May Basket Day

May Basket Day was BIG in my family! Even when we were past the age for making May Baskets, we made them anyway, sometimes out of wallpaper samples, sometimes with DQ containers and crepe paper. We filled them with popcorn, flowers, candy corn, and Mom’s divinity. Have you ever made divinity? Let me tell you, “It ain’t easy!” It’s one of those candies that you cook until it spins a thread. You can also use a candy thermometer, but that would be cheating. Sometimes, if you didn’t do it just right, you wind up with a sticky mess of corn syrup and eggs whites instead of the most heavenly, light, dry white fluff that melts in your mouth. I learned about never giving up from my mom. If she had a batch flop out on her, she just threw it out and started over again. Never, never, never, ever, give up! Get right back in there and try it again!! So in memory of mom, thanks to my sister who sent me this lovely basket of flowers for May Basket Day. Love you sis!

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Green lace

Today was the day….the green lace day! Just before spring’s canopy pops open like an umbrella, you can see the lace, if you look fast. In past years, I have been a little lazy, thinking “tomorrow I’ll get out and take in my fill of green lace, before it passes away”. Sure, I might notice it as I walk past a window, that intricate gossamere that slips out of plump, pregnant branches, the sweetest of light and airy greens, but I never quite “get out there” before the baby leaves grow up into adolescence. Except this year….this year I did it. I am currently unemployed, what a blessing! Of coures it didn’t feel like a blessing when it happened, but now that I am recovering, I am finding time for important things, like green lace. Today I took my Olympus out to see just exactly what these baby leaves look like, scattered in the woodsy understory or high up in the bedrooms of squirrels. Here is just a little taste of what I saw. By tomorrow, or the next day perhaps, the babies will be gone, but this year I kissed their sweet cheeks and looked them right in their little green eyes!