el caminar

since it's just the bean and i at home, i took the chance to walk to school and eat lunch with max. i haven't visited with him yet this year. i visited ALOT with henry due to the fractured jaw and needing a liquid diet. and since samantha has the same lunch time i have eaten with her plenty too. so i loaded up some leftover stew a big bottle of passionberry kombucha strapped the bean on and headed to school.

i took along my camera since i can't quite take you. on the way i met the neighbor's horse. i suddenly wished i had remembered to pack a carrot. we talked for a bit, then i resumed my

walk.

almost to school, i was stopped by our mailman. he offered to drive me to where i needed to go. he was so sweet but the day was sweeter so i declined. i saw so much nice foliage but i needed to be to school on time so i promised to take pictures on the way back. i entered the loud cafeteria and immediately kids start pointing and shouting, "it's a baby!" then i found max's table and a boy shouts, "the baby is coming to us!" i'm not sure if it was more a cry of recognition or a cry for a younger sibling of their own. the seat across from max was conveniently empty and so i sat. he smiled with one tooth missing.

"are you max's mom?"

"yes."

"will you open this?" the boy next to max holds up a drink pouch.

then the girl next to me asks me to open a pouch that held what looked like a circle of white bread. i found out later that it was a premade peanut butter and jelly sandwich with the crusts cut off. it's processed and sold by smucker's. it looked about as yummy as a piece of cardboard.

the boy next to her asked me to open his package of apple wedges. we ate and the boy next to max told me, "barack obama won the election!" several teachers stopped to tell me congrats. frances slept through all the teachers fawning and children shouting. i asked max for half of his apple to share with the horse and he gladly agreed. the teacher came and called the class. max gave me a hug and left. he smiled across the lunch room as he lined up.

on the walk back i snapped these pics

you can see the horse in the far end of his lower pasture. i called him over. he just looked. then i held the apple out and from that distance he must have seen it, because he immediatly began to plod over to me. he ate the other half of max's apple and then chased it with the core of max's half.
the rest of the walk was uneventful except for one large detail. my cell phone rang and it was mom. no, that's not the detail. she often calls for various reasons but the main reason is always the same- just to chat. the important detail is this- she asked me for some cooking advice. crazy! she wondered how much preminced canned garlic would equal a clove. i told her to err on the side of too much because in my opinion there is never such a thing as too much garlic! we talked a bit more about the election and hung up. i returned home nearly two hours after i left- with frances none the wiser. she slept the whole time.