We’re well into the “merry month” of May and although we’re having a spell of unseasonably cool weather, we’ve had some nice warm days and the yard and garden are responding. Several varieties of iris are still blooming, the lovely purple wisteria on the cellar has begun to blossom and the honeysuckle in the fence row is flowering. Snowy white petals of the mock orange on the north fence and fluffy peonies add their sweet fragrance to the air.
I have fond memories of making May baskets as a youngster, filling them with flowers and hanging them on a neighbor’s doorknob. Then we would skip away and hide, leaving the basket’s recipient to guess who had left the tiny surprise gift. Another merry May Day tradition is dancing around the May pole. Pretty young ladies would don pastel dresses, place flowers in their hair and dance around a flower-trimmed pole. One young maid was chosen May queen and the others would honor her with a chain of daisies around her neck.
Mother Nature had a series of surprises for us this May too. Unusually heavy rainfalls left parts of our garden underwater for several days and a few of our plants failed to survive. We got out on Mother’s Day and planted some green bell peppers and several tomato plants we bought at the farmer’s market. Then Wednesday night a brief gust of high wind toppled a tall persimmon tree out by Jim’s new mower storage shed. Fortunately it fell straight north and missed the house and shed but it downed some electric lines and snapped the top off a nearby pole. Workers from Empire Electric were busy until the early hours of Thursday morning replacing the pole.
Jo Northrop is one of my favorite columnists. She described the month this way in a column she called The Flowers of May: “The merry, magnificent month of May is a time for going and doing and enjoying. April showers really do bring May flowers, and the extraordinary sunlit days of May are a time for walking garden paths to see and smell these flowers. May is a time when the green earth and blue sky and azuresea, all bathed in sunlight, provide us with a beautiful natural painting. If we could accurately and at will recall the colors of May, they could warm us anytime we need warmth.”
When May comes tripping in, it brings a sense of promise and hope. A nestful of baby birds under the overhang to the cellar entertains us with their eager chirping, and the mother bird provides a cheerful serenade in the morning and again at evening. Young folks are readying for graduation and stepping out into a new phase of their life. End of school activities keep the youngsters in high spirits and sister Nancy and I enjoyed some of that when we attended the “Awesome 80’s” choir concert Thursday night.
A feeling of well-being and a slight preoccupation with love in spring - and particularly in May - are not unusual, writer Northrop reminds us. In folk tales handed down through the years it is said that if you place a snail on a board in the May sun the snail will make a trail and form the first initial of your true love. Folklore also tells us that if you gaze into a well on the first day of May you’ll see the reflection of the one you will marry.
Susan Holland, who works for the Westside Eagle Observer, is a lifelong Benton County resident.
Opinion, Pages 6 on 05/18/2011