Yay for May!

Where did it go, that sweet soft month of May, I want to hold on to the colors and the smells forever . . . .

MAY DAY MORNING

Oh lets leave a basket of flowers today

For the little old lady who lives down our way

Well heap it with violets white and blue

With Jack-in-the-Pulpit and wildflower too

We’ll make it of paper and line it with ferns

Then hide and we’ll watch her surprise when

She turns

And opens her door and looks out to see

Who in the world it could possible be

Virginia Scott Mike

Have you ever made a May Basket for someone else, or received one yourself?  If so, you wont forget the experience!

The happy children know it’s spring;

Then forth their little baskets bring,

And go abroad a-flowering

By twos and threes from home they stray,

And in the meadows green they play;

They choose a little Queen of May,

And crown her curls with blossoms gay.

And when at dusk they straggle home

 With flower-laden arms they come,

With roses on the cheeks abloom,

While in their hearts bird carols hum.

And when asleep they lie at night,

Their  little springtime dreams are bright,

With birds and buds and joy and light,

And all the wealth of green delight.

And this is why the tough of spring,

When blossoms blow and sweet birds sing,

Such very happiness doth bring,

It sets their heart a-caroling.

From Fresh Posies by Abbie-Farwell Brown

Houghton and Mifflin Co 1908

 . . .and the flowers of May are plentiful and fragrant beyond belief!

A time to gather violets and sweet woodruff to make a May wine bowl

But nowhere is May more fragrantly and artistically celebrated than in France, especially Paris, 

where the Muguet (Lily of the Valley) appears 

everywhere from May Day and on . . . .

 In the Candy Shops

the flower shops

and in my favorite tea room 

Its true, the greens will never be more luminous and fresh, the flowers more fragrant,

 and the morning dew so jewel-like. 

Spring gives way to summer, 

and May becomes a memory . . . .until next year.