Every year we have snowballs in May. Of course, they are not the frozen kind (well, at least most years they are not). They are the flowering snowballs . . .

We call this bush the Grammy Becker bush. Long ago we brought a small piece of one of her bushes home and planted it. Grammy Becker’s soil, however, was southern Minnesota ‘black gold.’ Our soil is Anoka sand plain – and I emphasize sand. While her bush had very large blossoms (snowballs), our are much smaller. Every year, though, it has more and more blossoms and has turned into more of a tree-bush.

In the pictures below, you will see a picture of Grammy Becker’s homestead not long before it was torn down to make room for a new house. The snowball bushes were near the front door. All are gone – the house, most of the out buildings, the snowball bushes and Grammy Becker. We think of her often, especially in May, when our snowballs appear.

And here she is – peeking out of the old shed … The shed is long gone … but perhaps Grammy Becker is still watching over her home place.

Thanks for reading!