One thing that's good about the cold spring and wet early summer is that it makes me appreciate the warm, sunny days even more. Knowing how fleeting a dry spell in a wet cycle can be, I hate to waste a precious minute when the weather is pleasant.
Fortunately, some of the beautiful days, which represent North Dakota summer at its best, have been on weekends. That has allowed our family to get a lot of work done and to have some fun together.
On a recent weekend, our daughter, Ellen, and I went to watch a mounted shooting competition at the Greater Grand Forks Fair and then bought flowers at a local greenhouse. While we were gone, my husband, Brian, and our sons, Brendan and Thomas, weeded in the vegetable garden and cleaned out the machine shed. When Ellen and I returned, Brendan and I mowed the lawn while Thomas and Brian took down an old gas tank and stand.
After we finished those projects, we planted the flowers Ellen and I bought. The boys and their dad capped off the day with runs while I read and Ellen watched television.
The next day, Sunday, after church, we went to breakfast at the Larimore (N.D.) Golf Course. We enjoyed a delicious breakfast while taking in the scenery of the gently rolling hills dotting with trees and visited with family and friends from church. After breakfast we went home and finished weeding the vegetable garden and the flower garden.
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Admiring the view
As I weeded, I admired the deep green of the tree grove that surrounds our garden and the yard, and flowers on the south side of our house. The rains have resulted in lush vegetation. It has been a good year for the perennial flowers, too. After a late start, the flowers are blooming profusely and add bright color to our farmstead.
When we finished weeding, I decided to take the strawberry hulls I had saved to the chickens, but it seemed like too nice of a day to drive the car, so I asked my family if anyone wanted to go on a bike ride. Everyone did, so we biked the 2½ miles to my mom's house and gave the chickens their fruit scraps, and then headed back home.
The friend I had invited to pick strawberries at our house was in the patch when we returned, so we helped her pick. I also picked a grocery bag full of lettuce.
Pleasant work
All of the work and play we did over the weekend was under blue skies with fluffy, white clouds, my mom used to call "summer clouds." The breeze helped keep the mosquitoes at bay so weeding the gardens was not unpleasant.
The bike ride, like horseback riding, allowed me to see the countryside from a different perspective than whizzing down the road in a car. The crops in the fields that were dry enough to be planted appear to be catching up and look heavy and healthy.
I have done my share of complaining about the misery of our wet spring and summer and the mosquitoes the rain has spawned. The weather on recent weekend has shown the flip side of that and been a reminder of how lovely North Dakota summers can be. I am grateful that I have been able to be outside and enjoy it.
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Reach Bailey at annb08@dishmail.net or (218) 779-8093.
