play

"Play turns out to be stunningly essential in childhood it’s like love sunshine and broccoli all juiced together."

- Lenore Skenazy 

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Play is serious business and right now he will not stop play just to have his photo taken. So I have learned to be a bit sneaky. Here he checks on the worm he and Grandpa found while turning the garden beds, and watches the bubbles he blew float away. He is curious about everything. What does the worm think? What does he eat? Why are worms good for the garden? Why do the bubbles pop? What do the birds think about the bubbles that float in the trees? What are some bubbles big and some small? Why do they have all those colors in them? Can we go for a walk? Can we take Baker with us? What can I have for snack? Will Baker eat the worm? Why not? Can we look for bugs? Why do I have to put the worm back before I go home?

Just another fun Thursday with this boy. I feel like the luckiest Gramma in the world.

the here and now

“When we endlessly ruminate over distant times, we miss extraordinary things in the present moment.
These extraordinary things are, in actual fact, all we have: the here and now.”

— Katherine May

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Lately I find I haven’t much I want to say in this space. What I really want to do is post a few photos. So here are a few “here and now moments” from the last couple of months.

"For a good life: Work like a dog. Eat like a horse. Think like a fox. And play like a rabbit."

George Allen

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Fun Fact - Rabbits have 3-5 litters of 6-12 babies annually. Half will die due to disease, predators and Mama's rejection of sick ones. Gestation period is 28 days, so technically, one healthy Mama can produce about 80 surviving babies annually.

Even with our very loud beagle, and the one that lives next door, we have rabbits all over the yard this year. I fear we will need to buy some more chicken wire.

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I wonder why it took me so long to add fresh flowers to the grocery list?

I spent some time this morning editing the photos I took yesterday. I took this one, of a grey heron, out the car window. He pulled the car over along this tiny, narrow road as I quickly stuck my camera out the window and hit the shutter twice. I didn’t have much hope that either of them would turn out, and was pleased this one worked.

The bird photographers were out in force yesterday. Lining the roads that crisscross through the Skagit Valley farmland. Some had lenses mounted on tripods, while others held lenses that were so big, I wondered how they held them steady. I admit, I have lens envy.

I study this photo until I narrow down what it is that I like… remnants of winter coming to and end, tiny green shoots here and there, signs of spring, as Percy calls them, the tones and textures of the earth and how they match the heron, making him hard to spot, the ditch of rainwater in front of him and the muddy field behind, along with the interesting weeds that rise above him. . . I like all of these things. I also like spending the day with him and the dog, just going for a ride, just to see what we might see. I feel like we hit pay dirt.