Sumer Is Icumen In

Summer is a-coming in
Loudly sing cuckoo
Groweth seed and bloweth mead
And springs the wood anew.

The rose-breasted grosbeak is back. The hummingbirds are back. I've seen 4 different types of woodpeckers alongside blue jays and cardinals. The orioles seem more brightly orange this May than I can remember. We've missed them. We are bird happy in this neighborhood. They are the true harbingers of summer, and even though it's still coolish temperature-wise, the sun is warm.

Memorial Day weekend is just around the corner, and there's hope for warmer weather. It's time to start working in the yard and sprucing things up a bit. We need some color in the garden. It's hard to know when to plant the colorful annuals here in the river valley. We get frost overnight way after other areas. We have a really short growing season.

Still working on the family tree - it's encouraging to get responses from people - yesterday I got 5 or 6 really helpful emails, and I was hoping for more today, but so far nothing. I sent out 2 more letters today, and it will be exciting to get a response from them. So far, we're up to 708 individuals on our tree, spanning 8 generations.

Went geocaching with Tim and Susie today just here in T.C. We had lunch at Scott's out on the deck, and we actually got pink from the sun. It was lovely. We had a nice find to start the day off, but then our luck went downhill and even with 4 of us looking, we couldn't find the Weed Island cache. Maybe the third time will be the charm.

This was a beautiful day.