May Day

May Day was a favorite day of my mother's.  She loved spring and the flowers it brought.  She also loved tradition, and the consistency of the seasons.   Like me, winter was hard on her, so she celebrated spring with unrestrained joy. 

On May Day, she would cut flowers from her garden, usually daffodils or tulips, some times, her namesake flower, lilacs, if they were blooming--then deposit those flowers on doorsteps (strangers and family), ring the doorbell...and hide and watch the surprise.  Mostly, she would just walk away, and never claim responsibility for the act, but I imagine most people knew it was her that left them the gift of flowers.  She did this for as long as she could.  She died in 2001, and was buried the first week of May. 

I think this tradition is mostly lost these days, which is kind of sad. 

Here's one my favorite pictures of my mother.  She's with her brother, and favorite partner in crime, Jack.  It was probably taken in 1937 or 38, in front of a lilac bush.