Oh Happy Day

1. Lindsey is home.

2. Playing ticket to ride last night with Livie, Tori, Lindsey, and Ashley. And laughing like you only laugh with sisters, cousins, and really old friends.

3. I emptied my mending basket today. I seriously mended the stuff too. Awhile ago, there was a comic-- "Mending basket? Isn't that where things go until they are too little to wear?" And generally, that is the case. But this time, I mended. High five, me!

4. I sorted through Mom and Dad's legos. I don't think I have played with legos in... oh about 20 years. But Gilbert wanted to play this morning, so I started looking for the makings of a truck. Which led to sorting through legos. Which led to a disturbing number of dismembered lego figures. Which led to obsessive me having to find all the pieces of their little selves. We are still missing several body parts, but oh! the sense of accomplishment when I completely suited up one of the lego Islanders from topknot with steer horns to shield (which I thought were Zulu warriors) and  figured out the palm tree.

5. Last night, the kids wanted to help Owen and the girls feed some of the last hay bales of the season. So I tagged along, worrisome mother that I am, to make sure that the kids did not fall of the 4 bale high stack on the top of the wagon that Owen assured me was perfectly stable. It was all so beautiful in all the evening light, I was wishing I had brought my camera. And I was still lamenting not having had my camera when I was inside watching the cows feed. And then the calves started running. In that senseless, glad-to-be-alive way that calves do. And I decided I had to go out and take pictures. Just as I was starting out, I realized the calves were out on the road. Running down the road away from us. And then everyone was out. And Owen hollered from the tractor to let them be--"They'll come back to their mothers!" And they did.

Aunts and kids

Runaways

Exuberance in calf form

Watching

Coming home

Rounding up the stragglers

Blurry Aunts and kids

Kids

Last week, while bombs were going off at the Boston Marathon, Livie, Tori, and I were taking the kids on a walk to see the cows.

It is always little disorientating to think about the things that are happening at any given moment while you are living life. The other worlds that are simultaneously existing on this earth, juxtaposed to our  own little world. 

 It was a gorgeous day where we were.

 

 

Gilbert wanted to put his hat on Elsie

 

The girls, holding out a handfull of grass, trying to tempt the cows near them. The cows steered clear.

 

In the roots of the elm tree

 

Tori trying to get the kids to stand in a line. They didn't.

 

Gilbert doesn't stay still for very long

 

Sweet monkey girls

 

 

 

Elsie and a muddy, Gilbert boot

 

Baby feet and hippie pants

 

 

 

Running to the pond, down the cowpath

 

 

Funny walk

 

 

 

 

Rumpelstitkins

 

 

 

Livie, the photog

 

Sanita wool clogs were not the best choice for footwear

 

Washing off my clogs. Surprisingly, they washed off very easily and look fine.

One sunday in spring

Somehow, this didn't publish yesterday like it was supposed to.

Sunday was a beautiful spring day. A day for leek picking and chasing cows.

 

Justin carried Elsie in the baby carrier and then wrapped a vest around both of them.

 

We cheat. We occasionally use 4-wheelers on our walks.

 

Grandpa and Gilbert

 

Owen checking his clover crop. It is sprouting.

 

Leek basket

 

Gilbert wearing Owen's sweater. Ashley told him if he wore this sweater he would be a farmer, so he finally agreed to wear it.

 

The father

 

Lily

 

Lily and Gilbert stepping on a witch's purse. One of those poofballs that have brown smoke when  you step on it.

 

Finding a patch of leeks in the woods

 

Gilbert and sticks

 

 

Owen and Ashley

 

Gilbert and Grandma and Grandpa

 

Orianna being a little hobo

 

Lily being as tall as Owen

 

Lily and Grandpa

 

Grandpa and the kids

 

The two buses

 

Springtime farm

 

Gilbert wanted to dig the dirt, not the leeks

 

Violet leaves

 

Evening cows

 

Girls along the creek

 

Some cows got out and Owen decided that we should put them all together. So we spent an evening watching cows come and go. I was in unimportant places--don't let the cows run back up the lane--so I stood around and took pictures. Beautiful evening.

 

Trying to lure them with hay. This worked only marginally.

 

Stragglers

 

Things are green!

 

Owen getting the last few. He holds one of their calves and then the mother follows, which makes the other cows follow. Or should.

 

The rebel calves. These calves ran all over the place, bellering for their mothers and kicking up their heels.

 

And then finally, the cows all got together. Under the elm tree. In the evening sunshine.