May Day

Happy May Day, I can't believe it's May. In our house that means lots of birthdays along with my daughters first wedding anniversary.  I recently read about the origins of May Day from a favorite column of mine - Dear Reader.com. to quote her  "some cultures felt the first day of May divided the year in half and established the custom of "setting the new fire". It was their way of lending life to the new springtime sun. Sweethearts would walk through the smoke for good luck. The Romans May Day celebrations were devoted to the worship of Flora, goddess of flowers. They danced around Maypoles or cut down a tree, lopped of branches and wrapped it in violets. Then along came the Puritans who frowned on merriment, and most festivities were abolished". So in honor of May Day, I took some pictures of our gardens and some of the flowers in bloom right now. Enjoy the tour.
This is our Arbor garden.

This is our Bluebird house (below). We usually have 3 families every year, raising new little baby birds and then moving on. It's a highlight of the season for me. There's a new family in there right now. I like to think it's the same family returning - guess I'll never know!

Well, okay - this is not flowers but my all time favorite tree, our Fat Albert. We have since planted 2 more - one a little smaller named Hilda (in honor of my mother in law who loved our Fat Albert) and a baby one named Molly (after our cat who is still quite tiny). We have a lot of gardens and it's a way of distinguishing between them all - Molly's garden, Hilda's garden etc. I love the new growth on the tips.

And our Snowball Viburnam

We have Iris's all over the place; I love them.

This is in the back; everything this year is really filling in - like the old adage "sleep, creep and leap". Things are finally leaping!

Our purple Dames Rocket

and variegated Weigela which is flowering right now.

My son (who is a landscape design major) designed this garden and I think he did a great job!

And I love Ponytail grass; it feels as soft as it looks. Grasses always remind me of Jones Beach (former New Yorkers will remember Jones Beach).

Happy May Day Everyone!