Dandelion Pop and Lilac Push

We are coming to the close of our first 24 hours as official Vermont residents. Mom picked Amy and I up from the airport late last night and whisked us home for a toast marking our arrival. Amy and I nodded at each other noting another toast to be made. Yesterday was our 6 year anniversary. One of my favorite conversations from our first few months together took place in Seattle's Discovery Park. We tossed ideas, ridiculous ideas, back and forth. Let's build a gypsy caravan and put a garden on wheels to pull behind us. "Sounds good", Amy would answer back. We were quiet for a moment. Then Amy started up again and added a commercial kitchen to the caravan. "Yes, yes", I said, "and we would travel town to town and cook for people." Then Amy would veer off topic and ask me for the third time since I met her a month ago if I'd ever been to the Kinetic Sculpture Race in Port Townshend Washington.

Now the gardens lie just outside the door and stretch all around the freshly painted white house my mother lives in. For the next 4 months, we'll live on the second floor of her house and work on moving into this new Vermont life. We are starting at a point where the dandelions have burst and the lilac bushes, which so many here use as hedgerow, fall in flowering somewhere between fists and fully unfurled.

By 7:30 tonight, Amy and I walked to the peak of the top hayfield and watched where on the grass the sun left first and stayed longest. When we stepped into the adjacent pasture, which the sun left first, the change of temperature was palpable. We have made our first micro-climate discoveries.

I'm trying to decide whether to stay up too late and watch some TV before closing my eyes. While I suss this out, Amy works on her application to drive buses for the Addison County transit system. They just started the hiring process for a part time driver. And tomorrow I interview for a job at Twig Farm. Fingers crossed all around.