?! (I ask this in total wonderment every single year... The seasons do change. And we are all the better for it.)

Chicago eclipse

On the one hand, you think -- it's just a moon passing in front. It gets a little shadier for a bit. Like on a very stormy day maybe? What's the big deal? 

On the other hand, it's an event that happens rarely. I wont see the next one. So... shouldn't I make an effort to pay attention now? 

My last 94% eclipse happened on a morning when I knew little about it and prepared not at all. March 21st, 2015. I was in Cornwall. In England. I posted rough pics of it, which in itself was insane because such an event can mess with your camera big time. And of course, your eyes, though I honestly think you have to have a clear day and stare for a while to get blinded, but why mess with fate when viewing glasses are cheap or free at your local library? I had none, so I peeked, but did not stare.

And now here I am in Chicago still, and it is a clear and sunny day and the eclipse in this city promises a  94% covering of the sun. Same as Cornwall! Except this time I'm sort of prepared. But, too, I am to babysit Primrose who has spring break from school. We'll be together  Should I make a big time event of it? The Museum of Science and Industry is all ready for a public viewing. Should we drive down there? Or at least downtown? Is it worth it, from a 6 year old's point of view?

Let's roll with the events of the day and see where they land us.

First of all, I have to say good bye to Juniper, who is off to school early in the day. Here's one last pic of the two girls, together:

Sweet, good, loving kids. Both of them.

Okay. Dad is off at work, mom, too, is busy with her job obligations. It's me and the big girl.

There's lots of play. She keeps me so busy that I never even have a minute to pick up the camera. Late in the morning we pause to go out to an art supply store. Equipment for further play!

The plan is to pause at midday and pull mom out to lunch with us. At Daisy's. Mom, are you ready? Let's go!

Daisy's is the perfect place for a midday meal -- yes, good sandwiches, salads, etc, but also and perhaps more importantly from my perspective -- great baked goods! I am a fan of midday treats!

Primrose and I then return to our play station. We're building a craft project. You could say that I am a terrible crafts person -- I haven't the patience for small tabs and even smaller cuttings, nor the imagination for truly original ideas. Still, Primrose chose one where you build, with the help of glue and tabs, a mini cardboard camper. Who am I to say no to this?! We set to it, cheating occasionally by pulling out the scotch tape. And very quickly it is 1:30 and mom comes out of her work enclave and says -- let's go see the eclipse!

We are off!

And it becomes instantly clear that the best place to see this fantastic astronomical wonder is right here in the neighborhood. In fact, you need only step outside and look up...

It's all there, nearing the magic Chicagoland 94%.

(We almost don't notice the incredible luck of having blue skies above on this suddenly warm spring day!)

We go to a nearby park, one that has other neighborhood locals there as well. And a high school class from a public school. And lovers and nannies with strollers and dog walkers and grandmas too. It's a shared experience and a joyous one, because everyone is so happy to be out on this suddenly warm, brilliant day, doing this unique thing that brings such awe to us all.

I hope you had a chance to glance up at the skies today. And if you did, I hope you were outside with others, because awe is contagious. As is joy. And an appreciation for the magnificence of our universe.

I do have to leave shortly after. I want to get home before dark. As always, it's tough to leave this beloved foursome. I wiggle into their routines, I eat, play, laugh, craft cardboard trailers, and watch a moon pass in front of a sun, and then I'm out and driving home. I suppose I need this time to let go and adjust. And feel grateful that they are, when the traffic is good, a mere 2.25 hours away. 

With love, so much love...

Chicago!

With kids, you do well if you know how to pivot when the moment calls for it. You make plans, but a child may have her own ideas. Or, she may suddenly need care and boom! Your plans must change. To find joy in a new path -- that's your challenge, and if you make an adjustment, and if you still keep that happy momentum going -- the day will turn out just fine. More than just fine, in fact. Beautiful.

This morning, I wake up to find Primrose a little under the weather. Enough so that we need to adjust. As she catches up to her energy levels, I focus in on her sister, whose energy levels are super charged!

 

Breakfast, with Juniper. And newspaper reading with dad.

Kids bounce. One minute they need to rest, another minute they're up and running.

Still, we shift plans. Parents are off with older girl for a doc visit and errands. Juniper and I play, which always involves music and dance.

And with a pretty clear bill of health, we jump back onto our initial goal -- of going to lunch at Time Out. You, the traveler of yore, may recognize Time Out as a big name in the travel guide business. Well now. They've branched out. Chicago (and Lisbon, I hear) has a food court that's under their sponsorship and it is excellent! I choose Ethiopian cuisine. Others spread themselves out between the continents. Asia, Africa, Texas. It's all there. 

(feeling better?)

Great foods push me to eat a big lunch, even when normally I resist. 

 

(happy post-lunch crew)

 

 

Filled with good food we make our way back to the car.

I'm dropped off at the neighborhood grocery store to pick up a thing or two, the rest proceed home for naps, other errands, and eventually we're all home and my daughter brings out the rolling pin (figuratively speaking) and sets to work making Madelines. 

It's raining outside. Milky coffee and Madelines on a rainy day? The best!

Dinner is also at home. My girl cooks for us all and she is one wonderful cook.

And so ends my second day here. With a massive degree of contentment. And love...

to Chicago

I swear, I'll settle down for the rest of the month. Indeed, I wont leave Wisconsin again until summer! Well, right about then. But today, I need to drive south. To Chicago. I haven't seen my five year old granddaughter since she turned six! Nor her sister, who is still a precocious two year old!

It's a rushed morning. I didn't have the wherewithal to get ready earlier in the week, and so I do it now. Nonetheless, there is always time to take in what is just outside the farmhouse door.

 

 

And the birdsong! I spotted and/or heard the following, in just a two minute period:  Downy Woodpecker, American Robin, Red-winged Blackbird, Song Sparrow, Blue Jay, American Crow, a Fox Sparrow (a first for me!), and a Dark-eyed Junco! And somewhere in the distance I heard the mating call of a Sandhill Crane. It's loud out there in spring!

I have breakfast with Ed...

And I head out, hoping to beat the traffic that pours into Chicago in increasing numbers as the day progresses.

It is so good to see the younger family again!

I wasn't here for Primrose's birthday, so we celebrate it today! Juniper helps.

The afternoon is all play and talk. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And very quickly the time rolls to evening.

We drive down to Chicago's Little Italy for dinner. You have to picture this: weaving our way at the periphery of the downtown, we have the last bits of sunlight to the west and the sharp outlines of Chicago's skyline to the east. A stunning city scape. Perhaps I should have used my camera more, but I was too busy listening to my grandgirls singing along to the music on the radio.

We eat at the Peanut Park Trattoria.

 

 

 

Purely Italian food. So good that everyone ate everything! 

 

 

We aren't the only "larger family" there. Aunts, grandparents, children, parents. Large tables for large families. Together. Loving the moment. 

At home again, the kids go to sleep, I stay up and review all that has accumulated over the months -- thoughts, ideas, questions -- it's the perfect evening for it. My kids are wise and getting input from them always helps me plan for the future. 

And yes, I'm ready to crash soon after the youngest kids doze off, but before the older kids, my girl and her husband give it up for the day. Funny how at a certain age your bedtime gets awfully close to that of a kindergartner! 

How good it is to be with these guys for these few April days! With so much love...

 

Friday

It struck me that I have not woken up to a sunny day in many, many weeks. Spain had its warm days, but the sun was not with us. And since my return, we have had the tougher side of April show her face. It's a tricky month here, in Wisconsin: sometimes you love it, sometimes you want to kick and scream at its return to winter weather. By my birthday (right there around Earth Day), things typically settle down to a nice comfortable range of temperatures, but early on, it can get dicey.

So when I wake up to brilliant sunshine today, I breathe a sigh of relief. Finally, we may be on our way to splendid weather!

 

 

 

Morning walk to barn. And back again. Note the Big Bed is totally in the shade. Of trees that should be cut down or at least cut back. Says me.

Breakfast.

It's not yet planting weather. My perennials wont arrive until the end of the month and even that, to many, is a bit early for my growing zone. Annuals wont fill the bins until, well, ideally early May, with an eye toward the temps each evening, because should they dip below freezing, my annuals will die unless I bring them in for the night. So, planting is still a ways off. But I do have stuff to do. Get the bins and pots ready. Pull out the creeping charlie and all the other creeping crap that always invades the beds. Dig out the expanding tiger lilies out front. Dig out sprouted saplings, dandelions, quack grass. And so on.

In the late morning, I get to it. It feels a tad cool still (46f, or 7.5c), but believe me, after a couple of hours of work, keeping warm is the least of my problems. As always, my body is not used to being in a down dog yoga position (my favorite gardening posture) for so long. My hands are not used to so much pulling and twisting.

And yet, I keep at it. Any gardener will tell you that work outside is better than any meditation app out there in terms of calming your mind and clearing your head of clutter that accumulates over days, weeks, years of life. 

I work most, if not all the flower fields. Aside from the butchered tulips, things are looking grand. The leafless trees are good for the sun-starved beds (they don't shade new growth). The rains have done wonders for our parched earth (no rain last summer, no snow this winter). The chickens do scratch the beds, but the Bresse hens are not as hard on them as others who have passed through this way. And they do leave a good fertilizer behind!

By early afternoon I'm done for the day.

Time to pick up the kids.

It's Friday and we're cycling through snacks, play, books and then their lessons.

And here's a pleasurable thing -- I'm seeing more of my daughters one on one this weekend than is usually possible, given schedules and distances. I start off with a meetup with my older girl in the evening, just to chat...

 

 

... and tomorrow I'll drive down to see the younger one and her brood.

In the end, April is always kind to me. What's there not to love?!

Thursday

It's been a while since I had a contemplative day. One where I could indulge in, well, retirement nothingness. Trivial stuff that brings satisfaction, even if it is inconsequential. Today is a grandkid day of course, but I did think I could spend the morning... idly. 

Until the internet stopped working, right around midnight. Maybe earlier. It was still off in the morning. No problem! -- says Nina. I have a mobile phone hotspot!

Except that I changed payment plans last month to lower my cost and up the data usage and it turns out... that the new plan doesn't come with a hotspot. All this led Ed to wonder what kind of stupid plan I had signed onto anyway. 

There goes the morning.

And by the way, the weather is still stinky bad and I was glad that Ed was up and about early, trying to fix the Internet. He did animal duty for me. I stayed home and brooded.

Changing your phone plan is right up there with doing taxes. You have to have your smarts with you, avoiding the pitfalls, lures and secret traps. You must know what you need and what data you've used over the past 12 months. Ed pushed for switching service providers. "Your people are doing so badly I wouldn't be surprised if they soon went out of business!" -- is his assessment of my current service (ATT, are you listening?) I rolled my eyes and stayed loyal. I mean, I can hear people talk from all parts of the house. Give me a break, I'm not switching. 

We talk about phones and grandkids over breakfast.

The grandkids topic may seem like a refreshing change from cell phone service providers, but in this case, BOTH topics just make me feel like I am about three decades past my prime. I was telling Ed how much I missed Snowdrop's winter love of colorful skirts, now that she has gone kid-punk. His comment -- flowered skirts? My, you sound like a really old grandmother.

He's right, of course. I sound right up there with those who, once upon a time, would have said long hair on boys looks messy and nail polish should never move away from pearly pinks. Is that me? It cannot be!

I remember how much I loved my jeans in the decade when jeans on girls were such an affront to feminine sensibilities, whatever those were. I did not care. I was okay with affronting sensibilities. (One could argue that wearing shorts all summer here, at the farmette, even past age 70 is also an affront to sensibilities. I don't care. I wear them anyway.) Still, accepting that one granddaughter is already stepping into her own dress code comes with the realization that she, and soon all the others, will soon be in her own world of ideas about her life. My flowers and swirls of color on a full skirt may not suit her tastes now. She is her own, in this case, according to her, punk person.

(Pick up)

As for the phone stuff -- three hours. That's how long it took to finally give up on talking to my difficult service provider (ATT, that's you!) to track down a better plan -- one that they have advertised on their website, but (what a surprise!) they now know nothing about, if you call them. Finally, from them: oh you want that one! That's only for new customers... At that point, I threw down my phone. Ed picked it up and said -- dont give up! Switch services for a day and then come back as a new customer! That is indeed something Ed would do. But not Nina, who is, in Ed's opinion, so risk averse that she would not dare shuffle things around like that (and risk losing her phone number!) to save $15 per month. Indeed, in the end, I stuck with what's there. Meaning -- the morning on all this accomplished absolutely nothing except the recognition that throwing down the phone does not break it, so long as you throw it down on soft carpet.

Somewhere, in the thick of all this, Ed and I went out for a neighborhood walk. We needed the movement! And it was blustery, and sometimes, there was a sprinkle, but it felt so good to be outside again, away from screens and plans, and automobiles. Just us and the elements of a brisk April day.

(snow? mostly gone now... perhaps until next December!)