Jack-in-the-Green

Each MayDay, for ages and ages, there has been a Jack-in-the-Green festival in Hastings. The current one has been dancing up All Saint's Street since 1983. I love to go when I can and always take my camera. Here are a few highlights, and brief story of the day.

The sun was shining, always a good start

we had breakfast accompanied by a seagull and watched the Merry Go Round man attend to his Merry Go Round, which jingles in the town centre. Then off to the seafront to see what the day will bring

bikers and their bikes gather here for the yearly rally which also takes place on MayDay with the Carlisle Pub as it's final destination, where I suspect much hailing and toasting is done

 while Mayday'ers wander in loose clusters towards the Old Town

a giantess waits

 old friends greet each other

bikers mingle with musicians while a Mermaid

 watches over the crowds

drummers in their yellow wait to drum

others wait and watch

 some wander amongst the fishing boats

 others draw wondering gazes

 wriggle their golden skins

 find unusual places to see the excitements

 host dragons in their hats

 have wings

A great crowd, waiting for the Jack-in-the_Green to be released from the Fisherman's Museum at the end of the street. The Sambalanco drummers lead the drum roll, which bounces off the high properties, net huts and cliff faces of the Old Town and calls Jack out of his lair

 he bounces out, surrounded by drummers  and dancers and the whole panoply of people

to march along the seafront, and begin his promenade up All Saints Street, where more wait to cheer

 windows are decked

and Jack begins his wild carousing passage around the Old Town  

 with rude Morris dancing ladies

 beautiful Wood Lords

 dainty damsels

and Wylde Men

 the Giantess bows to everyone, high and low

 swirly green is flounced about

 noses are daubed with the good luck splodge of Spring

 fair farm girls wave their flowered arches

 and other delights follow

all in all it is a glorious parade of wonderful costumes,

smiling faces and drumming that thrums right through to your soul.

It is a glorious day, and is part of a longer programme of May festivities that surround this old festival. 

As one wanders about, soaking up all this life and vitality, the occasional whisper is heard

"this is all a bit Pagan isn't it?"

Well ... yes actually ....

the rest of my pics can be seen here
Hastings Jack-in-the-Green
but any Google search on Hastings Jack-in-the-Green will find you loads more

Orchid

A wander down to the dell

The garden, or at least select bits of it, is full of spring at the moment. Understand that I am careful to edit out the weedy bits, the unruly bits and the bits that are just soggy mud! However, I'd like to take you for a walk down to the dell where the badgers dwell, as there has been a bit of a change there over the last several months

We'll start at the top though, with the lovely pots that my dear soul keeps refreshed and colourful, to greet us as we step out of the conservatory, they are looking so pretty just now and I wouldn't want you to miss them. There are a lot of bluebells in our flower beds, in fact there isn't a bed that doesn't have some, but they look so lovely at this time of year that I couldn't think of pulling them out, as I'm sure some more fussy gardeners would do. 

I'll skip the middle bits, you've seen the highlights in the last two posts, and what I really want to show you is this, our very first apple blossom. We've planted a dual fruit apple, with two stems grafted onto one rootstock; a cooker and an eater. And here is the lovely cluster of flowers on one of them, a delicious ruffle of pink and white that promises much pleasure to come. I'm thinking arching sprays of blossom, alive with dancing butterflys; mind you this will require the tree to grow above the level of my kneecaps - it is rather wee at the moment but give it time, this is its first year. If these lovely blooms result in fruit, be sure I'll let you know. We also planted a plum, called Herman. I failed to get pictures of its starry white flowers, but it also promises good things, including a fine crop of fruit this year, so again, I will report! I suspect they will also be popular with the badgers once we have more fruit than we can use - perhaps fermented windfalls will result in drunken badger parties!

And here is the other thing I want to show you. We had some rugged steps installed in the Autumn. They look at bit raw now, but getting to the bottom was a bit of an obstacle course before, as the badgers create an ankle breaking muddle of holes and clumps in their foraging for worms. We are both aware that we are significantly past the first flush of youth, and want to keep this part of the garden accessible once we get old, frail and wobbly!

You can see one lone daffodil at the moment, but earlier in the season there was a lovely trail of them all along this side of the steps. On the right hand side, as well as the plum and apple, we are nestling some wild flowers against the steps (to avoid those enthusiastic badgers) and have scattered liberal handfuls of wild flower seed all about to, encourage more variety in this little bit of urban wild space. At the very bottom is the path that the foxes and badgers use in their nightly explorations. It winds it's way between Hogweed, Queen Anne's Lace and nettles (a very good host plant for caterpillars)

and looking back, you can see how satisfied Rum and Raisin are with their new viewing platforms. In another few weeks the steps will almost disappear in a froth of umbellifers and whatever else comes up this year

On the way back up, we should  pause in the vegetable garden to admire the beans - aren't these flowers delightful?

Then we stop again to see that the lilac blossom are starting to open - this tree seems to flower every other year, though a quick bit of Googling suggests this may be because I've not cut back the flower heads so will try that this year.

A little further and we find ourselves back at the top of the garden, just in time to catch the sunlight making the bluebells glow. Who could resist them?

I know we complain about rain but ....

what else has the power to fill out the flowers

Morning view

I love this view just outside my indoor sitting place. It is the path that was invisible, unknown when we first moved in. It has been cleared and made proper with salvaged wood edging, from the yew tree, and salvaged pavers from the muddle that has become our courtyard. The little Japanese lady tilts her head invitingly, nestled amongst the froth of euphorbia.

The path is lined by delicate heart leaves and flowers of epimedium 

and the white of the "bluebells" which shine in the morning air. 

It is always full of movement, as the big green laurel and the spiky tree stump hold bird feeders with all sorts of goodness. There are fat balls and cylinders, peanuts, which the squirrel hangs upside down to steal, a seed feeder which the fat pigeons set swaying as they land awkwardly on its platform and a tray with meal worms for the little chicks that must be hatching sometime soon

Towards the end of the path is the deep red of the Japanese maple, bought for me by Mum many years ago. It lived in a pot until I knew I'd found the place where I would stop. Now it's delicate leaves are sensitive to every drift if air that ripples through them; they fill the space with fluttering movement

Near the house there are the outrageous, blowsy flowers of the ranunculus that were my Mother's Day gift this year and, if you look very carefully, in the shade of the dark laurel leaves, you will see the soft oval of a blue tit's body, wings made invisible by their speed, arrowing straight for the food that waits for him on the spiky stump that was once an unruly conifer gown past its space.

See, here he is.

A pleasing view to greet to greet me each day.