May 2023

 Monday 5/1

Happy May Day

It looks good to finally see green grass, tulips and lilac buds

Once a year, each spring, Steve defrosts our little garage freezer

He waits for a beautiful sunny day and sets the freezer out in the driveway. It doesn't take long for the ice to melt. He also gives it a good cleaning, inside and out!

Wednesday 5/3

Steve did some work in the front yard today 

We love this little fountain we inherited from Linda's Mom 

(we actually bought it for her, several years ago)

 It reminds us of her all summer long!

AND . . .

Sprinklers are up and running !

Thursday & Friday 5/11-12

Now days it takes us longer to do what we used to do in one afternoon!

Planting some colorful flowers to go along with our . . . .

Lilacs and . . . .

Ajuga

First we had to dig up the "leftover" tulips. We dug them all out last fall but must have missed a few because we had a some that came up this spring.

Linda planted petunias in the front tree ring... they are little now, but they should be much bigger and very pretty in a few weeks

In the back yard, we filled the landscape barrel, under the gum tree, with some smaller pansies

our little chipmunks will stand guard over them

Steve planted three Early Girl tomato plants and . . . .

Linda planted pansies all around the bunnies that spend the summer in the tree ring under the flowering pear tree.

Saturday 5/13

A couple of days ago we ordered a "wind spinner" decoration for the back yard.

It came today. Steve found a little chain and was able to get it up and hanging from a low limb of our gum tree.

It is fun to watch when it spins in the wind.

This evening we attended a Stake devotional titled 

"Know Your Come Follow Me"

Jared Halverson was the guest speaker

He is an associate professor of Ancient Scripture at BYU, Served 24 years in the Church Educational System and is the host of the Podcast "Unshaken".

He is a great speaker. He shared many personal experiences he has had as a teacher, church leader & dad. He taught us that consistency & intensity will lead to a more productive gospel learning experience. 

Sunday 5/14 - Mother's Day

It was a good day!

Steve gave Linda these beautiful flowers. Carnations & roses. A lot of people don't like carnations, but they are one of Linda's favorites. She says, They smell good and last a lot longer than other flowers.

At church the Elder's Quorum covered for all the sisters that serve in Primary & Young Women's. All the sisters got to attend Relief Society where we had a fun little brunch and spent time just visiting with each other.

Linda received phone calls from Trudi, Kevin & Debbi, then this evening, Matt's family stopped by for a Mother's day visit.

They brought some flowers from Camrynn and a cute, handmade, decoration. A stack of books covered in music paper with one of Linda's favorite songs printed on the spine - My Heavenly Father Loves Me"

Jetta got to show us her new-to-her car. It's a 2012 Audi. She has been working hard to save enough money and is very proud of it.

Phone calls, flowers, food and a thoughtful gift . . . . It was a good day !

Tuesday 5/16

Steve was up at 5:00 this morning so he could take Dave to the hospital. Dave was having surgery today to remove a section of his colon that was inflamed due to a diverticulitis infection.

His surgery went well and now he begins the road to recovery. 

When Linda woke up this morning, she discovered . . . .

Our clematis starting blooming overnight. When we went to bed last night there were NO blossoms, lots of buds, but no blossoms.

two weeks later, it looks like this!

It was election day. So when Steve returned from the hospital, we went to vote!

On Saturday, Steve started working on this sprinkler. First, it was way too low and would need to be raised. Second, it was completely encased in a large root from our big maple tree. Steve had to cut part of the root away just to be able to get to the sprinkler. We are happy to report a new sprinkler is now in place and, after much duress, it is adjusted to both the right height and the correct "swing". 

Our columbine is blooming and beautiful, plus the new flowers in our landscape barrel are doing well. Bright pink columbine, blue forget-me-nots and yellow pansies make a colorful spot in our backyard.

Friday - Saturday  5/19-20

Linda's Fairy Garden is growing

It's hard to see everything among all the Maple tree seed pods, but you can use your imagination! 

Saturday we started cleaning up all the thousands of seed pods dropped every spring by our large maple tree. 

Steve works on it until his 5-gallon bucket is full

Linda continued working on her Fairy Garden. Picking out seed pods, arranging & rearranging until she thinks it looks right. 

Of course, the grandkids are going to have fun rearranging this little fairy village during our reunion in June so it really doesn't matter much what it looks like now.

Wow! This section of planter looks sooo much better after the seed pod "clean-up" - notice, the bucket is full!

As part of our Family Reunion in June we are going to have a backyard reunion Olympics . . . . of course we will need a sign!

Linda started working on it on Friday by sketching out the letters and Olympic Rings

Saturday she continued by outlining all the sketching then . . .

Adding COLOR. Turned out pretty good, don't you think?

Sunday 5/21

So this evening we were sitting out on the back patio, trying out our new foot rests

we looked for ones that would fit under the chairs and we found some! they aren't the color we wanted, but they work great!

 We were  thinking it was such a beautiful day and . . . .

We even took a couple of pictures of the Iris that bloomed this weekend

Don't know why anyone  would call these weeds . . . but some people do. Anyway . . . .

We were just sitting there, enjoying the evening when a storm blew in (blew being the key word) with very strong wind gusts. Yesterday when we cleaned up all the seed pods we thought we had waited until the tree had dropped it's last pod

Boy were we surprised when the wind blew a flurry of, what looked like thousands, more to the ground

 (and to our neighbors who, we're sure, appreciated it)

It's not as bad as it was yesterday, but it will take some time to gather up all the new seed pods.  Is this like when you wash your car or windows & it rains the next day?

Tuesday 5/23

We are blessed here in Star, Idaho to see some beautiful sunsets

Tonight was one of those sunsets !

Saturday 5/27

We have a bright pink rhododendron on the east side of our house. We haven't been around on that side for a while but today we were, and this is what we discovered

Ever since we stopped fertilizing it, it has bloomed. Kind of wish it was in a different place so we would see it more often.

Sunday 5/28

It is Memorial Day weekend sooo . . . 

we drove over to the Idaho Veteran's Cemetery and put some flowers on Gayle's gravesite.

The display of flags throughout the cemetery are beautiful

Tuesday 5/30

Sometimes Mother Nature just paints a beautiful picture

Blue sky, white puffy clouds and fresh green trees

During the month of May, we have enjoyed the beautiful spring weather. It has given us the chance to be outside - working in the yard, going for walks and relaxing on the patio. Linda looks forward to the hot summer days and Steve can't wait for the cooler fall weather. Goodbye May . . .  hello June!