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| Gods-eye; pussy willow; heather through a fence; crocuses; Jamie in stroller; plum blossoms; daphne; tet-a-tets; Jamie awakes for some time with Grandpa! |
Yesterday I babysat my grandsons for the day while my daughter and son-in-law were working. It has been a long time since I had both boys alone and my "grandma-babysitting-muscles" were rusty. Ian, age three, is happy and easy to be around, but wants quite a bit of 'pay-attention-to-me' moments. Jamie, 6 months, isn't an easy baby and is hard to soothe. He wants his mommy or will make everyone miserable telling us about it. At 2 pm, after a very short nap, Jamie was crying again, so I called my daughter and asked for tricks. She suggested taking him for a walk in his stroller. With brother Ian napping and grandpa working in the other room, Jamie and I headed out for a beautiful Spring walk. Within the length of two houses, Jamie was a sleep and as long as I kept moving he stayed that way. Alone with my thoughts I had the benefit of noticing the signs of spring in my neighborhood.
The first things I noticed are not pictured: the sound of lawnmowers and the croak of frogs in a nearby pond, two for-sure signs of spring around here. The gods-eye yarn thingy lasted the whole winter in one piece. In fact, the fairies that hung them left four in our yard last Spring or early summer and all are still there, a little frayed but still colorful ans swinging from the branches of our trees in the front yard.
The pussy willows, the earliest sign of spring around here, are almost past their prime. Whereas the flowering plum street trees haven't started blooming yet with the one exception I found and caught on my camera.
The crocuses and heather were blooming everywhere giving off nice splashes of purple to enjoy. I only saw one other daffodil blooming outside of the bunch of Tet-a-tets in my own backyard. The daphne is another early bloomer but I was disappointed that I couldn't smell its beautiful scent. Don made me smell peanut butter after I cam in and complained about it, worried that I might have COVID-19. I could smell the peanuts but not the flowers. No disease for me.
After returning from the walk, Jamie was sleeping soundly so I sat on my front porch and let him nap in the stroller while I enjoyed just being outside after a long winter inside. About the time that grandpa came out to see what I was doing, he woke up.
What a lovely spring walk.
-Anne
This is one of the wonderful parts of the pandemic, I think. Quiet reflective time. An almost meditative walk. Less outside noises.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your walk in words and pictures. You would see none of the flowers you named here. It's too hot, I guess.
We did so many stroller walks and car rides to get my daughter to nap when she was young! Tiring days, but as you say, an opportunity to see nature and enjoy a sunny day. It's funny, now as a young adult, she still falls asleep on car rides!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you could have such a lovely walk with Jamie, and put him to sleep for some quiet time for you! The frogs are SO noisy around here too. :)
ReplyDeleteIt’s lovely to see the flowers popping up now, they lift the spirits!
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