Dreaming Daffodils

The wonderful bit of writing that follows was left as a comment in my recent #rawrlove post by my aunt Helen. 

A read it and re-read it and then asked for permission to give it the entire post it deserves. 

daffodil

May 2, 2014

The rain keeps coming; the ground is cold and muddy, the air still cold.

I am dreaming daffodils

Digging in the ditch, dreaming a parade of dancing yellow daffodils,

I see them spreading their happy sunshine from our driveway to the corner two-thirds a mile on down the road

Contentedly I pried bunches of bulbs off the crowded clumps in my garden

The shovel made a wet, squishy, slurp as a section of bulbs tore with a crunch from the other bulbs
Water rushed into the hole

I was soon muddy, my red wheelbarrow soon full; the heavy, wet dirt on the clumps of bulbs made them stand upright in my wheelbarrow, like punching dummies with weighted bottoms

Each day the bright new leaves of the daffodils have been taller, my wheelbarrow loads greener and greener

Each day I have a longer trip down the road to ground yet undecorated by daffodils

A neighbor on a tractor tows his manure spreader to a field down around the corner; he raises an arm in a wide friendly wave

Does he wonder what I could possibly be doing, day after day, here in this wet, weedy ditch, with my shovel?

Digging in the ditch, dreaming a parade of dazzling, dancing daffodilsdaffodil in ropeThank you Helen, until Jenny and I manage to convince you to start your own blog you are welcome to post on mine anytime! 

My Jolly Father-In-Law

We knew each other for fourteen years, yet never made it to a first name basis.

Perhaps it was that visits between us were rare or perhaps  it was that when fine dining, city living and classical music meet frugal eating, farm life and tone deaf, at least one party is left smiling and nodding no matter who leads the conversation.

But I always knew who it was when the phone rang,

“Hello! This is your Jolly Father-In-Law!”

Once it had been established that “Curly” was at work, our occasional evening conversations would meander.  We’d take turns nodding and smiling over the airwaves and I could picture him in his high backed chair, drink ever present at his side, as I heard about fantastic places to eat in cities I’m unlikely to visit. I would pick up the house as we talked, in my turn sharing a few ridiculous stories of life in the country. There would often be a few moments of bonding over a shared Finnish heritage and then with a final question over when John would be home, that would inevitably be forgotten, he’d be off.

No, we never used first names but that doesn’t mean I’d forget my Jolly Father-In-Law.

George Stevens

 

George Henry Stevens

October 24th, 1935 -March 25th, 2014

 

In Michigan…

“Well, I guess in Michigan they have really big cats and lots of snow.” Ivy stated as we drove to meet my Uncle for an afternoon of skiing and sledding.

John and I agreed. It was undeniably true that the house cats we had seen since arriving in Michigan  were huge (I think one of them is actually part mountain lion) and the snow was impressively deep.

While I’ve no photo evidence to show you that the cats were at least three times the size of ours (and part mountain lion), I did bring the camera out into the snow.

After an entire afternoon of skiing and sledding followed by a delicious dinner, we headed back out into the snow for a fire and s’mores.

Soon after Uncle Jim joined us around the fire, Ivy calmly walked over to me, tugged on my jacket and said, “Can I whisper something to you?”

“Mom, why is Uncle Jim wearing a skirt?”

In Michigan, they have really big cats, lots of snow and they take perfectly good Finnish candles, call them Scottish Cabers and then stand around them in their kilts.DSCN7527-(2sm)

Alright, to be fair to the rest of  Michigan, I’m pretty sure it’s just my uncle that does that.

But we are so grateful that he keeps putting our animals back together when they break that we’ll still admit to being related.

DSCN7468-(2sm)

No worries we didn’t bring any really broken animals with us this time. Just some veterinary maintenance that Clara presided over.

All in all it was a great trip, even the drive (two adults, three kids, two dogs, two cats through Chicago) wasn’t too bad.

Noisy- but not bad!

The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown

Sometimes people will ask me for a book recommendation and I will offer a few ideas.

Sometimes I read a book I like so much that I assault, friends, family and random strangers at the chiropractor’s office with my recommendation.

This was one of the latter.

I will admit that with the guy on the far right as my dad,

and the woman third from the bottom as my mom, 1975wiscw8aand both being preceded by Gramps,

that it’s quite likely I was inundated with so much rowing talk as a child that I couldn’t help but like this book.

Oh and so long as we are sharing pictures, I thought you should know that those people who raised me, they were pretty good too…1975 national open champions-Sue Ela photoThe Boys in the Boat, you should probably just go find it now before I corner you in the grocery store and talk your ear off about it!

Happy New Year!

I lay in the bed, covers chilled from John’s hasty exit, gathering my courage to face the first morning of the new year, thinking it was a good thing I’m not one of those that sees signs in everything.

Ivy had rushed into our room waking us up with a full volume news bulletin on the state of the carpet upstairs. I will spare you the details of the mess in the girls room. Just let me say that it required two adults using a roll of paper towels, a scoop shovel, rubber boots, three plastic grocery bags, a trip to the store for supplies and a steam cleaner to get rid of it.

The dogs must have been having a New Year’s Eve bash of their own last night because clearly one of them is not feeling well.

This morning was not what one would call an auspicious start to the new year, but as I said, I refuse to prescribe to such things as signs and omens. And after all, this year has no where to go but up!

Here’s to a new year; it’s certain to be full of messes and likely to be worth it!

John, Jessie and girls

This frighteningly accurate portrayal of my family was taken by my Aunt Helen.

Happy New Year!

Blue Skies and Pumpkins

I love fall.

The blue skies.

The yellow leaves.

The orange pumpkins!

Gramps once again grew a bumper crop of pumpkins for his great granddaughters.

Once again I made everyone else do the heavy lifting while I took the photos.

And once again I decided that pumpkin picking makes for some of the best pictures of the entire year!

You can see other years of pumpkin picking here Pumpkin Patch and here Pumpkins.

Taking Time To Stop and…

Officially moved into the new house, we are not yet officially moved out of the old.

But in the midst of moving the firewood, and setting up garbage service and figuring out phone lines and trying to find the box with the leather gloves, and moving the ducks in we’ve managed to have some visitors…

Uncle Jim came over from Michigan to see Granny's tiny toad (and the rest of us as well).

Uncle Jim came over from Michigan to see Granny’s tiny toad (and the rest of us as well).

…and to be visitors…

The Barry/Stevens family gathered from everywhere to visit and reminisce about growing up in Racine.

The Barry/Stevens family gathered for a visit and to reminisce about growing up in Racine. (Photo by Al Barry)

… and to start puppy sitting!

Meet Digby! We are puppy sitting during the day, more on that later!

Meet Digby! We are going to be puppy sitting during the day. Isn’t he a cutie!?

Amidst all the fun my list of things to do can feel overwhelming.

So, I try to remember to slow down and breathe.

To enjoy the new place.

I stop.

I listen to the sound of the barking dogs.

And take some time to look at the woodchuck in the tree.woodchuck in tree

That’s right.

A woodchuck.

In a tree.

I’ve seen it.

I believe it.

It’s weird.

(Check out How Much Wood… and Woodchuck In A Tree if you’d like to read about last years woodchuck adventures.)