Yesterday was my Wheatstone English concertina's 80th birthday, so I had a party. I'd hoped to sing a lot of English songs and think May-ish thoughts, too, but didn't quite get the right crowd. We had lots of funny and more or less off-color songs, instead, so had a good time anyway. Come midnight -- and being up "long before the day-o" -- I did teach 'em sang Hal an Tow (and they also sang happy birthday to me). In this part of the world we don't usually "welcome in the summer" with open arms, so it took some suspension of disbelief.

I made a cake that looked like a concertina, which I couldn't bear to cut. It had taken me about 10-12 hours total to make, and was quite detailed, so we just admired it most of the evening. The diehards who hung in until midnight got to see me cut it and got to sample it.

During the day I taught my first grade music classes to dance "The Sweets of May".

~ Becky in Tucson, Arizona