First word that comes to mind for this day: it's hot. A high of 84F (29C) is so not May weather and yet, here we are.
The petals from the fruit trees are mostly off now and those that remain are getting to be covered over by the robust leaf growth. The tulips are on their home stretch, the daffodils? Only the late triplets remain. This is what the last third of spring looks like.
(I start with a look outside from the farmhouse kitchen window...)
(just a few remain...)
(fewer flowers, stronger leaves...)
(the incredible lilac, helped tremendously by a vigorous trim...)
(morning walk...)
(the triplets -- three blooms to a stalk -- are a late daffodil...)
I eat breakfast on the porch. Ed is already lost to his work and so I'm there with my book, which is actually okay because I'm on the last chapters of a Tana French novel and I'm completely lost in it, loving her characters, her Irish smarts, her ripe with detail sentences.
And speaking of stories, have you ever experienced something that has absolutely no logical explanation? This weekend we had just such an other-worldly event! Here's what happened: on Saturday, the tree removal service was hauling away fallen limbs from our maple and in picking them up with a bobcat, they dug in too hard and ripped a coaxial cable in half. Instantly, we lost internet service. Ed called our provider -- they said they'd be out the next day. In the meantime, he spliced the broken cable with a temporary fix and our Internet was restored. On Sunday, the guy came over and began work on putting in a new cable. Ed asked -- why aren't you merely repairing this one? The guy answered -- because I tested it. It's dead.
There followed a prolonged discussion and much further testing of everything. We had internet service. The cable was taken out. It lead to nowhere. The guy shrugged his shoulders and left.
What just happened???
It's obvious that there must be another cable running, one that was not broken. And yet, until Ed fixed this (turns out) useless one, our reliable-never-fails Internet had come down. A sympathetic outage?? Restored when Ed spliced a useless cable??
Don't you just love the mysteries of life?
After finishing my book, I go out to do what is a very boring chore: I feed the tubs and pots outside with spiked water. Fertilizing tubs really is very helpful if you want your annuals to bloom all summer long. But I have nearly 30 tubs and pots and each one requires nearly a full watering can of water, and filling-mixing-carrying-watering takes a ridiculous amount of time. But it's done!
Did I mention that it is hot out there? I am reminded of why I like to live in the upper Midwest: We don't have year-round heat and that's a good thing!
And the lilac scent is profound (I'd say it's at its peak today) and the birds are at their loudest.
I go to my daughter's place to deliver the (um, remaining chunk of) cake. I'd bought it at Madison Sourdough for Mother's Day: buckwheat with lemon simple syrup, rhubarb jam and covered with a layer of whipped cream. Both Ed and I loved it, but it's too much cake for us. Besides, it was meant to be shared.
The kids aren't in school today (another teacher in-service day) and so I am free of childcare. It means I have time to grocery shop and then return to my flower fields -- trimming bushes, taking out saplings.
Yes, it was a shorts and tshirt day. Summer in May, only without the mosquitoes. And a full Flower Moon tonight. Take a look if you can. And celebrate the season of blooms.
with love...
