False alarm. No cause for concern. It's just that it's May Day!

For me, May Day falls into a category similar to April Fool's. These aren't significant holidays, but they hold a quirky place in our lives. Perhaps, though, May Day is a bit more obscure for most people and not readily acknowledged.

For years I've embraced May Day as a harbinger of spring's welcomed entry -a time when flowers commenced flowering, as well as longer sunlight, warmer days, and the birds and the bees doing what the birds and the bees are supposed to be doing.

May Day used to stir a smidgeon of excitement in our household because of a tradition I read about somewhere and started with my young children.

Each May Day we would take teeny, tiny, wee baskets and line them with foil, then fill them with water and teeny, tiny, wee flowers. I would then escort the children to a neighbor's home, place a basket on the front stoop, ring the doorbell, and run away to hide and cover our mouths to suppress giggles. Okay. So what if I looked a bit weird crouched in the bushes giggling with my children? The neighbors adored our yearly ritual. I'd also load the kids in the car and repeat the ritual at relatives' homes and other folk I knew would enjoy our invitation to welcome the onset of the wonderful month of May.

Somewhere in all the pleasure of the tradition, I think the ritual also gifted my children - with something I'm not quite sure of. Maybe it was the joy of giving -the joy of making people smile - and all accomplished with such simplicity.

Sigh. I no longer practice this tradition, and I hope you recognize the obvious reasons. There's no mistaking how silly I would look running door-to-door and hiding in the bushes sans children. In fact, I'd probably be locked up.

As I write I'm listening to a mother finch chirp at me. She's selected a light fixture on our back porch to build her nest of twigs and twine. Early on she was rarely home, but in recent days she's diligently sat on her nest of three eggs. (My husband took a careful peek one day while she was out and about.) I think she's talking so much today because she's bored sitting at home. Ahhh, the occasional perils of a fulltime homemaker!

Anyway, just here to chirp to you, too, with a Happy May Day!