Saturday, May 21, 2011

When Will It Stop? Three Months Later....

The last post bemoaned the snows of winter and asked, "When will it stop?"  It's now the middle of May and we continue asking, When will it stop?  But now it's rain.  And unrelenting sunless days with temperatures that require a light jacket and available umbrella.  Friends comment about aches and pains that will probably abate when the rain stops.  And yes,  I realize the folks along the flooded Mississippi River are suffering and in dire straits.  We're just unhappy here, not miserable.

I read an article in the morning newspaper about a reporter who interviewed some cyclists riding through Ohio on their way to the east coast.  A cyclist commented:  "Over half the people we've seen were mowing."  Obviously the group was passing through on a rain-free day.  When there's rain five out of seven days, a lot of yard work needs to be done quickly, before the next shower.  We haven't broken any records for accumulation, but frequency has to be acknowledged.  Here in the condo complex, we hire out the task and the company must deal as best they can with mowing five days worth of clients in two, providing those two days are weekdays and not weekends.  If they don't get to us again soon, we'll be baling instead of mowing.


With May came Mother's Day.  I'd asked Dawn a few days earlier if she still had a shepherd's hook I gave her a few years ago, because I wanted to borrow it to hang a bird feeder outside my front window.  Unfortunately it was gone, but she brought me a new one for Mother's Day, this one with two hooks.  I now have a feeder filled with thistle seeds that the finches have commandeered and a hummingbird feeder.  I've tried many times in the past to attract hummingbirds, but this is the first time I've been successful!  I've also planted milkweed and hope to have monarch butterflies later this summer.