blue, food, badminton

Yesterday, on a walk with k and my mama in the arb in ann arbor, we saw an indigo bunting and my breath was taken by the brilliant blue of this darling bird. It glisten like a sapphire on a thin green reed at the foot of the hemlock edged woods on the cusp of the prairie.

Seeing this small little life of feather and bones and blue was one of the highlights of this long weekend. I also enjoyed spending the day with k and my ma, and talking a lot and eating good food.

And then today k and I worked the earth long and hard. We put in the rest of the vegetables--my colder weather plants/seeds have been in for a couple of weeks (lettuce, beets, turnips, carrots, sweet peas, kale). Today, in went cayenne, anchos, jalapenos, tomatoes, basil, russian tarragon, beans, acorn squash, cucumbers, cilantro, zinnias, lavender, some more bergamot, mint, beetberries, zuchs, more chamomile, cosmos, marigolds. We prepped a bed for some corn and sunflowers and still need to prep another bed for more corn. We mulched and mowed and tidied and weeded and transplanted and worked our asses off.

When we finished after almost 8 hours of outside work, t and r came over and we ate dinner together; a yummy salad of roasted asparagus and carrots and radishes and spinach and arugala from t and r's garden; mini fake sloppy joes, chick pea feta rice salad; cheddar sun ships; yummy cheese (a goat cheddar and a swiss) and strawberries; and ultra delicious brownies.

Then we played badminton at dusk and had fun laughing and trying to see the nearly invisible birdie. K and I got beat by t and r. It was close, but we went down.

So it was a full and lovely weekend of work and people I love. It feels so good and right to have my hands back in the soil and the sun searing my neck and the wind whipping my energy right from under me. Even in the midst of all of the loss of the last couple of months, things are starting to feel a bit more right--a bit more in order and bit more like me and like us. All in all, this me and us is sans kids. Probably, eternally so... we will see. In the meantime, I will stare at the blue stain of the sweet bird who I was blessed to gaze upon this weekend and revel in all that is growing in the earth outside my door and chuckle at the memories of four of us volleying crazily in barely any light on an almost summer night.