May Day and Mother's Day

(Pic from Southwest Library.)
What a festive occasion May Day used to be...back in "my day" of the early '70s, during my early school years.  On this year's May Day, I ran into three school teacher's at work, and asked each of them "does your school still celebrate May Day with a Maypole?"  I was so disappointed to hear each of them say, "no, [that is a thing of the past]."  It was decided that schools simply don't have funds for such events today; what a sad thing.  Truly, how much would it cost to implement a Maypole at our local schools?  Surely they all have flag poles already...or I surely HOPE they do!  Add a bit of ribbon, (or even inexpensive party streamers, as we used in my day), as well as the readily available students within the schools, and voila ~~ a maypole!  Even though I do not have children (other than my two labrador retrievers!), I want to seriously consider making this a project for next year, at least at one of the local schools.  However, I can truly imagine that "my children" would have a grand time with this also, ... although the steamers would end up shredded to bits, lol!  Please let me hear from you ~~ do ANY schools celebrate with a Maypole today?  Is it "unethical" or "politically incorrect" today to use a standard flagpole for such an occasion?  How reasonable is my thought of providing local schools with streamers, so they can share in this celebration today?

Moving on, we have Mother's Day coming up on Sunday!  I lost Mom in 2002, but she "made her appearance" in my garden this morning!

This is the St. Francis that came from Mom's garden, and I cherish it within my own garden today.  It also marks the area where Mom's ashes were spread, and is one of my favorite spots within my garden because of this.  The ferns growing around St. Francis were also from Mom's garden.  This morning, I found this Peony bloom bursting forth beside St. Francis, and it just made me smile.  While the Peony plant actually came from my DH's Grandmother's garden, to me, it said, "Hello, I Love You" from my Mom.  What an awesome thing to find during the week of Mother's Day .... or anytime!  I will share this with my DH when he arrives home tonite, and I feel certain that it will say, for him, "Love You, Son," from his Grandmother!

Looking further in my garden, I found these lovelies this morning, also:

Sweet William, in full bloom.

Iris in full bloom in foreground, and Wisteria arbor in background.

Variegated Hosta ... that are inspiring a collage background!

As for my art, I've been blog hopping and finding SO much inspiration!  There are so many happy sites to see, and so much inspiration within them.  I'm so glad to be living in this time, when blog sharing is becoming a grand way of sharing ourselves, our art, and our lovely "junkin' finds," along with so much more.  My brain is overflowing with inspiration .... I'm determining that I need to keep a journal beside my keyboard so I can make notes of the inspiring things I find, and recall all of them when time allows for creativity.  In the interim, they are all going into my "favorites" list and I hope to find time to flip through them again, and be inspired to take my own spin on them, and make something fun!

Last week, I began my latest "Goddess" painting.  While I am not into tarot cards, or readings, I happened upon a box of tarot cards at a great price recently, thinking that their celtic patterns may inspire a collage background or some such novelty within my art.  My favorite image within the cards was the "High Priestess" card, and this is my inpretation of her.

She is still a Work In Progress (WIP), mind you, but she's what I am working on currently.  Happy Mother's Day, and Creating to each of you!  xoxo ~~ Jeanne