Clare County Review & Marion Press

Pat’s Bits and Pieces: All about May days…

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Why is it that warmer weather makes the clock go faster? In February, the days always seem twice as long.
It just doesn’t seem fair that January, February and March and most of April seem to last twice as long as they should, while May, June and July only seem to last about three weeks!
Summertime always means fast time.
Oh, I know the calendar doesn’t say it is summer yet, and Mother Nature isn’t cooperating yet…but when the lilacs get ready to bloom and the thermometer climbs over 70 degrees regularly – it’s summer – and I don’t believe that is far away now.
Here it is May again, and in just one more week the month will already be half over! Graduation for our area schools is a little over a week away for Harrison, just two weeks from Sunday for Clare and Coleman and only four weeks from Sunday for Farwell.
Welcome to the adult world, Class of 2023!
And, Memorial weekend arrives in just three weeks.
I was waiting for more snow to fall. It just isn’t normal to have very much nice weather before Memorial Day in this part of Michigan…and of course Jack told me it was snowing as he was coming home from Clare this morning. I hope that is the last of that white stuff!
Despite this spring’s wishy-washy weather, I think May is my favorite month. It is really the beginning of things and it ends up with the bonus of a three-day holiday.
Usually that means our first weekend away at the camper, but we are getting older now and don’t make as many trips north as we used to. So, we will be selling our little home away from home this year.
That doesn’t mean we will stop heading up to Roscommon though. We will still have a place to stay at Sister-in-Law Marlene’s little home on wheels parked right next to ours up there. She can’t get there much anymore and has offered to let us stay in her little place whenever we feel the need to get away for a few days, so we can still take an occasional “mini-vacation” in the north country.
Meanwhile I am getting the urge to plant some things around here, although Jack keeps cautioning me that it is still a little early – particularly when the temperature dips below 32 degrees at night every few days. Guess I will have to plant my artificial flowers in the window boxes, until it warms up enough for the real ones in the half barrels around the place.
May really is a wonderful month. Despite the recent rainy, windy, chilly weather, everything is green again. It smells great outside. You still have most of the summer months to look forward to. The school kids are excited because school is winding down again and vacation isn’t far away.
May is cool breezes and warm sunshine. It is the scent of green things growing and the incredibly sweet scent of lilacs in bloom.
It is the taste of fresh chives, morels and wild asparagus. It’s a season of color with tulips, crocus and daffodils in bloom, lacy new leaves and the delicate purple faces of wild violets growing beside bright yellow dandelions in the impossibly green grass.
May is newly awakened bumblebees and the return of the hummingbirds, baby birds cheeping, frogs peeping and sometimes a glimpse of wild babies in the woods.
That lush green grass is still a novelty so you aren’t tired of mowing yet and speaking of mowing, Jack noticed the neighbors mowing, so, of course, now he had to do that already too.
Every year, around this time, we would pick our annual crop of morels in the back yard and have them with our dinner. What a treat they were! We sure miss that part of our springtime years along the Tobacco.
Guess we will have to watch the roadside stands and buy some morels to add to our menu this year – along with some asparagus of course.
Spring is my true favorite; such a great time of year!

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