May

Well, hellooooooo May. I'm glad to see you here, even though April and March were pretty kind to us. My calendar page for May. The first summer we were in this house I planted a bunch of everlasting flowers (or, straw flowers) and I got a bumper crop. The following years they all fizzled. I have a few vases around the house that hold the flowers from the first year but they are getting pretty dusty and I don't know a way to clean them and I think they are destined for the compost bin. Perhaps this summer I'll be successful again. This picture is from the first year, complete with the speck of black soot which was right on the flower but I didn't take notice until the season was over. It's still one of my favorite shots, maybe because of the memories of that time.
My quotes are "Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it" (Rumi) and "Honour every being, for each is needed to complete the tapestry of life on earth" (Penelope Smith). I'm going to try to remember the last one when the insect life gets back in full swing.

And a shot of the hyacinths that inspired my haiku this morning. Yesterday I noticed that the hyacinths in my front garden had sprung and were so heavy a bunch of them were lying down. So I brought them inside and put them in water; they really fill the house with their fragrance.