May 4: What a lovely weekend! On Friday, Sylvia and I drove out to Jack’s house to attend his annual wildflower weekend. Sylvia “sang” well over half of the two-hour drive both there and back. Urgh. But for the rest of the weekend, she was just delightful to be around. Jack’s house is on the Wisconsin River; I think it’s just about my favorite place in the world. Around 20 people attended the weekend this year…mostly friends of Jack’s whom I’ve known since I was small. Sylvia was a big hit with everyone, and she really enjoyed meeting Jack for the first time.
Photos from our spring weekend are in the gallery.
On Saturday, we took a nice long hike across Jack’s land, down through Bergum Bottoms, up a big, big hill, across a lovely, windy meadow, and back down. Aside from chasing Andrew around, I haven’t been particularly active over the last five months, but the 11 mile hike was good. Sylvia was in my front carrier, and she dozed most of the day. We all stopped for a few breaks while I nursed her, and she made sure to keep the party going by getting fussy and demanding that we (or at least I) resume walking promptly after her meal was over. It felt great to be introducing her to so much fresh air and such a lovely place at the tender age of two months:) And I enjoyed the challenge of scrambling over trees and clambering up and down muddy hills with a wee one. A little challenge is a good thing:)
We had lots of yummy meals, good music, and great company. Most everyone else camped, which was pretty much winter camping since the temperature got down to below freezing last night! I figured that it was a bit too early for Sylvia to camp in freezing weather, so we were sung in the house.
There were lots of fantastic birds to be seen at the feeders in front of the house. At one point, two indigo buntings and two goldfinches perched on a tube feeder. Someone mentioned that it looked like the Michigan flag! There were oriole sightings, rose breasted grosbeaks, and lots of other sweet little birdies to watch.
I hadn’t been on the wildflower walk since 2005 – when I was pregnant with Andrew – and it was great to get to see everyone and hike the trails again. I’m already looking forward to our annual family summer trip in August!