November 29, 2020

When I was a kid, I often spent entire days outside. Building forts, cooking on an open fire, swimming, exploring. The house my parents bought before I was born was connected to my grandparents' backyard and all we had to do was go through a back gate to enter a wonderland.

My grandfather, a chemist, was raised on a farm in Vermont and was a farmer at heart. When we entered his yard, we ran under grape arbors, through apricot, mulberry, apple, and peach trees. We mixed currants and gooseberries and recoiled at their tartness. We built forts in as many trees as the adults would allow and we had a "homebase" in the old, musty greenhouse. We'd rake  leaves under our favorite trees and jump from the low branches into the giant, fluffy piles. 

When he wasn't tinkering, we'd beg my grandfather to push us around in his wheelbarrow and would squeal in mock terror as he'd wheel us through the "scary bush" hanging over the corner of the fence in the driveway. Looking back now, I'm guessing it was a trumpet vine or such. It was an unruly mess and we loved it. Those were the days we never wanted to come inside. We lived in the moment and were startled by and resentful of sunset as it ushered us inside to get cleaned up for dinner. 

Today was one of those days. We spent its entirety from sunup to sundown laughing, playing, building forts, and "homebases." We were startled by the drop in temperature as the sun set and were bummed when it meant we had to wrap up our fun and come inside to clean up. 

I hope someday we'll have grandkids running around our place hiding and feasting in the edible landscape and making homebases in the greenhouses. 

I wish my grandpa could see our little farm. I hope he's watching and chuckling as my husband takes me for rides through the property in the back of the Burro and I squeal with feigned terror like I did when he used to wheel us through the scary bush.

#optoutside #farmlife #inthemoment #joyful #grateful #flowerfarmer #peony #playbased #placebased #wishyouwerehere

“Life is the flower for which love is the honey.”

– Victor Hugo

I needed some color this morning and thought you might, too! Here's a flashback to just a few weeks ago.

Hang in there, friends. Love, love, love!