P.O.P. Nature Study: Memorial Day Weekend

Memorial Day Weekend {page 153}

An unpleasant drizzle and early pregnancy queasiness makes it a rather bleak day for Carol. They drive to Uncle Bob's for the weekend. The neighbor Emma Cook wants Carol to come and visit her after lunch. The weather is a little better as Michael and the kids look around some flowery gravestones. Carol visits her parents' graves.


Ironically, we also went to visit family this past Sunday at the annual family reunion and, on our way out of Nebo, Louisiana, we paused at the old family cemetery which houses approximately 4-5 families, all who have married one generation or another and sent children out into the world. Family stones are easy to find and there is a mixture of relations.

(Personal note: I assume there is a story behind what Karen Andreola writes is the cause of the deaths of Carol's parents but I found it ironically that her father died of lockjaw and her mother died soon afterwards from a kick in the chest by a hurt horse. I guess in the old days, these two incidents would have happened commonly on a farm. A resident of the 21st-century, I had to read it a second time to make sure there wasn't a jokey punchline in this paragraph.)


Apple trees, maples and white pine grow on the north side of the cemetery. A pile of stones block three sides. Lily-of-the-valley plants grow on the other side of the stones. Carols imagines that someone threw a bunch of lilies that had served as grave decoration over the wall and they took over. A chipmunk greets them.

They go in to see Emma Cook who proposes to them that her house is too much of a "white elephant" for her to maintain. Emma offers the family Blackberry Inn to make it their home. Michael is excited but Carol hates the thought of leaving the city with the electricity, library, movies, shopping,etc. She doesn't know how she could go live at the place where her parents died. Carol knows she must trust in God in this decision. She also knows that:

"God knows (our) disappointments...(We) musn't allow (our)selves to be drenched in self-pity. He doesn't despise sorrow, but He does hate self-pity."

More about this decision and journey comes out in the following book by Karen Andreola Lessons at Blackberry Inn

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Eastern chipmunk---Tamias striatus


Lily-of-the-valley---Convallaria majalis

Phlox---Phlox


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Questions:
Have you ever caught the scent of the lily-of-the-valley?


Creeping phlox makes a dazzling ground cover.


Have you ever heard the calls that a chipmunk can make? Not only do they squeak but they also do a fast roll of chattering.


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Personal question:


How did everyone spend their Memorial Day and what did you do to signify the meaning of Memorial Day with your own children?