MAY FLOWERS, MOTHER'S DAY, MAY AT THE BEACH, MAY YOU ALWAYS HAVE LOBSTER

May has been a pretty confusing month, quite honestly. If you have been watching the weather forecasts you know that much of Canada is either under water or is close to being under water. We aren't in any danger here on PEI of flooding but we have seen a LOT of RAIN.

MAY FLOWERS
Of course it brings the May flowers so in the spirit of lots of rain and May flowers I went out and bought, yup, flowers. There is an amazing place a five minute drive from our house called Jewell's Country Market that sells plants, seeds, bulbs, local produce in the summer months, local meat also in the summer months, home made breads and Maritime biscuits. As if that's not enough, there is an ice cream parlour that sells 60 flavours of ice cream and fresh made fudge. That was a huge and happy surprise.

A fair sampling of the selection available.

Since we bought this house in the winter time we had no idea what had been planted in the garden. When spring arrived, all we saw were a few little shoots coming up here and there; help was needed. At any rate, Jewell's is a pretty nice place for a novice gardener to go for advice and choice of things to plant. The staff is knowledgeable and helped me decide what to plant and when to plant and how to have colour all summer long in the front garden. For those of you who do garden, you know what fun it can be and you also know it's kind of rewarding to see what you have planted thriving .I can't actually speak to the thriving part yet but, let's just say, nothing has died. If only I could keep Kaede from digging up the pansies to get at the sweet smelling manure.

The front of the house on May 9th before I planted some flowers.

It was a surprise what would spring up in spring. This is May 9th before I did a bit of planting.

Kaede likes to supervise the weed pulling and planting.

And here we have the results, from 9th May to 31st May. What a difference a few weeks can make in the life of a pansy.

MOTHER'S DAY

May is also the month in which Mother's Day is celebrated. The second Sunday of May people all over Canada celebrate their mothers with phone calls and usually flowers or a nice lunch. This year Erik and I got to celebrate with quite a few mothers as Erik played music for a Mother's Day Tea at one of the seniors' homes here on the island. Sandwiches, tea and sweets were served followed by a beautiful sheet cake proclaiming Happy Mothers' Day. The cake was ceremoniously cut by a woman who was celebrating her 98th birthday that week. Families were in attendance and there was a lively atmosphere as Erik sang and played his keyboard to entertain them.

In keeping with the theme of Mothers' Day, Erik searched for songs with a motherly theme and came up with mostly Irish songs that were dedicated to mothers, like A Mother's Love, An Irish Lullaby, My Mother's Eyes and a few old standards. I watched the people and listened to the buzz of the conversations taking place at the tables. At a table near to where I was sat a woman of about 60 with her mother. The interaction between them was beautiful to see. The younger of the two didn't waiver from looking at her mother in admiration. The resident also knew every single song that Erik played and sang along with a look of absolute rapture on her face. The woman was born in Cape Breton and her particular favourite is Song for the Mira which Erik plays for her each time we visit there.

Singing along with every song.

Some of the residents and their families.

Erik on the keyboard singing, playing and entertaining.

MAY AT THE BEACH

We discovered a beach not ten minutes away. The one we were going to stopped allowing dogs the beginning of April but this one is dog friendly year round. It's a secluded and pretty little harbour at Tracadie with fine sand and a plethora of little washed up crabs on the beach. 

A very warm but misty morning at Tracadie Harbour.

Across from the bach a little bar of sand.

All that black is not all seaweed. It's a school of tiny little fish.

Kaede's first swim of the season.

MAY YOU ALWAYS HAVE LOBSTER

A happy surprise. A barbeque of something boring turned into a feast of lobster. Coming home one day Erik stopped at a little fish shop we used to see when still renting up in Stanley Bridge. Of course he popped in to check it out for future reference and came home with these two beauties and some fresh oysters. 

Gotta' love the Maritimes and you gotta' love a man who brings home lobster and oysters for no reason.

And now, June is bustin' out all over. Sunny days surely must be upon us!!! The rain and the late spring weather is getting a bit boring and  the good spring weather seems to be avoiding us. One day it's 25c and we are on the deck eating dinner, the next it's dark, cloudy, rainy and 9c. Our shorts are sitting, patiently, in the drawer hoping to see the light of day.

One for the road.......check out the names in the bottom left corner. This is the French Open in Paris. Thought someone might believe it was actually me :-)