We were victims of the vagaries of the weather last week. We went from warm to cold to warm again. The cold this time was severe. The forecast called for a hard freeze on Friday night. Hannah and I tried to prepare for it. We moved all the potted plants and seed trays back onto the back porch and I set an electric heater there. I picked a bouquet of lilacs to enjoy knowing they would not survive the night outdoors. We did our best to cover a few things out in the garden. Hannah helped me rig tents of reemay over the grapes and lilies that were still recovering from the last frost. Friday evening I went out and watered deeply everything I could. The temperature fell to 23° that night. Saturday morning the frost was light, but everything was frozen. There wasn’t anything we could do really. When it gets that cold the damage is inevitable. The grapes froze again despite our efforts and all the tiny leaves fell off. The vines will have to start all over again – for the third time. The lilies also froze and I don’t know if they’ll recover. My potatoes froze and turned black. They’ll have to start again. The lilacs are brown. My pink azalea bush which was in full bud and ready to bloom lost all of its flowers. Out in the orchard it’s still too soon to tell how bad it is. The apples were almost done blooming, most of the petals had fallen. We’ll have to see how many of the tiny apples turn brown and fall off. Then, after those few hours of cold, the weather mellowed out again. There’s no more cold in the foreseeable future. It looks like it will be in the 70's and 80's. But for some things, it’s too late.
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| Preparations for the big freeze. The red mulched area is my future tomato row. |
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| Woodland azaleas before and after the freeze. |
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| Lilacs before their demise outdoors. |
Tomorrow is Memorial Day, the 25th of May. Thirty-one years ago on the 25th of May, Stacey and I were married in the Los Angeles Temple. It was a great day, one of the major events of my life. I spent an hour looking back through the photo album of that day and it made me wonder – if there were no pictures of the event, how much would I really remember? I have to admit the details of the day are a bit blurry. It has nothing to do with advancing years – it was all blurry from the start.
I cannot say that Stacey and I married in haste. We’d known each other for years. I actually waited for her while she was on her mission, a reversal of the usual pattern in Mormondom. But when we decided it was the thing to do, we didn’t waste any time with a long engagement, Nor did we want it to be the usual Big (and expensive) Event. In April we made our decision and picked a date one month later. We told people, “We’re getting married in the Los Angeles Temple on Friday, May 25th at 5:00 p.m. If you’d like to be there, we’d be very happy.” We mailed out some invitations. I bought a new suit. Stacey bought a new outfit. That was it.
Our family and friends came to the temple that day to be with us. We were married for time and eternity at 5:25 on 5/25, a serendipitous alignment of numbers. We walked around the temple grounds afterward and took some pictures. We didn’t have a big reception. We had a family dinner at Stacey’s brother Bill’s house. Then we left for our honeymoon. We spent the weekend at a relative’s cabin in the mountains at Big Bear. We chose Memorial Day weekend for the wedding so we would have a few days before we both had to be back to work on Tuesday. A week later we held an open house at my parents’ house with cake and punch and gifts. Thirty-one years, seven children, and four grandchildren later, here we are.
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| On our wedding day. |
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| Here we are 31 years later. |
We don’t usually make a big deal out of celebrating our anniversary. Since it usually falls on or around Memorial Day, we just sort of combine the celebrations. We went to the temple on Saturday. We try to do that every year near our anniversary. The drive through Western New York to and from Palmyra was beautiful. The temple was a peaceful and joyful experience, as it always is.
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| On the drive to Palmyra - it was a cold morning. |
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| At the temple on Saturday. |
When we got home from Palmyra, we spent the afternoon working in the yard. I mowed the lawn. Stacey, Hannah, and Josiah washed barn buckets – a big job as we have a lot of buckets that we store chicken feed in. After that we burned brush and last year’s Christmas tree. Then as evening came on, the Shilligs joined us and we pulled up chairs and sat around the fire and played games and talked. Tomorrow we will go to the parade in town. In the evening we’ll have a cookout, just us and the Shilligs. It will be our quiet way to mark Memorial Day and the beginning of another year of our grand adventure together.
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| Around the fire Saturday evening. |
