Schizophrenic Weather

Stafford First United Methodist Church

It was 96 degrees on the bank thermometer when I drove by on Saturday afternoon.

It seemed that we had bypassed spring and skipped ahead to summer.

But the palm branches at Sunday's church service waved in a chilly, overcast day.

 

And then, overnight on Sunday, we hightailed it back to winter.

A couple of inches of snow blanketed the forsythia ...

and the quince, weighing down the delicate pink flowers with a coverlet of white.

And wouldn't you know it? We needed to move cattle. (More on that later.)

I might have been sorry that I complained about the 96 degrees. While I waited, I distracted myself from the shivering by taking photos. (I should have worn a heavier pair of socks.)

This morning, it was 22 degrees. That's a drop of 76 degrees in a couple of days. (Time will tell how the wheat crop copes. It's a long time until harvest.)

Kansas weather is undeniably schizophrenic.

180 Degrees

Change always comes bearing gifts.

~Price Pritchett

Well, maybe the temperature didn't shift 180 degrees, but Sunday's unexpected snowstorm certainly changed my plans.

In Manhattan on Saturday, I'd left my coat in the car when we went into Bramlage Coliseum for the KSHSAA recognition of state basketball championship teams. (I'll have more on my reunion with my high school basketball team later!)

On Sunday, I went to Clay Center for a baby shower for my niece, Paige, and was waiting around to see where K-State would be "dancing" in the NCAA basketball tournament.

I was mighty surprised when Randy called and said it was sleeting at home. Five minutes later, my parents called and said they were in a blizzard east of Salina. (They had been in Clay Center for the shower, too.) Everybody advised that I stay put.

So I did.

My sister got an unexpected overnight guest. I met a friend of my sister's. Kelli already seems like a friend to me, too, because of her blog, Facebook and the fact that this is a mighty small world. There really is something to that whole "six degrees of separation thing" (the idea that everyone is, on average, approximately six steps or degrees away from any other person on Earth, so that a chain of "a friend of a friend" statements can be made, on average, to connect any two people in six steps or fewer.)

I found out Sunday night that Kelli's family has a connection to ground we farm in Reno County. Yep, it's a small world.

And then, on Monday morning, I woke to a picture postcard scene. And you know me: I grabbed the camera.

I couldn't resist, even though I needed to get my KFRM report done and I needed to get on the road to get back to accompany for middle school choir.

But there was beauty in all directions ...

From the view to the west from my sister and brother-in-law's deck ...

to the interesting pattern created by snow on the shop roof ...


to the blanket of white coating the trees with a Currier and Ives stamp of approval.

If I didn't have that date with the piano bench, I would have wandered more.

No, my day didn't go as planned yesterday. I didn't get as many things crossed off my list.

But ...

Change always comes bearing gifts.
~Price Pritchett

(including about 0.60 inches on moisture on our farm ground at home!)