Beltane? May Day? or mayday?

Happy May Day from the North Country. We can tell it's May 1st by the mid-day temperature of 41℉. Some of us believe that makes it more than one kind of Mayday! It would most likely be even more frustrating and disheartening if we were celebrating the feast of Beltane, the start of druid Summer. For that matter, with the local temperatures we're enjoying, celebrating today with a fire festival has lots of appeal. Unfortunately, about half of Minnesota is under burning restrictions, so no Beltane fires for us.

in May, the yaks come back

Photo by J. Harrington

That's probably just as well for one of the neighbors. They've a small herd of yaks that they pasture nearby during the warmer months. We noticed them this morning as we drove past. Given the length of yak hair(?) - fur(?), it might be dangerous for the animals to drive them between Beltane fires to purify them.

May is the month for turtle travel

Photo by J. Harrington

If the weather isn't too far out of whack, May should be the month for wild flowers and turtles. At least, May is the month when we have the most pictures of wild flowers and turtles. Another contender this May might be sandhill cranes. Several just flew, trumpeting, over the house. We were standing on the deck with both dogs, surveying the status of things in our domain, when crane calls from directly overhead, and not very high, startled the dickens out of all three of us. May could turn out to be more exciting than we've been anticipating. Stay tuned!

Turtle

By Kay Ryan

Who would be a turtle who could help it?

A barely mobile hard roll, a four-oared helmet,

she can ill afford the chances she must take

in rowing toward the grasses that she eats.

Her track is graceless, like dragging

a packing-case places, and almost any slope

defeats her modest hopes. Even being practical,

she's often stuck up to the axle on her way

to something edible. With everything optimal,

she skirts the ditch which would convert

her shell into a serving dish. She lives

below luck-level, never imagining some lottery

will change her load of pottery to wings.

Her only levity is patience,

the sport of truly chastened things.

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