A May Day Change of Plans Thursday, May 1 2008
Daily 12:03 pm
1 May 2008
May Day/Beltane
Happy Birthday, KellyeBeth! Happy Birthday, Kat!
Beltane is a cross-quarter day, marking the halfway point between the Vernal (Spring) Equinox and the Summer Solstice.
Historically speaking, Beltane, or May Day as I grew up calling it, was the celebration of the beginning of summer. And that day in June that we now call the first day of summer—the Summer Solstice–was called Mid-Summer’s Day. It was the literal halfway point of the summer. The next cross-quarter day of Lammas, marking the beginning of the harvest. Hence, the well-known Shakespearean A Mid-Summer’s Night Dream taking place on the longest day and shortest night of the year. Without that piece of the calendaric puzzle, Shakespeare’s title makes little sense.
As a little girl, I can clearly remember making May Day baskets and putting them on people’s doors. We did this in many styles over the years. The first ones I remember we made from a piece of construction paper, curled into a cone, with a second strip of paper stapled to the sides as a handle long enough to hang over a doorknob. Another May Day project involved glueing pretty pictures cut from magazines onto an empty tissue box. And yet another crafty May Day saw us weaving strips of construction paper into a cross shape and folding the “legs” of the cross up to meet one another, thus making a sort of box (or basket) with a rounded bottom. It was nearly always staples that held the handles to the baskets—much more secure than glue. We’d then fill the little baskets with picked handfuls of wildflowers, destined to live only a short while with no water, but a heartfelt gift, nonetheless.
This year, I am celebrating May Day by working. I worked most of the night, finally giving in to my tiredness at about 5:30 a.m. Kyle got up this morning and did his whole morning dance without waking me. The phone ringing did, though! I got out of bed just in time to say goodbye and blow him a kiss from the porch. So, after only three hours of horizontal respite, I picked up where I left off in the workshop.
Just moments ago, I heard the UPS truck. On my doorstep—the overnighted trim. Unfortunately, as my photo shows, the new trim and the old trim are different. <sigh> At least I like the new trim!
So, now, it seems I must remove the trim that there was not enough of, and replace it with the new. Perhaps I will find a better use for the original trim–in a spot that doesn’t require as much yardage.
I guess it’s a fitting way to mark a holyday that celebrates fertility, to be creative in your work! In some ways my design and creation of beautiful garments is a demonstration of a type of fertility. Yay, me!
Tra-la! It’s May, the lusty month of May!
That lovely month when everyone goes blissfully astray.
It’s here, it’s here, that shocking time of year–
When tons of wicked little thoughts merrily appear!
It is with thanks to Lerner and Loewe for their wonderful song from Camelot, that I now go back to my work—singing!
~MB
for making public, the fact that I’m building this outfit in little more than a week. But, what’s easy to overlook, is that my week isn’t a forty-hour work week. When I’m up against a deadline, I work as many hours as I need to, to get things done. I strongly suspect that sleep will be a luxury this week—one that I see little of. Even if I only work twelve-hour days, that easily turns what would be forty hours in corporate America, into sixty hours in my workshop. So, I would put forth the fact that there are 168 hours in a week! 
