Oh, the first of May, the first of May! 

 How lovely it is, as Calli sits and watches in the sun, beside the tulips.

And I stir up dirt, a little bit of this, a dab of compost, some potting soil, 

a smidgin of vermiculite 

and a thimble full of 'Feed and Forget.

 I make up a pot of yellow begonias, pansies and sweet alyssum

to take to my daughter across the lane.

Tuesday, when it was our elder daughter's birthday and it was still April,

we drove along to Ginty's Pond with the camera

and were mesmerized by the beautiful greens

and the sun shining on last year's candled rushes.

and the neon green clump of grass reflected in the still waters.

I went to visit the hill garden, - up the lane 

lined with the beautiful curly willow

that Charles rooted and planted and watered and nurtured -

a sweet remembrance of him

and to the garden shop for some blue lobelia....

Transfixed with spring I found two lovely poems

from the days when I was young and romantic, - when

I loved Sara Teasdale, and was in awe of Goethe.

A delicate fabric of bird song

Floats in the air,

The smell of wet wild earth

is everywhere,

Oh I must pass nothing by

Without loving it much,

The raindrop try with my lips,

The grass with my touch;

For how can I be sure

I shall see again

The world on the first of May

Shining after the rain?

Sara Teasdale May Day

How fair doth Nature

Appear again!

How bright the sunbeams!

How smiles the plain!

The flow'rs are bursting

From every bough,

And thousand voices

Each bush yields now.

And joy and gladness

Fill ev'ry breast!

Oh earth!--oh sunlight!

Oh rapture blest!

Oh love! oh loved one!

Goethe, May Song

And most wonderful of all!  

Just tonight I have news of the birth of our fifth Great Grandchild!

What more glorious for springtime and the first of May!!!