Edie

It was the most gorgeous, perfect day here today too--coolish, sunny, breezy but not windy, with FEW bugs. In other words, just about as perfect as it gets in New England! I got SO much done in the flowerbeds and around the garden. I think I did a maypole dance of my own around the crabapple tree in front of my house--I raked away all the leaves, threw the three hay bales from Halloween into my truck and tossed them down back along the boundary out of sight where they can decompose without being an eyesore.

I laid down corrugated cardboard and newspapers and covered them with mulch until I ran out of cardboard and newspapers. Winter sown containers were opened and set on racks or the ground in every available sunny spot to soak up the warmth & the sun's rays--I've got lots of of tiny green babies too and potted up a few dozen containers of lupine sprouts.

The beginning of summer heralds an important time, for the winter is a difficult journey and weariness and disheartenment set in, personally one is tired down to the soul. In times past the food stocks were low; variety was a distant memory. The drab non-color of winter's end perfectly represents the dullness and fatigue that permeates on so many levels to this day. We need Beltane, as the earth needs the sun, for our very Spirit cries out for the renewal of summer jubilation.

Beltane marks that the winter's journey has passed and summer has begun, it is a festival of rapturous gaiety as it joyfully heralds the arrival of summer in her full garb. Beltane, however, is still a precarious time, the crops are still very young and tender, susceptible to frost and blight. As was the way of ancient thought, the Wheel would not turn without human intervention. People did everything in their power to encourage the growth of the Sun and His light, for the Earth will not produce without the warm love of the strong Sun. Fires, celebration and rituals were an important part of the Beltane festivities, as to insure that the warmth of the Sun's light would promote the fecundity of the earth.

Beltane marks the passage into the growing season, the immediate rousing of the earth from her gently awakening slumber, a time when the pleasures of the earth and self are fully awakened. It signals a time when the bounty of the earth will once again be had. May is a time when flowers bloom, trees are green and life has again returned from the barren landscape of winter, to the hope of bountiful harvests, not too far away, and the lighthearted bliss that only summer can bring.