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OOPS! Sorry! We’re all really busy! Here’s my article from this May. Hope you guys enjoy it!

Take a break, Gabz! You deserve it!

Since pagan times, long before the birth of Christ, May Day has been an important day. May 1st has long been celebrated in various ways, most of them lauding fertility and growing things. The ancient Celts called it Beltane, and it was their holiday proclaiming the first day of summer. (Their first day of spring was February 1st.) Among other things, individual new hearth fires were lit from the previous night‘s community bonfire, both to purify, and it was thought, to lend life to the sun.
The Romans celebrated Floralia from April 28th through May 3rd, a holiday dedicated to and in honor of the goddess Flora—the goddess of fertility, flowers and spring. In medieval England, the start of spring was celebrated by going a-maying, or bringing in the may. This was done by going out into the woods and…um…gathering flowers and greenery to decorate homes with, most notably, hawthorne.
Hawthorne is thought to be sacred to the faery folk, and thus associated with all manner of things, good and not so good. The ancient Greeks used it for marriage torches, and brides wore a crown of hawthorne. Hawthorne has beautiful white flowers in the spring and red berries in the fall—it also has long, sharp thorns!
All these celebrations could get wild and a little…well, out of hand…what with celebrating fertility and all! The advent of modern Christianity toned it down quite a bit, but some of the ancient traditions persist to this day, moreso in other countries than ours.
Some of those traditions include dancing around bonfires and around the Maypole, a pole tied with streamers or ribbons. The streamers or ribbons are woven into an intricate pattern by the dancers. Choosing the May Queen, or Queen of the May is another. A young girl is chosen to be queen for a day and crowned with a garland of flowers. The May Queen is also known as the goddess of spring or the lady of the flowers.
Still another May Day tradition, a delightful tradition which has unfortunately fallen by the wayside, is the making and gifting of May baskets. May baskets are small baskets, usually made from items at hand. The baskets can be elaborately constructed or as simple as a cone of twisted paper. The baskets are then filled with freshly picked flowers and left on an unsuspecting person’s doorstep or hung from the doorknob as a special way of surprising someone and greeting spring.
As welcome as an unexpected gift of flowers, the hummers are back, darting here and there like jewels with wings. You can track their northward migration at hummingbirds.net. The first sighting for our area was dead on, as a customer told me on the 23rd of March that one of his was back and anxiously demanding to be fed! There is also a great deal of other useful hummingbird information on this site.
Amazing to think that the little things migrate back and forth across the Gulf of Mexico! They spend their winters in Mexico or South America, and then come back to spend their summers with us, often returning to the same place each year, and going as far north as Canada. Hummers don’t have a glide feature, so they have to fly all the way. Their wings beat something like 25 times—a second! They’re all heart and courage, wrapped in jeweled fluff.
Putting feeders out is a great way to attract hummers, but you can also plant flowers for them. That means you have not only the beauty of the hummers, but you don’t have to fill your feeders as much. The hummers will enjoy the flowers, and you will have more beauty and less bugs in your yard! Hummers don’t just sip nectar—they eat mosquitoes and other insects.
Hummingbirds like any flower that has a trumpet or bell shaped bloom that they can get their beak into, or any flower that has lots of nectar. Red is a great attractant to them—that’s why we color the nectar in the feeders red. Once you get them coming, you don’t have to have red in the feeders or have red flowers. Hummers like trumpet vine, azaleas, lantana, butterfly bush, salvia, hyssop, hosta, mimosa, bee balm, petunias, nicotiania, and a lot of other flowers. As a side benefit, butterflies like most of these plants, too! Oh, and make sure you plant some parsley or fennel for the butterflies—they really like to lay their eggs on those.
You can make the nectar for hummingbird feeders. Don’t put red food coloring in it, and don‘t use honey in place of sugar! Some recipes call for boiling the water first, some don’t. Use your own judgment. It’s a very simple recipe—four parts water to one part sugar. Unused portions can be kept in the frig. Keep your feeders clean and refill as necessary. If the hummers haven’t emptied it in a couple of days, you might want to dump it and start over. It can go bad quickly in our heat.
Bees and wasps and ants like the sweet nectar, too. Make sure your bee guards are in place—those little cage or flower looking things over the ends of the holes in your feeders. The hummers, with their long beaks, can dip into the syrup quite easily and the bees can‘t reach it. Ants are another story. Some people coat the strings they hang their feeders from with oil or Vaseline. There are also things called ant moats that you can put on the string as a barrier. They’re little cups with a hole drilled in the middle that fit over the string and can be filled with water.
Hope your spring gardens are doing great! With a little luck you might be enjoying a mess of May peas and new potatoes right here shortly! Lots of butter and some hot biscuits…
Whatever you’re planting, whether it’s flowers—food for your soul, or vegetables—food for your body, have fun!