long afternoons

Last week, Will built steps that led from the mudroom to the backyard. Which was helpful because we'd been jumping down off the door jamb in the rain and mud since the door was installed. But more than helpful, it's been a little blissful. They are long and wide, nothing fancy, just boards, but they have very quickly become my favorite spot to sit.
Friday I sat with friends, enjoying wine and cheese and one of those rare Virginia spring afternoons when it's not too cold or hot or wet. The kids played until the sun went down and were still disappointed to come in.

Saturday, of course, it poured. All day. Making me not sorry at all that we are leaving in less than two months. I like rain, I actually secretly love rain. But the rain I love is the gentle rain of the west coast. All drippy and soft and constant. Virginia rain reminds me of the storms that we used to watch when we lived, for a short time, in San Antonio when I was in middle school. IT was drilled into our heads there that if you feel so much as one drop of rain, hear one distant clap of thunder, run for cover, seek higher ground. Because the rain would come swift and hard, stinging your arms and sending a flood of water into the various rain gullies around the neighborhood. This rain was like that. Hard, unrelenting.
But then we had yesterday. A reprieve of Friday, made all the better because it lasted all day long and happened on a weekend. I sat for hours and hours on my steps. The kids played in the yard, on the neighbors driveway, on the basketball court. They pounded rocks and played soccer and had picnics.
The steps are wide enough for lots of people to sit, or, as was the case yesterday, one person with lots of things. Knitting, books, iphone playing Vienna Teng and Madeleine Peyroux (at one point her "Heaven" came on and I couldn't have agreed more) camera, coffee. And later hair scissors and a brush when a (not so) little boy consented to a hair cut at last but only if he could be outside while it happened. It's those days that I will miss.

The closer New York comes, the more I am thrilled to be going. My book list of interesting educational books is ever growing and I'm excited to put them to use. The lure of something new is bubbling up inside me, I'm almost looking forward to unpacking in a new space even. And I am so, so, so ready to get rid of the car. The prospect of spending a whole year without a car makes me grin (I hate cars and driving, and believe me, I'm tempted to turn us into one of those carless families, but in a small town, it's not super easy, we've tried) But on long, sweet Virginia spring afternoons, it's hard to imagine a better place than my little blue house with the big yard - kids of all sizes running around like monkeys, knitting in my lap. On days like that I don't remember the unbearable hotness of July and August and the seemingly unending winters, because who can think of that when it's simply glorious outside?

How was your weekend? Did you have any lovely lazy afternoon time?