This is generally a lovely month, full of sunshine and flowers, followed by June — also a gentle month weather-wise but yielding to steamy hot days and sultry nights in July and August.
We may not be thrilled by this but the latter are the days that ripen the fruit and bring our gardens into full production and supply us with crisp salads, berries and early fruit. In spite of our complaints of being too hot, it was all carefully planned to provide us with food during the summer and an enormous harvest to keep us strong and healthy during winter.
We now rely on grocery stores to supply our needs during winters but when I was young, my Mother spent hours in a humid kitchen, bottling and canning everything she could think of for our winter food supply. She had grown most of it in an enormous vegetable garden,or picked it in the woods, or along trails or road-sides. Men have always been referred to as the breadwinners, but why? It seems to me that the women did a heap of breadwinning at home.
Mother’s Day is celebrated in May. Everyone has a Mother, so, for Pete’s sake, do something nice for her! Almost certainly she deserves it!
Just think of all those dirty diapers, those runny noses, those scratched elbows and bleeding knees she cleaned and bandaged while you roared with anger and pain.
Think of all that excitement and howling the men missed, being at work when all this trauma took place! Count your blessings, my friend and at least phone your Mum.
She will never forget the year you remembered Mother’s Day!
Helen Lang has been the Peninsula News Review’s garden columnist for more than 30 years.
