May Sarton

I used to love going to the Fogg to look at this striking portrait of an intensely creative woman, May Sarton, with a huge sense of integrity. She is very inspiring to many.

May Sarton was born in 1912 in Belgium. She was a prolific poet, novelist and memoirist. She lived in New Hampshire and Maine in her adult life. She guarded her solitude carefully.

Her novel Mrs. Stevens Hears The Mermaids Singing from 1965 was a watershed novel about lesbianism. May Sarton wanted to write about women who lived normal lives and who were healthy and happy as well as lesbian.
Her grave is a stone Phoenix.

She shares her birthday with my grandmother who meant a great deal to me.

Beltane

Happy Birthday to Luna who is two today and to Johannes Horn a friend who lives in Switzerland and Amy Cavelier who lives in Mass. I met her at the wonderful Bryn Mawr Bookstore in Cambridge, Mass! Johannes and I met at MIT when we both worked at the List Visual Arts Center. They are all Taurus like myself and I think friendship comes natural and flows comfortably between Taurus.
Beltane a festival of fertility, jumping through the fire for purification and rebirth and also letting go revelling in spring celebration in all its forms.
It is a good time for planting, and starting new projects, energy levels are going up with the increased light and warmth.

White Rabbits times two

MAY DAY

May Pole Dancing a May Day tradition .

William Kempe a Shakespearian actor who Morris danced from London to Norfolk in nine days!

Morris Dancing a tradition for May Day even early at dawn in some places. Notice the white clothing, bells around shins and sticks, and they also use white handkerchiefs.

WALPURGIS

Phoenix rising out of the flames, rebirth through fire.

Walpurgis night bonfire in front of City Hall on the lake in Stockholm where I grew up. The tradition is to have a fire and sing songs and celebrate the coming of spring. Some even jump through the fire for purification. Walpurgis is connected to Beltane the ancient pagan festival of fertility held on May 2nd. In Germany it is called Hexen-nacht and it does have associations with witches all over Scandinavia too.

The first part of the first act of Faust is called Walpurgisnacht.

Incidentally Hitler and his gang all committed suicide in Berlin on Walpurgis in 1945.

Coretta Scott King

Coretta Scott King 1927-2006 was born today. An amazing woman, activist and wife of Martin Luther King, seen below.

Took a couple of weeks out to...

ONE-Empty the garage, before it was knocked down. Completely erased to make way for a new room!
That meant erecting a shed, en bod, ett skjul kanske! This is a beautiful wooden little house which I am going to paint falu rodfarg-a Swedish old fashioned preserving colour and paint.
TWO- Move into the shed and do this in our one weekend of hot weather!
THREE-Arrival of demolishers/builders and the digging out of a foundation.
FOUR-Moving a birch tree. I pray it survives.
FIVE-Clearing out the yard so that it can get wrecked!
SIX- Arrival of a friend from Australia.
SEVEN-Preparations for a big birthday weekend party! Friends coming from all over including the US.
EIGHT-Luna having her kittens, three of them.
NINE-Having my hair straightened and finding a new dress for my party.
TEN-Enjoying it all to the max!