Today is May Day!

Because the Puritans frowned on such festivities in the New World, May Day is often overlooked in the US.  But the tradition has long been alive in Great Britain and Europe, and continues as a day of merriment for children. 

As with many customs, May Day, the “bringing in of the May” and crowning the May Queen have their roots in pagan rituals.  They all can be traced back to the Druids in the celebration of Beltane and the Romans and the worship of Flora.  Beltane represents the beginning of the half-year and the joy brought by the abundance of the spring and summer months.  Nov 1 and Samhaim begins the other half of the year.  After the Romans entered Great Britain, they brought their  5-day celebration, called Floralia (the worship of Flora, the goddess of fruit and flowers from Apr 28^th to May 2^nd ) and it was eventually interwoven into the seasonal celebration of the Druids.   With Christianity, the day became associated with agricultural feasts and since May 1 was the feast day of St Phillip and St James, they became the patron saints of agricultural workers.  The Roodmas was a Christian mass celebrated at midnight on May 1^st.

Since ancient times, villagers have gathered flowers that grew in abundance in May to decorate a large tree that had been cut and had its branches removed to become the May Pole.  They also brought in flowers and fresh young branches to decorate their homes.  Today, children hold long, colorful streamers and dance around a pole while weaving in and out to decorate it.

I’m making some colorful and whimsical appliqué flowers and pots to join in the excitement of May Day.  This is a swap that is sponsored by The Scratching Post associated with Fat Cat Patterns.  Sindy Rodenmayer is changing her website and becoming more retail oriented, so if you haven’t visited recently, it’s worth another look.

These fabrics will be the basis for my swap pieces.  I’m busy cutting out the shapes today …  Wish me luck!

Rainbow Challenge and Surprise

Purple is the April color for the 2011 Rainbow Scrap Challenge and I decided to use a fabric scrap that has purple in the stripes to make myself a nice little mug rug.  These work up so easily that I'm betting that I'll be making lots more .. no wonder everybody but me has already made some!

And now for the surprise:

Why am I happy that this poor little bush that was so full and lush just a little while ago is now almost bare of leaves?  

Before

After

Because there are a bunch of these little guys munching on it and that's exactly why I planted it!  These are caterpillars that will become monarch butterflies and this is a type of butterfly bush (one of the milkweed types) - it's their favorite food.


Now





Later
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Just another harbinger of Spring!

Ready to Spring Forward??

Daylight Savings Time:  A novel idea originally attributed to Benjamin Franklin in an essay while in Paris called “An Economical Project" way back in 1784.  Learn all you ever wanted to know about this worldwide (well partially and on different days) event at:  http://www.webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/f.html

This concept of changing clocks forward an hour in the spring supposedly gives us the opportunity to enjoy an extra hour of evening daylight.  Fooey.

Personally, I join with the ranks of the many people who hate Daylight Savings Time.  I don’t dislike it for the petty inconvenience of changing the innumerable digital time devices, but more for the sleep disruption, the seemingly contrived energy savings, the very real statistics of increased accidents and the frustration of farmers and their animals that cannot adapt to the change.  

But since my humble opinion hasn’t swayed our Congress to repeal Daylight Savings Time, today I remind you in the USA to set your clocks ahead one hour before going to bed and don’t forget to change your smoke alarm batteries.

I think I’ll just finish binding a quilt and go to bed early … LOL. 

Not Just a Postscript:

Our thoughts and prayers are with the Japanese people after their devastating earthquake - international aid efforts are rushing to your beautiful islands.