The merry month of May

Queen Guinevere's Maying

 

Happy May Day. We've reached the halfway point between the spring equinox and the summer solstice. 

There are more holidays on May 1st than any other calendar day. May Day celebrations have a long history in England. People would “bring in the May” with the gathering of wildflowers and green branches, the weaving of floral hoops and hair garlands, and the crowning of a May king and queen. Lovely tradition. 

 

 

That photo is from a 1947 Life Magazine. I remember a maypole dance on our school playground in the 1950's. Parents came, children dressed up. In class we made colored paper May baskets to take home, something the girls probably enjoyed more than the boys. 

 

Many years ago here, the neighborhood children (including Amanda) ran around hanging paper cones with flowers on the doors.

 

If you usually check the blog in the morning, I apologize for falling down on the job. Last week was a doozy between the hospice training and another issue that took up quite a bit of our energy and time. All is well and more on that later. 

 

I hope May Day is peaceful wherever you are.  It tends to bring out the nuts in Seattle. 

 

Nurse extraordinaire

 

 

OK, these past months, we've all watched hundreds of Covid shots going into arms on TV.  And if you watch enough and look closely, they all look different-- some quick as can be, and others rather slowly and painfully drawn out. Ouch.

Giving "good" shots is both an art and a skill. And lots of practice helps. And nurses are often better at it than doctors. Our Amanda gives thousands of shots at work, and now thousands more Covid immunizations at the county vaccination sites and migrant worker farms. Patients often compliment her on quick, almost painless shots.  And it doesn't hurt that the nurse is darn pretty. 

I love that vaccination belt with the supply of alcohol swabs.  Step right up. Way to go, Amanda, we're all proud of you.

Busy bees

 

 

The Sparta apple tree is covered in lovely flowers. Not the greatest apple for eating, but they make excellent applesauce. It was a fortunate bloom this year, starting during that record warm week. Sometimes the weather is cold and wet and the pollinators aren't active.

Speaking of bees, the neighbor across the street added a second hive.  They visit all the time and are deliriously happy when our allium and lavender blooms. Maybe we should get a cut of the locally sourced organic honey? Ha.

Two years later, the plum tree recovered from that last resort pruning. There's some tiny dots of green fruit inside each pollinated flower. Homemade plum chutney again, if the aphids stay away.

I have 8 hours of Zoom meetings scheduled today and tomorrow with CHI Franciscan Hospice Volunteer Program. This completes the training requirements I've been working on for the last year. I'm now a "Certified End of Life Specialist." 

That sounds more impressive (and grim) than it really is. But even with all the training, I still wonder if I'm capable of this job. In the end, all you can do is keep an open mind and heart. It's been quite a learning journey already.

The final step is an in-person screening at the hospital, where you get a photo badge and items like PPE to finally visit patients in homes and nursing facilities. This has been a very difficult time for providing hospice services, and I know they're eager to get the volunteer program restarted.

Howdy

  

Bunny sat on his hinds legs just watching me for several minutes yesterday.  Probably wondering what I was doing in "his" garden.

See him in there? Home sweet home.

As for more useful gardens, look at all the taters going in on Amanda and Tom's hill property. And the giant fall-planted garlic crop already coming up. 

It's been a nice week in Seattle, not especially warm yet but periods of blue sky and sun.  The trees are suddenly leafing out in that beautiful green-gold color.

Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

Robert Frost

Arrowleaf balsamroot

 

Maya and Nova

For a few weeks in the spring, the brown hills above the Methow Valley come alive with green grass and wildflowers. Yellow Balsamroot is a flashy member of the Aster family and looks like a sunflower. Wide-spread across the western United States, botanist Meriwether Lewis collected a specimen in 1806. 

When young, all parts of the plant are edible, no doubt packed with vitamins for a potent spring tonic. The leaves have a slight citrus flavor, and the seeds were an especially valuable source of food and oil for Native American groups. 

An annual hike though the balsamroot bloom is de rigueur for Valley residents on a sunny spring day.

And the photos below, taken in May 2016, remind us how quickly little girls become big girls.

 

Colorful

 

Is there anything prettier than a perfectly symmetrical camellia blossom? They're especially nice right now because we haven't had any rain.  (That's about to change.)

The ornamental trees are finished, and now there's a new parade of eye-popping colors on my walks, like these swaths of magenta azaleas.

And the rhododendrons blooming in all colors. I've walked the same loop for over a year now, so it's kind of like seeing old friends again.

This shrub is everywhere. It looks delicate but tough as nails, an old variety of japonica called Mountain Snow Pieris.

Speaking of old friends, we're having lunch on Saturday with Betsy and Paul at their home in Kirkland. They were our our seatmates for many years at the Seattle Symphony. 

And speaking of the Symphony, they plan to resume in-person concerts in the fall and John has already renewed our season subscription. Fingers crossed it works out, although this will probably be a very different audience experience going forward.

Have a good weekend.