Many Faces of May 2015

Mark tucking in the plants

Instead of a gentle transitional month, this May was a roller coaster ride with a couple very cold spells , tantalizing warm days and then a week of rain, rain, rain.  Hilde was musing about the range of “summer” clothes needed in Wisconsin, and the layers needed to cope with variations within a day.  In fact, she waited until the second week to put away turtlenecks and flannel sheets—and then the month ended with over 5 inches of rain and two nights of frost, just a week after Mark and Hilde had planted everything out ---a big garden this year.  So Mark had to painstakingly cover each of the more than two dozen tomatoes, all the peppers, eggplants and pumpkins, working on saturated clay loam.  

Caleb at 3 weeks

Despite the vagrancies of temperature, the spring bloom was wonderful this year with lovely colors and scents in the wild flowers, trees and planted favorites.  Due to the less than average snow cover, a few perennials did not make it but the rest made up for it…really lovely tulips and lilacs this year.  The ever-changing floral displays in fencerows, roadsides and flowerbeds was spectacular this year.

Mark:  attorney and arborist

The family side was great in May, as it started with a visit to Jim and Kayme’s.  Hilde got to cuddle little 3-week old Caleb at the college while Kayme accompanied her students at a competition.  What a joyous and satisfying way to spend a Saturday!  Mark spent the time working on Jim’s wiring and fixed a room fan before tackling a more complicated, mis-wired exhaust fan.  Watching Rhiannon and Rowan play outside in golden sunshine, paint their toenails, giggle and  tumble together made for a golden day for all.  Those little girls are so sweet with their tiny brother! Attending church and Lord’s Supper with the expanded family made for a great finale…followed by supper by candlelight, until the power came back on.

Daddy Jim with Caleb

The family time was precious and needed before the trial preparation took over the rest of the month.  Mark re-tried part of a three week case from 2012, where the plaintiffs had added many more claims and wanted big money.  Despite Mark’s best efforts, the jury awarded much of that and the week in Buffalo ended with the home team pretty disappointed.  The intensity and near round-the-clock attention of trial work is hard to imagine.  Hilde had a much better time for the week of trial:  one day she re-trained on the town website, another day she had a lovely lunch and visit with Laurel, and one day was taken by review of the county board video---she missed quite a lively meeting!  The technical connections do help Hilde when Mark’s work takes them out of town, and getting locked in the bathroom added a little comic relief.  

Sweet Sister Fun

The best way of forgetting that kind of stuff is getting busy, and Mark and Hilde really dug in the last days of the month.  Mark only worked a couple half days at the office, but he planted both gardens, fixed a lawnmower, trimmed trees, mowed a year’s growth of weeds in the dog pen, stabilized the deck stairs, replaced fence posts, fenced the garden and added fencing on the perimeter.  After some shopping on the rainy days, a new recliner is ordered and a hammer drill ready for the radon project, plus Mark contrived some rain diverters to eliminate the rain overshoot problem.  When he gets a head of steam of things really get done! 

Hilde has been struggling to keep up with grass mowing, between the down pours and meetings.  Amazing how fast the green stuff grows around here.  There was time to celebrate Dr. Stevens birthday, have lunch with the crafts gals and read a few books, thank goodness.

The surprising thing about Mark being home is that he is getting things done remotely at the office,  finding lots to do here AND creating a growing list of jobs to work on.  Hilde and Mark are much happier with the more flexible schedule and Mark working from home more often.  It looks as though the personnel issues for the county will be resolved soon, so Hilde will see the special meetings let up, too. Hurray for summer!

This smelled even better than it looked

Sisters, Sharing Sunshine