“Among the changing months, May stands confest the sweetest, and in fairest colors dressed.”
Last night the rain poured, jagged streaks of lightning struck and then there was the thunder. It was at first a faint rumble in the distance, and I wasn’t sure it was thunder so I muted the TV to listen. All of a sudden, in a heart beat, the thunder was right over my roof and outside the window. I have never heard thunder so near. All of us jumped. I held the dogs though they seemed okay. The lightning lit up the back window. The rain continued though it was lighter than before.
Last night Henry scared the bejesus out of me. He was asleep then without warning he barked loudly and intensely, jumped off the couch at the same time, slid on the rug in the hall and ran to the back door where he continued to bark. I checked. Whatever had spooked him was gone. Last night was quite dramatic.
Today is a delight. The bright sun is framed by a deep blue sky. It is in the high 50’s where it is supposed to stay all day. Last night’s wind is still blowing, still strong. I can hear it, and I can see the trees’ branches swaying and bending. I have outside chores. I need to grab my prisoner’s stick and clean up Nala’s trash in the backyard. My little library has to be checked, and I have a few books to add. The white lights on the back deck banister were chewed by a spawn of Satan. They had lit up the nights for months then the nights went dark. I’m going to try again.
When I was a kid, a streetlight was outside my house on the corner at the foot of the grassy hill. It had a hood of sorts, and the light hung from an upside down L shaped pole. I used to sit at the picture window in the living room and look out at the light. In the winter I watched the snow fall. In the summer I watched the bugs, mostly moths, circling the light. That light was also a signal. It had the responsibility of ending our playtime, of sending us home for the night. My neighborhood here has no streetlights, but it has kids. I wonder how they know to go home.
Today is May Day. It is a day to celebrate the coming summer, to gather wildflowers and branches, weave flower garlands and raise the May pole. Mother Nature has seen fit to gift us with a lovely May Day. Get out and dance around the pole. Celebrate!
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May 1, 2023 at 2:59 pm
Hi Kat,
Yet another beautiful day. A blue cloudless sky, light wind, and a high of 77°. This and October are the most beautiful months of the year. Not too cold and not too hot, just nice weather.
If the 10 day forecast is to be believed, we are in for a week of beautiful weather without any precipitation. However, May is usually our wettest month and we will pay hell for this dry weather in June, July, and August when very hot and very dry is normal.
Since the Communist revolution, May Day has taken on much less importance in the United States. The Bolsheviks celebrated the revolution in Russia on May Day and it hasn’t been the same since. Maybe only Cuba still celebrate May Day.
May 1, 2023 at 4:56 pm
HI Bob,
I got two of my outside chores done. I just haven’t put out the new lights. It is a lovely day here too. I’ll take weather like today rather than the colder days we had last week.
We will have a few days in the 60’s toward the middle and end of the week. We are on track for our usual spring weather. Our best months are September and October. A few Novembers we ate Thanksgiving outside.
I remember seeing films of the May Day parades through the streets of Moscow. What I remember most are the rockets. I guess now they need them all in Ukraine to blow up civilian buildings. We never had a May Day like that. It hasn’t really ever been important here.
May 1, 2023 at 7:05 pm
No pole to dance around here I think but probably many drunken people on the streets, I didn’t check. I did some garden and bike works today, it’s Labor Day, a public holiday. Labor Day isn’t really about workers anymore, it’s more of politicians celebrating themselves for talking about workers, white lies.
One lightning strike, one thunder, sun, hail, rain, everything, April weather a day late. Many cherry and apple tree blossoms this year but not enough bees and insects. At least we got enough rain lately, it’s scary to see the impact of this terrible drought in southern Europe, a predicted outcome of climate change.
May 1, 2023 at 8:24 pm
Birgit,
May isn’t celebrated much here. I used to leave baskets with a few plants in them for friends but not lately.
I cleaned the yard and managed to fill a bag with Nala trash. She had stolen trash from the recycle bins, and I found food wrappers from what she had stolen.
We have a Labor Day in September. Mostly it is now barbecues.
A few before and after pictures have been surfacing on Facebook. They show lakes and rivers in the western states. The before show how low the water level was. The afters are the lakes back to their original depths. That was from all the snow and rain they had this winter. It almost appears to be a miracle.