Children in my neighborhood did that every year up until last year, when they must have grown out of it. I miss the May Day baskets.
In the rest of the world, May Day is similar to our Labor Day in September, but with a leftward slant. As Wikipedia says, "May Day has long been a focal point for demonstrations by various socialist, communist and anarchist groups." The riots in Tokyo were particularly bloody and destructive and they continue to this day. Pretty scary for two little girls from Sacred Heart Academy, where we had just taken part in a procession proclaiming Mary the Queen of May before going to the theater to see a Disney double feature.
My May is shaping up nicely. The roses I managed to prune before cold weather, rain, and the wound on my shin stopped my progress are just starting to bloom now. All the others were already blooming in March and April. I really have to stop pruning my roses. It just delays the bloom season and it doesn't do much to retard the growth of the unruly giants. I pruned Rainbow Niagara down to 3 feet, for instance, but it's already at 7-8 feet now.
Sue brought me Wollerton Old Hall, a new Austin rose, a few days ago, and it already has many buds on it. I'll post photos as soon as they open. When Sue and I went shopping last week, I also bought a Scentimental rose that had mutated. It's a lovely hand-painted red rose. My theory is that it reverted all the way back to Maestro, one of the parents of Peppermint Twist, which is one of the parents of Scentimental.
Rose (Rosa 'Maestro')
