Memorial Day

Memorial Day.  Three day weekend.  The kick off to summer. Sales at the mall. Projects around the house.  Picnics with family and friends. Swimming pools open.  Boats come out of storage and rev their engines on lakes.  Campers line the rivers crammed with canoes and kayaks.  Memorial Day?

Yes, we have taken a sacred holiday and turned it into something other than a day to remember those who have died, but we still remember.  We remember those who have served in our wars.  After the terrible losses of the Civil War, folks wanted a day to remember those who had fallen.  In those days, the way a person died was thought to give meaning to the life they had lived.  Since so many men had died far from home and in anonymity, a Memorial Day, a day to remember, gave people a way to give meaning to the deaths of so many soldiers.

We still remember those soldiers who have died in the service of our country, but we have also expanded this tradition to include those of our own families who have died.  Yesterday, we went to the cemetery to decorate the graves of our family members who are buried here.  It was moving to see so many other families there too decorating graves with flowers and flags.  The cemetery was beautiful, and people greeted one another as we all placed flowers and remembered.  We drove slowly and looked at headstones of friends who have died.  We noted the flags by the graves of those who served in the armed services.  It was a quiet, sacred time.

Tomorrow we will have our cookout with family as we work on building a storage shed.  We'll enjoy our three day weekend, but we will remember too, and that remembering is our memorial to those we loved.

Planting the New Yard

Such a spring.  After all of the cold and the snow in May, summer has finally arrived.  Oh, I know summer is officially a month away, but with 90 degree weather, it feels like summer.

It has been interesting to see what has come up in the yard at our new house.  The beautiful tulips and iris have put on a show.  The bulbs that I brought with me made the transition and are putting out leaves and flowers.  The only thing that didn't make the move was a high bush cranberry, but luckily there were two here in the yard already.

Grandpa and I have torn out several sprawling half-dead spirea, and we have replaced them with daylillies and canas we brought with us and monarda that I bought at the nursery.  We've torn out dead evergreens and replaced them with hydranges and lots of mulch until we decide what to plant.  Around the mail box we've created a rock garden with phlox and lilies, lavender and lambs ears, daiseys and coneflowers. creeping phlox and Russian sage.  It should be glorious when everything blooms.

I noticed this morning that the blackberries are blooming.  It is usual for them to bloom this time of year, but we also usually get "blackberry winter" when the temperature usually cools off for a few days when they bloom.  So if the 90 degress we are having today is "blackberry winter", we may be in for another long, hot summer.