May 1 is supposed to be some Communist deal, but when I was a little girl we had our own little ritual that was supposed to honor Our Lady at the start of her month.

On the first day of May, we went out and picked flowers, tucked them into homemade paper cornucopias, and took them to the neighbors. We were supposed to hang them from the doorknobs, ring the bell, and hide around the corner. I don’t actually remember doing that part to anyone except my own mother. We were encouraged not to pick the neighbors’ flowers in order to give them back to said neighbors.

Nowadays I don’t think any portion of this would work, but I also think that’s a bit sad.

…. specifically promulgated by Pope Pius XII in the 1950’s, to counter the Communist idea of International May Day. International May Day became a holiday in 1889, but I think the idea of May flowers is actually earlier, since it shows up in Louisa May Alcott’s books from the 1800’s. But without checking for copyright dates I can see that it is a close-run thing.

The United States has Labor Day in September, deliberately choosing in the 1890’s to avoid the May 1 holiday, but honoring the same impulse to give credit to workers for their effort. At that time there was a specific divergence between European and American labor groups. In the US the leader of a union had to have risen through the ranks. This was not true across the ocean.

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While we are on the subject of effort I will state that I finally made some really good pancakes after the debacle of two weeks ago. I spent several days trying to refresh my sourdough. I discussed the situation with an expert and, as I said, the pancakes were delicious.

I did come to a hypothesis. Sourdough continues to grow in the refrigerator but it’s supposed to be at a slower rate. However, I wonder whether after a while, it adapts to the cold and starts growing faster than I imagine. In that way I would always be feeding it late and that does make starter ‘sluggish’ or ‘tired’ at some point. In favor of this interpretation is the fact that unfed starter gets that dirty, gray, watery, hooch on top of it and over time my hooch appears more and more quickly. I know it’s not poisonous but I can’t stand the way it looks.

I thought about taking pictures of the pancakes but food pictures on the internet and other blogs are of a very high quality which I do not match. That’s why you get a peacock instead.

Still Life with Peacock Pie. 1627. Pieter Claesz. NGA. Public domain.

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Writing is slow. I’m working on some short stories. I find them difficult because every word has to be scrutinized since length is critical. However, I shortened one story so much that eventually a reader said it was confusing. Okay, gotta go back and return to words to their place.