Bringing in the May

I'm a little bit 15 days later than I intended with this post, but then, the Summer is a bit later in making an appearance this year too, so I don't feel so bad!

The first of May was Bealtaine - the first Day of Summer. The weekend was indeed a glorious one and it really did feel like Summer. In fact it felt like we had skipped Spring and jumped straight to Summer... but unfortunately it was a bit of a trick, because it didn't last and we're back into fitfully flipping between Winter and Spring weather with the occasional hour or two of Summer thrown into the mix.

On the Mayday Bank holiday, however, I'm delighted that we spontaneously grabbed the opportunity to enjoy the good weather  and headed off the beaten track and into the mountains, avoiding the throngs of people headed to our local seafront.

We found a sweet little picnic spot and lazed around in the sunshine for a few hours.

I had cobbled together a bit of a haphazard picnic moments before rushing out the door. An avocado, oat crackers, slices of goats cheese, some little sandwiches for the girls, some fresh pineapple and dried fruit and a bottle of water to share. It was just enough.

We stayed a few hours dabbling our fingers in the cold mountain stream and watching the clouds drift by and then took a leisurely drive back down the other side of the mountain and the long way home.

When we got home we assembled our Summer Nature table. The 'Spring Fairy' retired and the 'Summer Fairy' has come to stay for a while. The nature table has fast become our way of marking seasonal transitions and it's a nice simple way to make the girls aware of how the world around them changes throughout the year.

Later still, we had ice-cream on the front step in the evening sun. It was bliss.

And, even though, the weather has resumed its annoying inconsistency I am holding onto these sunny hours and looking forward to the long lazy Summer of freedom that my Parental Leave is affording. May has long been my favourite month. A month of dandelions and bluebells. A month of green leaves finally making an appearance... AND... it's also my birthday month. So, hooray for that.