This post was inspired by Debe Maxwell, CRS challenge to bloggers to post about May flowers. You can review the challenge here: Shower Power: Flaunt Your Fabulous Blooms Brought to Life by April Showers!
North Dakota, especially as far North as I am in Minot North Dakota, has a very short growing season compared to the rest of the country. There is no part of May that we are assured it might not freeze. I have seen snow more than once on my birthday in mid May. July is the only month that North Dakota has not seen a freezing temperature.
With that knowledge you may note that it is really unusual to see anything in bloom in May in Minot unless it came from a greenhouse (with the exception of dandelions, and a few blooming trees).
On Memorial day we did see a lot of flowers as we walked through the cemeteries. None of which were "pushed up" by the inhabitants below.
I am so glad that I did go visit loved ones who had departed yesterday. It really focused me once again on mortality and what is important. People who we once knew and were part of our life... now dead and hardly a memory, important only to the dead in the after life.
There were all kinds of etchings on the tombstones and now, with modern technology, many color pictures embedded into their markers. In death people wanted you to remember them by a picture taken 70 years ago when they were 16. Some people wanted you to remember them by their possessions (Harleys, boats, cars and more). The ones I liked best were the ones where it was noted after their name: Father, Mother, Husband, Brother, Son, and so on.
Before I die I might request a flower box on top of my grave and to leave instructions to plant (live green house) flowers in it along with an inscription that says: "Each petal of each flower represents a soul Bob pointed towards Christ".
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