This is May?

My old friend Mac used to say there were six seasons: summer, fall , locking, winter, unlocking, spring. We are still unlocking. Lovely, mild (almost hot) weather last weekend; cold, dreary, rainy this weekend. On a day like this, last Sunday’s weather seems like a cruel tease. Hard to believe it’s May. Terry was eager to finish his seventh heeling bed (where trees are “heeled in” to grow to market size). He needed my help to hold the 8’ tall roll of deer netting while he wired it to the posts.

 It was not clear to me how I would get everything done this weekend. I had a haircut and an evening event at work Friday. I spent the morning weeding the asparagus, finishing the two short rows. One long row to go. After my haircut, I spent the afternoon before the event in my office getting things ready for Monday.

Game night was Saturday. I was afraid I would not have time to get my shopping done before 3:00, when game night was schedule to begin. Therefore, Terry and I tentatively planned to put up the fencing Saturday morning when I was done baking the first rhubarb pie of the season. (When told Pat we planned to do fencing, her first thought was that we were going to get out the foils, masks, and leather gloves. Once a P.E. teacher, always a P.E. teacher.)

The first rhubarb pie of the season

By the time I had the pie out of the oven and the ham in the slow cooker, about 10:00, a big green blob on the radar was headed straight for us.  Fencing was out. I took a quick shower and headed down to Trader Joe’s to speed shop in the rain. I got my groceries and was back home by 1:15. Plenty of time to finish getting ready before the guests arrived. The rain kept up all afternoon.

We had a lovely feast. Here is a roasted beet and feta cheese salad that Nancy made.

The beet salad with its slightly sweet dressing went perfectly with the ham (which Jane provided). When I mentioned this to Nancy, she told me that she had found the recipe by Googling “salads that go with ham.” I would not have thought to do that.

Roasted beet, feta, and pecan salad

Hilda made Marilyn’s hot potato salad, a classic ham side dish in our house.

Marilyn's hot potato salad

Spiral sliced ham (not a water-added product)

We played our usual 13 rounds of Mexican train, and I won not even once. For the first four rounds, I drew the double one and was never able to play it. Not my best night. Tons of fun, nevertheless. We do have some good laughs.

Terry and I were both ready to start the fence at 9:00 this morning. It wasn’t raining exactly, but it was 42°F with a wicked and mist-laden wind blowing from the northeast. It took us a few minutes to remember how we did it last time. We soon had the system down and proceeded efficiently. Terry didn’t bother completely securing the fence, as that involved tape, which was never going to stick to wet posts. He put two or three wires on each post, and we moved on. When we were done, Terry told me it had taken one hour and 37 minutes. He’s quantitative like that. I hadn’t even bothered to put on my watch.

The new fence

I returned to the house to finish my food preparation for the week. By early afternoon the temperature was edging up to 50°F. I took my camera out to check on things. In spite of the thermometer reading, I was not uncomfortable in my winter coat. I saw four tadpoles in the puddle by the willows again.

Chorus frog tadpole--still tiny, still no legs

There were snipes by the willows as well as at the south end, which flooded again with yesterday’s rain (“sixty-five hundredths” according to Terry).

Jack is now officially visible in his pulpit.

Jack in the pulpit

The clouds are a bit higher now, but I have decided it is too muddy and cold to try to finish weeding the asparagus. The weeds will undoubtedly take off when it warms up tomorrow and Tuesday. I won’t have time to get back to them until next weekend. Such is the working life. (I’m the only person in my house who is not retired, you know, but I’m not bitter….)