The Merry Month of May

I expect that many of you will remember the weeks I spent making rag jackets for my son, granddaughter and a friend for the May Day procession of the Jack in The Green Festival, while I wasn't well. These are the three jackets in the above picture.

The walk took place on Saturday.

The making of these jackets really did give me a purpose to get up and go, when I was going through the uncharted waters of chemotherapy.

Sam and Amber left the house early on Saturday morning. The weather forecast was not good, but it kept dry.

Millie, the youngest granddaughter was not capable of the long walk from the harbour side to the site in Horfield where the procession ended, so it was decided that I would look after her and meet them half way, later in the afternoon.

Millie was happy to go on the swings in a Park about a mile and a half from where we live. It was still quite a hilly walk for the two of us but we did it with no problems.

Very soon we heard the beating of the drums and the sounds of the melodian, violin and pipes, so we knew that the procession was nearing the place where we were waiting.

Millie was pleased to be reunited with her daddy and I was very warmly greeted because most of the group knew that I had undergone chemo and admired my effort to get there, and of course, I'd made the jackets!

I must admit that they are among the nicest group of people that you could ever come across.

I was able to complete the walk (another 2 miles or so) and we ended up on Horfield Common where the Jack was *killed* and dismantled.

I dare say there are some deep folklore beliefs involved in all of this, but I am not at all interested in them.

What I am interested in, is the close-knit community spirit that goes on in this group and the way they react warmly to all those around them. I also love processions.

They inspire tradition and a community spirit that is sadly lacking in our area today.

I was so pleased that Amber could manage the long walk from the very beginning to the end and also that I could make the occasion too. I had no idea whether I would be well enough to go until the last minute and I was glad that the weather kept dry because the very next day turned out to be extremely wet in the morning.

Whatever the Jack did..... it has been raining and cold ever since.

If you would like photos of last years Jack in the Green you can read about it on my blog here.......

or you can find out more about the festival here. ( On the official site.)

Photos copyright: Maggie May

May is also the start of the summer and it is also the month of my birthday.

The green flowers in the garden are, I think, some kind of early clematis. They seem to battle through a passionflower every year, though the passion flower has been severely stunted by the bad frost of last winter and is still a brown mass of twiggy like bare stems. I do love to see these green flowers though.

Dicentra Spectabilis, otherwise known as Bleeding Heart, is another early flowering plant that seems to come out in my garden year after year, no matter what the weather throws at it. A truly lovely flower.

The primulas below have been nibbled by something or other, maybe from the little elves that live under the blue toad stool. I love the colour of the blue primula.

I wonder what the weather will be like for the rest of May this year?

Do other readers love this month, as much as I do?

Sewing Strips

Photos copyright: Maggie May

In my last post I was saying that I would be resting in front of the gas fire while I recovered from chemo. Well that just didn't happen. The weather turned out brighter and it wasn't cold. This time I felt quite reasonable till day three, so I was able to get on with a few things.

My son, Sam had announced that he would be requiring a rag jacket for his Morris Dancing on May Day.

So it was with this in mind that I had bought a *job lot* of suitable colours from a Charity shop some days ago and thought that it would be therapeutic to cut them out into strips and to start to sew them on to the green shirt we were using as a base. The object is to completely cover the shirt with strips of different colours (predominately green). When dancing, the strips twirl about. Some of the dancing can look quite aggressive with sticks and poles and one occasion Sam received a blooded nose as well as various bumps to the head.

Anyway, it did turn out to be therapeutic, cutting and stitching until day 4, when the going got tough. However this time round, I didn't seem to have the chemo brain syndrome, so some things went much better.

When this jacket is finished, I have to make one for Amber, as she had to borrow one last May Day. Now she has decided that she wants her own.

Go here if you'd like to see May Day last year and get a glimpse of the raggedy jackets.

It was good to see the sun streaming through the windows while I was recovering this time round and although I won't feel really well for a few days, I know that things will improve.

Traditional English May Day

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

May Day traditionally, is steeped in history and celebrations go back before the middle ages, probably even before then.

Isn't the chap below a strapping young lad? He plays the melodion, which is like a miniature accordion, very well.

I was recently following the above group, Jack in the Green, together with a good few Morris Dancers, who had walked right across the city. They do this every year come rain or shine, on the first Saturday following May 1st. This year because my son, Sam was involved, I decided to go with them, though not the whole distance, as I thought it was too far for Millie to walk, though Amber did manage the complete route, being a bit older.

Here they are, my family, flowers in hair. Not Sam!

The tall Christmas tree like object that is moving in front of the procession is called a Jack! Anyone who gets too close to him has a dab of green daubed onto their nose! I got caught, as did most people!

Amber had borrowed another child's outfit for a while. She will have her own next year. A pity about her ear poking that I have only just noticed! Oh well, don't they say, never work with children or animals!

I was talking to a member of this group, who said that in early Victorian times, chimney sweeps were quite poor and it was against the law to beg or busk. On May Day, they coloured their faces green and dressed up and collected a lot of money through dancing, that helped them through hard times. Nobody recognized them, so that was how this particular group was started. You can see that the fiddler is dressed in a chimney sweep outfit, to carry on the tradition. You can read more about Jack in the Green here. There are so many legends attached to it and I have only scraped the surface.

When we had walked through a very busy main road and risked the Saturday traffic, which often ground to a halt because of us all, we eventually arrived in a lovely green park, where more dancing took place and then suddenly, the Jack was set upon and smashed up by all the bystanders and everyone rushed forward to take flowers and ivy off the framework. Fortunately, the group let the man who was operating the Jack, out first!

It was a lovely warm, sunny day and we had a very pleasant time and I will definitely go again next year.

Photostory Friday is hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek.

Wrens and Rats

I explained in my post A Happy Event that we had wrens making a nest in one of these pouches that were really only ever bought as night time retreats for birds to roost in during cold weather. As far as I know, no bird has ever been even slightly interested in them until this year, that is. Although I felt very honoured that wrens had chosen my garden to nest in, I was very disappointed as we were about to alter our kitchen roof and birds nesting would well and truly hold up our plans.

The wrens came back and forth with nesting material for a while and then disappeared for a week or so. Then they returned.

What is going on? Are they nesting or not?

I looked up details of nesting wrens on the Internet and noticed that the poor male bird builds three nests and the female chooses only one of them to lay her eggs in. The male must have made an effort to impress his missus with this nest, but she must have turned it down, as there has been no activity whatsoever for a good while.

You will be expecting an update on my rat problem. Do you remember (here) I said I wouldn't mention it until May Day! This is in honour of our name as all important decisions are made on that day in this household! May Day is also an international distress signal and I have been feeling very distressed about the rat problem, so it seemed appropriate to wait until that day.

May Day was also the day for Morris Dancing and son, Sam got up at 4 am to dance some where or other, more fool him I say! But I looked after the grandchildren while he did it. May Day is also traditionally, a day for dancing round the Maypole. Good old English traditions that are in danger of dying out, so Sam is doing his bit for the country, helping to keep these traditions going. I will be blogging about some of these things, separately, very soon.

Well May Day has arrived and gone and it has been decided that although the rat problem has calmed down since the underpinning, there have been some noises still, occasionally in the ceiling space but not like before. That indicates that there were several ways in. The underpinning solved the rat highway, but there is a little lane still to be blocked off.

So what are we going to do?

We have arranged to start work on the kitchen roof very soon. Scaffolders have been sending quotes and later this week, the May household will be in absolute turmoil yet again as work progresses. All this commotion for a rat, or two, or three!