A Wisconsin Minute

   

Those of us who live in Wisconsin know how fast the weather can change. ( Maybe it's like this in other states, too, I wouldn't know since I've never lived anywhere but on this farm I was born on.) 

I've heard of people referring to events that occur quickly as being as fast as a 'New York Minute'.  Our weather around here can be just as fast, I swear.  In summer, you can go from a cool morning to a sweltering afternoon to a cooling thunderstorm and back to sweltering in an hour, only to be freezing later in the evening. 

Or, in spring, the case we are having right now.....................

  From this warm scene yesterday, May 6, at noon:

  to May 7, at midnight:

 And, yes, those are snowflakes coming down, not snowballs!  

When I saw the snow coming down, I had to go out and get a few pictures but I apologize for the quality as it was truly 'point and take a shot in the dark' and hope I had something of interest in the frame.

 Snow is definitely not welcome at this point of the growing season.  What most of the plants will do to cope is anyone's guess.  I'm really bummed about the Coralburst crabs in the pictures above; they were in full bud and just starting to open today. It looked as if we were going to have full bloom on every tree in the garden which hasn't happened since these trees were planted over eight years ago.  Oh, well, maybe next year, right?

  The hostas will probably not fare too well either, as many of them are partly unfurled.  It's a shame, but what can a gardener do?  I suppose I could try to cover everything, but the snow is very heavy.  In fact, Carl and I have gone out already to knock the snow off the greenhouse plastic and I will have to go out several more times tonight as it was sagging badly.  Usually snow slides right off the greenhouse roof, but this snow is very wet and heavy and sticks to even the vertical surfaces, refusing to budge.  I hope the plastic stands up to the weight in case I oversleep my alarm.  It would be a shame to lose all my annuals.

Malus 'Golden Raindrops' blooming in the snow

Blue beech and some perennials in front of the house

This morning was damp and gloomy, but I had enough time to take the dogs for a mile walk up and around the eight acres and then down the road to Mom's.   Luckily, I found Dale's missing tractor pin and utility knife out in the back eight hayfield where he lost them.  Good thing I located them now instead of the hard way, later on, by hitting them with the lawnmower. 

I STILL do not have the curtains back up in the living room (blame it on GADS, works for me).  The rain began around 11AM as a cold, light, spitting mist when I was visiting my mother this morning.   I walked the dogs home quickly in the rain and, on the spur of the moment, decided to head to Ashwaubenon to pick Carl up at noon so we could go shopping for curtains.  This was a surprise to Carl, too, but he's good-natured about it.

We went to several stores in the mall with no luck, not too many one-size-fits-all draperies out there anymore, so I'm going to sew some new ones..  The living room window is very big, so we needed to buy 21 yards of fabric to cover two windows.   Of course, the fabric I liked the best has only 19 yards on it.  Well, this is where Carl's expertise at making things work with what we have comes in, and it will be my chore tomorrow to create these new 'window treatments'. 

The design in the curtain fabric sorta coordinates with the new area rugs I bought for the hardwood floor last weekend and the rug sorta coordinates with the railing design in our stair railings and with the floor.  (Who am I kidding? I'm no interior decorator, far from it, but it appealed to both Carl and I.)

Now 'all' I have to do is make the curtains......LOL.

Late again...........off to whomp more snow off the greenhouse and walk the doggies.  

Stay tuned for tomorrow's saga.  Hey, where are my boots??

Karen