Thank you -- for a month of progressive warmups. For an assortment of daffodils, then tulips. Indigo, then iris. Allium then peonies. And clematis blooms. Thank you for holding off on any night frost: my tubs of annuals loved you for it. Thank you for the two days of rain. We wish there'd been a little more, but hey, the two day steady trickle was awesome. Thank you for the sunshine, for porch breakfasts, for flowering fruit trees and all that delicious asparagus.
Thank you for giving me the time to take care of my flower fields, of my grandkids, and a little bit of Ed and myself. Thank you for the month low on drama and high on love.
Once again I feel like our planet is reeling from one cataclysm to the next, but in our small corner of south central Wisconsin, this month has been so beautiful that really, the heart aches for those who cannot share in its riches.
The last day of May.
Despite the Canadian fires, the air quality has improved. I can feel it just in my short walk to the barn.
I feed the animals. Pancake, the wildest cat, has been in another fight (not with our cats) and he once again is sporting bruises all over his body. I have to wonder why this happens repeatedly. At the farmette, he is by now accepted as one of the pack. The cats dont chase him. Dance occasionally gives him a gentle swap on the porch to remind him and everyone who is watching that she is top mama here, but otherwise no one bothers him. He is well fed and has plenty of comfy spaces to rest. Do other feral cats come here to bother him, or does he go out looking for trouble? We cannot tell.
It's early -- Ed is still not up when I decide to go downtown to the farmers market. For the asparagus and for an extra bouquet of flowers. Late May, early June -- this is a tough time for flower growers. Sure, people love buying peonies, but many of them do not open up and, too, a peony bush takes up space and offers up not too many flowers for cutting. Those who sell bouquets at the market mix peonies with false indigo which looks okay the first few days anyway. I walk the entire market before I settle on my favorite bouquet.
(And carrots and arugula from these guys.)
Breakfast, on the porch, with market flowers, with fruit, with Ed, and with treats from the Origins Bread stand. These are made with different flours (rye, millet, cornmeal) and in principle, I like them, though in taste -- only a couple would I ever buy again.
We linger on the porch for a whole hour, commenting on the wonderful silence today. Hardly any traffic on the rural roads. No one within earshot is using any machinery. It really is special for us to hear only the birds -- a chickadee, a catbird, a blue jay. And the sun comes out and the air is just right. What a grand ending to a month that's not shy in displaying its magic.
(Friendly likes the dome we built for a Clematis vine)
I then finish weeding the sunny flower fields. That takes many hours! I want to get the beds ready for June -- I have a complicated trip right at the tail end of spring (or is it the very beginning of summer?). The flower fields have to be at their best by the time I leave.
I have to say, I think I've done more weeding this year than in any of the previous growing seasons here, on farmette lands. Farmers have been saying that it's been an especially weedy month and I have to agree! And I'm more fussy this year. I don't know why -- some years are just like that. But the results of all that work are obvious, at least to me. The fields all look healthy and ready to take on summer!
Thank you May. You've been the best!
with love...
