Back to work

I've been working on a somewhat reduced schedule here on the homestead due to my mom visiting from London.  She went home today, and so it's back to work and the regular routine for me, Big Ag and the family.  

Funny how those little breaks from the routine are.  We enjoy the fun things we're doing, but also feel a little guilty about not doing the usual chores.  Today I'll be hilling my potatoes, trimming crabapple bushes, planting berries and grapes, and just tending to things in general around here.  It feels good to get back to the routine.  My mother's routine in London is filled with theatre, lunches and charity events, so this week I tried to squire her around town and show her the best of the California's central coast

But here's something funny, too:  My mother has the habit of wandering around behind me, watching whatever I do.  Perhaps this is because she only sees me once a year and feels like she has to work in a year's worth of looking over several days, but it does sometimes become disconcerting.  As long as we keep moving through a variety of activities in town all day long, it's fine, but when we have downtime, I often feel as if I'm being watched, whether I'm crossing the room, grating carrots, weeding, or reading.

So when she goes home, I often find I have mixed feelings about it.  Sure, I am sad to see her go, but on the other hand, it's actually quite relieving not to have that feeling of being watched all the time.

She is 80 years old, so I know I cannot cure her of this little oddity, I just make sure I never stare at my own kids too long and make them uncomfortable!  Sometimes we learn how to do things from our elders, but sometimes we also learn what not to do from them.  And it all serves to make us better parents and people in general, I suppose.  

Either way, the only eyes on me now belong to a bunch of chickens and a couple of cats and dogs, and that's only because I am the Food Lady and it's lunchtime.  And that, I can deal with.