I Like Thursday: May Day

I had a fun May Day!  And lots of good things to share with LeeAnna and friends over at I Like Thursday.

I found out my town celebrates May Day with a maypole.  People gathered in front of the post office with flowery outfits and instruments.  There were several groups of Morris dancers, too.

They paraded the short distance to the village green and erected the maypole. 

My mother happened to be visiting that day, so I invited my sister up to check out the festivities.  As we wandered around before the parade started, we found these Ukrainian eggs hanging on bushes, tree trunks and mailboxes.  We were told a local woman makes these, then hangs them out for the holiday.  Each one had a little card on them that said: 

Happy May Day! This egg represents new hope, re-birth and deep love for our life-giving planet!  Feel free to take this egg or leave it for another!

It was so fun to wander around the green trying to find all of them.  After admiring one, we'd spot another and run over to look.  I fell totally in love with the one in the lower right and took it home with me.  I made some Ukrainian eggs decades ago and always wanted to create something with that type of design.  These were marvelous!  I cant imagine the hours of work that went into each of these.

After the parade I ran into these kids that had managed to snag a bunch of the ones we had admired earlier.  One or two I hadn't seen yet, though!  Next year I'll have to come early to see how many I can find!

There was some singing, a couple of the Morris dancer troupes performed, and then they unfurled the ribbons from the pole.  Musicians gathered up around the pole and lots of people, young and old, marched around them holding the ribbons.  We left before they did the final braiding.  It was braided up quilt prettily.

My sister told me to remind her of it next year, so we shall attend again!

Usually when I talk about pigs, I mean guinea pigs.  But today, I've got real piggy pigs to share.  There's a sounder of swine that live up the hill at the crossroads.  I've waved at them from a distance.  This weekend I ran into a neighbor up there and discovered they'll come right to the fence.

"Pigs, pigs pigs!"

One came over to investigate and soon there were three or four next to the fence.  I tried to video them - they were happily grunting, rooting around the the dirt and leaves near the fence with their big floppy ears and wiggly tails.  Quite charming - I found out they like to be scratched, too.  Who knew!

Domino (the guinea pig) is still with us, becoming quite demanding.  No photos of him, though.  (sorry)

Did you see?   Sunrise is complete!  Sunday turned out to be a beautiful day to photograph the quilt.  I was able to ship it out on Monday.  I started quilting the fourth promised quilt this week.   

I finished The Hidden Palace, which was the sequel to The Golem and the Jinni.  An excellent book.  It's hard to tell which of them I liked better.  I really hope Wecker writes more. 

What a weekend!