Nostalgia and May Baskets

I've been experiencing a wave of nostalgia lately. It always seems to come this time of year. Growing up in the country, my brother and I had so much fun as the weather started warming up. We planted gardens, explored the woods, fished and a did million other "outside" things - all with no concerns of being abducted! I'm certain our mother had no clue where we were most of the time during the summer, but knew we'd show up when we got hungry.

One of my favorite things to do as a child was make May Baskets. On the first of May we would make baskets out of paper, fill them with candy and flowers, then deliver them to our neighbors and friends. This is a tradition I've passed along to my boys and they love it. Even Marcus still gets a kick out of participating. Maybe he just likes to eat the leftover candy - I don't know. Finding wildflowers proved to be difficult this year. Every square inch of rural Andover has been developed, so we "borrowed" some lilacs from a fairly remote area and picked a few other lovelies just one step away from being weeds.

Our neighborhood friends were delighted to receive their May Baskets, and I got my dose of childhood. Here's a picture of one of our baskets: