Love That Boy

Phil went to an all-day orchard planning class at Vintage Virginia. I think it was helpful to coalesce the basic apple orcharding information for him.

In the waning light, he quickly readjusted the belt on the chipper and chipped some more. That was his Saturday.

I stayed with the children. Jonadab had new snow boots, and he happily went for a walk in the snow with me. Below you can see that he tripped merrily along the surface, while I sank in the snow on most steps.



Then we stopped to see the kids. He would watch them jump around or climb up a little hay bale to play king of the mountain. (Below, see Beau, the multi-colored one, is falling off the haybale. Bright Star, with the white star on his forehead in the midst of his black pelt, looks on, amused.)



"Whoa," he'd say. "Whoa."

We had a great time.

Love that boy,
like a rabbit loves to run
I said I love that boy
like a rabbit loves to run
Love to call him in the morning
love to call him
"Hey there, son!"



He walk like his Grandpa,
Grins like his Uncle Ben.
I said he walk like his Grandpa,
And grins like his Uncle Ben.
Grins when he’s happy,
When he sad, he grins again.

His mama like to hold him,
Like to feed him cherry pie.
I said his mama like to hold him.
Like to feed him that cherry pie.
She can have him now,
I’ll get him by and by



He got long roads to walk down
Before the setting sun.
I said he got a long, long road to walk down
Before the setting sun.
He’ll be a long stride walker,
And a good man before he done.



[Poem by Walter Dean Myers, one of my 81 favorites]