Memorial Day 2010

No longer is there family in the area to bring flowers to the cemeteries so I continue the ritual. Because we are not close enough to do it very often, I try to do it for Memorial Day.

My grandparents are buried in a cemetery where people are very faithful about decorating the graves. I want everyone to know that my grandparents are still well loved. Nearby is the Russian cemetery where there is a family marker with several family graves. This cemetery is in a rather close knit community and I feel I want to let everyone know this family is alive and well.

One of my earliest memories is that of accompanying my grandparents to the cemeteries to plant flowers at the family graves. We are no longer allowed to plant flowers but may bring cut flowers. I do this not just to let people know my grandparents were loved and my family honored but just because my grandparents did this.

The first four pictures are at the Russian cemetery. I am standing by the family monument. Today we took a moment to sit in the chapel. The final picture is in the cemetery where my grandparents are buried.

Normally I bring lilacs and maybe a couple late tulips. Because of the unseasonably warm weather, the lilacs finished blooming before their usual bloom time. This year I brought peonies, iris, and hosta leaves. The iris and peonies have almost finished blooming and it is not even their usual bloom time.

I did plant some flowers today but at home early in the morning. I started what will probably come to be called the 3P garden. It has pansies and petunias right now; later this week, we will pick up the peppers.

Yesterday was another unseasonably hot day. The only thing that improved it was a brisk wind. It is more pleasant this morning but I am not certain if the day will be any more pleasant overall than yesterday. In the evening yesterday we put our tomato plants and cauliflowers into the garden. I may need to devise a way to give the tomato plants shade today especially if it gets hot again. A cool front is supposed to pass through but no one seems to be able to predict when that will happen.

What can I say? It is a holiday weekend. The weather feels like a hot, hazy summer day and it is only the end of May.

After a dismal start, I finally finished these two panels this week and began one of the four part II panels. Of course, you might know it, part III was just released. I had made a counting error in the lower right hand corner of the panel on the right. It turned out there was no way I could compensate for the error and had to pick out almost everything up to the solid color medallion border. :-( :-P

When I restitched it, I made a couple more errors and had to restitch. No one has ever been more glad to have finished part of a design.

We have had some extraordinarily high temperatures for this time of the year. The temperatures are forcing the iris to bloom early and not last very long. I doubt that I will take pictures of them this year as they do not look their best. I do hope that this will not be too hard on them and affect their flowers next year.

It has been so long since I have written anything and read any of the blogs that I watch. I know that I have a lot to read.

I thought that you might like to see some more spring in Minnesota. While we spent the major part of last week in the Black Hills, the spring flowers continued to open earlier than usual. The tulips and daffodils are now growing seeds. I must go out quickly and cut the stems back so they put their energy into producing bulbs to bloom next spring and not seeds.

The lilacs are gone. Usually they bloom at the end of May. The irises have begun to bloom and they do not usually do so until June. We have had some hard weather which has beaten the irises a bit. I am not certain if I will be able to get nice pictures of them as they open this year. At least six varieties are now in bloom. Old Black Magic did not bloom well last year and has several stems in bloom right now. Black Swan did not put in an appearance last year but will do so this year.

I have four very dark irises, Old Black Magic, Black Swan, Swazi Princess, and Interpol. Interpol is not blooming this year and most likely Swazi Princess is not either. All four of my dark irises are blue/black.

It has been so long since I made an entry. To be honest, it has been a little difficult to focus my attention. I have been making an effort to stitch a little in the evenings. Even though I may not feel like stitching once I begin, I find that I am able to focus on it and that it keeps my attention. I took these pictures before my hiatus both from journaling and from stitching.

We have had some rain and unusually cool temperatures lately. We have had some frost warnings but fortunately, it has missed us. We did cover temperature sensitive things but unfortunately damaged some of the plants in the process. I am not certain if we have completely escaped the frost but the garden is uncovered and I think it will stay that way.

Apple Blossom Time

Although I have been a little too preoccupied to make blog entries, we have been taking pictures of the apple blossoms and enjoying their intoxicating fragrance. I cannot ever remember a spring as glorious as this one. The flowering trees look just like the pictures in nursery catalogues. Since we took these pictures Thursday and Friday last week, we have had a couple thunderstorms. Although the trees are now past their prime, they still look nice.

The white and pink blossoms are the apples and crab apples. The more intense pink ones are the flowering crab apples. The first picture is taken just outside our back gate. It seems as if there is a canopy of apple blossoms overhead.

If you want to see more spring in MN pictures, here is a link. The pictures are essentially in chronological order. I have posted some of them in the blog.