May 1. Happy May Day!

We don’t do much about May Day here in the U.S. but when I first moved to Montana, I happened to be in a local book shop on May Day morning when the husband of Heidi brought her a cup of coffee, gave her a May Day kiss and went happily away to deliver May Day baskets. Heidi, who is also the potter that made my “word” dishes, related that her husband, Leif, LOVED May Day and that he made gorgeous baskets of goodies to give to friends and family. I hope he still does.

My Grandpa Jim declared that May Day was the day to shuck your shoes and go barefoot for the summer.

May 1 is also the traditional day to plant sweet peas.

May Day here in Montana, this year, dawned gray and a little foggy but it is to clear and hit 51F this afternoon. Anything above 50 is shorts weather but I might wait just a bit as it is currently only 34F.

The last 2 days of April did a great job of acting like Winter. Monday, Bear and I headed out in the Jeep for a walk at the subdivision up the highway. It was so windy that I was a bit concerned about walking in the woods as Bear and I do not have helmets. As we got near the highway, it was obvious that a snow squall was approaching. The clouds moving along the mountain range were dark and heavy, obscuring the mountains completely. We turned around, got a quick walk in the most open area of the woods and made it inside before a blizzard-like squall hit with even stronger wind, blowing snow and temperatures that plummeted 10 degrees in short order.

Yesterday, we tried again. It was gray, but calm.

As we drove into the subdivision, it started graupeling. I parked. It usually doesn’t graupel for long.

Typically, when it graupels, like when it hails, it is a quick squall.

We waited.

I had a good book on my phone Kindle app.

Ten minutes and the graupel changed to snow.

We had a snowy walk on the last day of April.

And then we returned to Winter.

Today, though, today is May 1.

I’ll kick off my shoes and put on my shorts.

This afternoon.

I hope.