I spent the afternoon at Eagle Creek with family today.

We’ve been going there since my childhood. And we particularly like to go this time of year to look for crocuses.

My mum’s birthday makes a good excuse. So we took the kids, and kites for all of them. And we tramped up to the top of the hill – each of us picking our own way up based on how we prioritize “getting to the top soonest” vs. “avoiding the steepest slopes”. With some factoring in for scenery, swampiness of the spring ground and avoiding thickets likely to be full of ticks.

There’s lovely wind out there for kite-flying.

And while we had a few incidents that required untangling kite strings, or running after a runaway kite or three people scrambling to pull in 300 feet of string so that a rapidly descending kite would come down close to us and not 300 feet away, on the next hill, in trees, the kite-flying was pretty fun and seemed to engage each member of our party, for a little while at least.

A prairie bouquet, given to me by the little girl whose feet you can see running off in the background. It was a really nice arrangement. I should have held onto it and brought it home, except that it was early in the excursion, and I had to variously carry cameras, kites, toddlers, food and rocks, so holding onto a prickly, sweaty bouquet of prairie just wasn’t a practical idea. So, photographed instead.

The crocuses were really just amazing. I don’t think I’ve ever seen them so enthusiastic and abundant. It’s been a slow, wet spring this year.

All in all, a lovely exhausting day – the way so much fresh air leaves a person just done in. I haven’t been in a great space lately, but road trip music, mostly-sweet children, picking up rocks, supper with family, birthday cake and good conversation all go a long way to refresh a person psychologically.

*   *   *

P.S. Meredith, don’t be too angry with me for posting about it. Snide FB comments aside, you were missed the whole time we were there. I thought of you every time I took a picture of something and I wanted to share.