TheBanyanTree: Cold and Dreary

[Margaret R. Kramer]

This weekend marks the official beginning of summer, but in Minnesota it’s
just another dreary weekend.  Most Memorial Day weekends are awful here.  We
’re really not into summer yet, we’re still fighting just to have a few days
of spring, so most people who travel to their cabins know to bring sweat
shirts and jeans rather than shorts and swim suits.

Every once in a while we have a summer-like Memorial Day weekend, but they’
re few and far between.  This weekend is like most of them, cool, highs not
expected above 65, rainy, and we spend a lot of time trying to mentally lure
the sun out from behind the clouds.

I don’t work up a lot of enthusiasm for the Memorial Day weekend, but I do
like the three days off from work.  My parents always used it as a “project
weekend” and I do, too.  Of course, this year we’re getting the house ready
for sale, but in the past, I’ve used this weekend to get my garden in.  It
hasn’t been warm enough to get it in early this year, and I feel weird when
I can’t get my garden in until June.  That happened last year because it
rained and rained and rained in May, so I had no opportunity to dig in the
mud until the weekend after Memorial Day.

This year we were ahead of the game for a while.  We were able to rake
leaves and get the lawn furniture out early in April because we had a
stretch of 80 degree days falsely luring us into thinking we would have a
long, hot summer.  Then the cold air came in and the sun disappeared and
most outside projects were frozen in time.  Ray didn’t want to work out in
the garage because it was so cold and I didn’t have any desire to work out
in the yard because it was so wet.

But it was getting down to the wire as far as listing the house goes, so I
ordered some mulch and dirt from our garden store.  Ray and I found some
time when it wasn’t raining and we got that stuff spread out in our
backyard.  We got the front yard mowed and trimmed.  It was warm enough for
Ray to reorganize the garage and build some shelves so our boxes of indoor
clutter weren’t cluttering up the garage.  This week, in between raindrops,
we went to the nursery and bought flowers.  And, yes, we saw a partial
double rainbow as were leaving the nursery.

The clouds were hanging low in the sky yesterday and occasionally little
drops of rain would fall, but it stayed dry and it warmed up a bit in the
afternoon.  I went for a good run along the river.  My knees didn’t hurt
afterwards because I wore my old shoes and made sure I stretched out after I
was finished.  I went tanning to maintain my wonderful brown color that
looks like I found some sun when other people are searching for it.  I
figure when it warms up enough for shorts and tank tops, I won’t be sickly
looking white.

I went to work on the garden after lunch.  I bought a full contingent of
flowers, even if we’re putting the house up for sale, who knows how long it
will sit on the market?  If we’re here through the summer, I figure I might
as well have a beautiful backyard to enjoy.  And we do have a wonderful
yard.  Even though it’s been cloudy and dreary, the fresh mulch, and Ray’s
painting the big deck under the oak trees, and with all the rain, the
perennial plants – the ferns and the lilies of the valley and day lilies and
all the others – are lush and green, all these things make for a gorgeous
summer “room.”  We’ve lived here 15 years and our backyard is finally a
place we want to be.

It’s going to be cool and dreary today, too.  I’ll be inside this afternoon
trying to pack up my office and make it look like no one ever uses this
room.  The closet is the main problem.  I’ve jammed anything that doesn’t go
anywhere else into it.  It truly is a closet in which things fall on my head
when I open the door.  That’s where I’ll start, so I’ll have a place to
“hide” things I use when we show the house.  I have a large bookshelf that
looks pretty cluttered.  The books will packed and stored out in the garage,
because I’ve read most of them.  One way or another, I’ll get this little
office to look spacious and inviting.

Oh, my goodness, I think I see the sun!  We had a little rain shower this
morning and now the sun is breaking out!  I don’t think it will stay sunny,
because there a lot of clouds looming above, but at least, that little bit
of sunlight gives us hope that someday this low pressure system will move on
and summer will move in.

Margaret R. Kramer
margaretkramer at comcast.net

http://www.polarispublications.com
Be a star!

http://www.bpwmn.org
Business and Professional Women of Minnesota

They say that age is all in your mind.  The trick is keeping it from
creeping down into your body.  ~Author Unknown