May King

May is significant for our family. It’s my birth month and that of my son, grandson and paternal grandmother. My granny, father and mother died in May. Granny was known by her second Christian name May. May was one of the names of my mother-in-law and it’s my daughter’s third name.

When we were in business, we used to open our summer garden plants centre to the public on the nearest Saturday to the 1st May. I used to tell people that when they heard the cuckoo it was time to pay us a visit. Sadly, we don’t hear the cuckoo at home these days.

I was up early as I wanted to get pictures of hawthorn/May flowers for my personal coronation invitation challenge together with the magical May Day morning dew. Young women used to wash their faces in it to ensure a beautiful complexion through the year.

I would have liked to have seen Maypole dancing and the crowning of a May Queen but there were none locally. In France bunches of lily-of-the-valley are exchanged on May Day.

Hawthorn/May flowers are the most numerous on the invitation. There are twenty-eight blooms. The tree is the ancestor of the Maypole and the flowers were used to make garlands. I will now have the Coronation of King Charles III to add to the significance of the month of May to me.

Our common hawthorn trees Crataegus monogyna are only just coming into bloom. My pics are of Midland hawthorn Crataegus laevigata or a hybrid between the two which has two stigmas and two seeds. It blooms slightly earlier.