Another Summer Begins

Here it is, Memorial Day Weekend, the traditional beginning of summer. Our family gathers at the Cape Cod summer cottage to sweep up the dead insects that have piled up during the winter. The water is turned back on, the hot water heater fired up, food returned to the shelves, the tall grass in the yard is mowed, screens replace windows on the porch. This year there was a long To Do list, but it was still nice to get together and escape from normal life.

Thanks to the slow economy, I don't have to go to work tomorrow, so I get to stay an extra night and avoid the traffic backing up from the bridges over Cape Cod Canal. This year we have internet at the cottage, so I can blog while I'm here....that's nice, but maybe I'd rather be doing a jigsaw puzzle or playing cards. Things change.

When my Mom was growing up in New Jersey, her parents used to pull them out of school Memorial Day Weekend (2 or 3 weeks before the end of the school year) to go to Cape Cod and plant the vegetable garden. Although my grandparents were not wealthy, they did not allow their children to work for money until they finished high school. Perhaps because my grandfather had to leave school to work at 14, after his father died. Although they put in a lot of hours in the garden, and helped to can vegetables to last through the winter, they had a whole summer of hanging out on the beach, digging clams, reading books, playing cards, climbing trees, and eating wild berries. My grandfather could take the train up on the weekends. The trains are gone now, and the tracks are paved for the Cape Cod Rail Trail.


Before I left home I took some photos of all the flowers blooming in my yard. Here are a few of them in a collage which clearly demonstrates my pathetic grasp of Photoshop.

I planted the Columbines, Ajuga, Anemones, Myrtle, and Bleeding Heart. The Johnny Jump-ups are coming up in the lawn from the ones I planted last year.

The Jack-in-the-Pulpit just popped up on its own, right in my flower garden! I find them scattered around the yard here and there, along with clumps of tiny Bluets. The Rhododendrons and Azaleas are old, some look to be at least 40 years. The 2 pink dogwood trees looked sickly when we bought the house 4 years ago, but with some tender loving care they seem to be holding their own, and look lovely this year.