What is your favourite flower? Now that is tough as I love so many. Favourite may have to be the tulip.
How do you finish the phrase April showers? April showers bring May flowers and now how does your garden grow….
Were your thoughts of your mother on Mother’s Day positive? Yes my thoughts of my mother were very positive. My thoughts of my Mother on Mother’s day were thankful thoughts. Grateful thoughts of how my Mother is always loving and fair and kind and good. Thoughts of how people always say I am such a good mother and I think ‘But I had a wonderful mother so it isn’t a far stretch that I would be a good one too.’
Do you celebrate May Day? I don’t celebrate May Day at all. Not even a little bit. If I am lucky to be here next year maybe I will make myself a little posy.
‘Princess of May’ anyone? Uh huh. Shit yeah. I went to a Catholic School and when I was in Grade 2, I was picked to be Princess of May because I was the best at religion. I got to wear a white dress (like a communion dress) and went in a procession. There was a girl picked to represent her grade and it was a big deal. My father came to watch; my mother couldn’t because she suffered with agoraphobia. My father was to take pictures with the video camera and to this day it totally fucking irritates me because you see a procession of young girls coming out just like fairies and then up the camera goes to follow a small plane. When the camera comes back down after however many minutes, the procession is done and so is the tape. Fuck Dad (miss you and love you).
66 comments:
Hi Renee! Lilly flowers are so lovely. They look like they dance into a pose.
HOpe your having a great day!
BIG SMILE:)
WAAAAAAAA-hahahahaha! OMG, Renee, I am laughing my butt off. I love you and every word that comes out of your mouth!
I don't think parents realize how important some things are to kids. And then I wonder why some of these childhood memories are so ingrained in our memories. I too have such memories.
Regarding the sleeves ... they will get here. I have family in Winnipeg who sent stuff out by mail and it took for ever to get here. Don't be concerned, it will make it here.
Those stupid steroids have me up at 2:30 in the morning. Thank goodness for blogging.
my mother was the May queen until they realized they were celebrating an old pagan festival- ha- hilarious xx
Lilacs...white ones, or dark purple, or light purple...just any kind of lilac. Love them.
Ah, the ever present home video camera - did anything good really come of those?
Snort....yep....fuck em and miss em
Oh dear
xxx
Aww bittersweet post Renee. I missed my mum on Mother's day. She could be a total biatch but always intuitive and I loved her muchly. She taught me all I know although she'd turn in her grave if she could see us eating dinner on the couch instead of around the table. My Dad would have followed the plane, identified it and been overwhelmingly excited at the end because he filmed a spitfire! 'Oh and by the way you looked lovely darling!"
Clare still hasn't forgiven me for giving her a Tahitian flower garland for her confirmation rather than the traditional veil. Then there's little 'traditional' about moi! My favourite flower/s Lillies and Irises. Peace be with you sunshine! I'm off to rainy Melbourne!
My favorite flowers are poppies followed by tulips. My garden grows really well because someone else plants it....lol!
My thoughts on Mother's day were also thankful to have my mom healthy.
What's May Day? This Canadian has never heard of it...lol!
Your Princess of May story is so hilarious! Leave it to our parents to completely screw things up!
I love your comments on your Mom! She sounds like such a wonderful woman. I can relate to the agrophobia - my mom suffered something similar and missed out on a lot of things becuase of it! That always made me sad.
Ha ha..funny about your dad. He really DID see a "shiny object" and got distracted! Too funny!
Have a wonderful day dear. I can't get into most blogs today, so I'll catch up with you later. If you can get in. I have something for you.
I am sorry about your Mom's agoraphobia and your Dad's distractedness. I cannot blame him too much because I am the same way. Cannot be trusted to film something because then you would get a film of a squirrel or a pigeon or of a pretty cloud.
My favorite flower in the whole wide world is the Gardenia.
Dearest Renee...first the tears with your reminder of reality, and then thank Heaven for the incredible YOU. HA! Your father! Too funny. I am still giggling. You really are phenomenal. Sending you all my love, today and always, Deborah
Hi Renee, I will tell you said this, it will make her day.
I talk about you to her and how special you are.
You are one of my friends as if you live here in the village.
I will post a photo of my mum and John, then you will know how they look.
Luv and hugs!
Julie-ann
hi Renee, I was chuckling after reading the part about your dad and the plane, haha!
I love all the spring flowers too, daffodils and tulips bring me back to my childhood for some reason...
You are the QUEEN of May and shame on your dad for missing that moment on your video---but men are SO easily distracted, you know!! (Yes, my husband was a good Dad and a gentle man in spite of his mean father---but he never fully recovered from his mother's neglect---long story there).
Isn't there a line in Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" tune about the May Queen? Lord, I have a boat-load of memories attached to THAT song and time in my life!!!
I just have a hard time picking a favorite flower. I really love the heavenly scented Moonflowers for night and bright yellow, happy-faced Sunflowers for day.
Blessing to you, sweet Renee!
LOL Renee - leave it to a guy!!! How you manage to make me laugh and cry all in one post - girl your killing me!! In a good way!!!
Favorite flower - a carnation - I adore the smell - just love it. To look at hmmmm. I guess violets - wish they lasted longer!
Have a good day hon - am thinking of you. Love, Sarah
Oh dear...that would be SO hard. I love so many...lots of favorites--coreopsis, which starts blooming in May here (probably by tomorrow or the next day) which is so sunny and cheery. I often use it for a screen name because I most often feel like that. Baptisia--wild blue indigo--is perhaps my absolute favorite, because I love the plant too. It only blooms for a couple weeks (also in May), and I put it in a bouquet with purple iris, and some irridescent purple salvia....
As far as mother's day goes, I have a lovely relationship with my mother (if I could be half as nice as she is, I'd be a wonderful person), and I had always hoped to have daughters so that I could have a relationship with them like I have with my mother (and she has with her mother), but alas, I had boys, and while we do have a good relationship (when one or the other is not being all angry and teenagerish)with them, it's not quite the same.
I love how you wound around to that story of your Dad and his faulty picture-taking -- so great.
My favorite flowers, I think, are sunflowers, peonies and lilacs.
I'm looking forward to seeing/smelling lilacs again. Delicious! They were my mother's favorite. I also love peonies. I don't think there are many flowers I don't like...marigolds for instance. Eeew.
Today is the anniversary of my mother's death. Twenty four years. Wow.
The only May Day I remember is the day after I married my first husband. I married him on April 30th and woke up shouting "May day, May day!!!" the next morning. ha ha ha ha ha !! I was right, the bastard.
I laughed about the video faux pas. We could never afford such a thing but if we could, my parents would have forgotten to show up because they would have been at the El Cafe. Priorities!
Have a beautiful Thursday, sister raven.
xoxoxoxo
Lolo
I love flowers of all kinds but my favourite is the calla lily. It has a haunting elegance that speaks to my soul! Have a great day Renee!
Mothers day is over. My Mother has been gone now for some years. My eldest remembered and we wnet our for breakfast. It's alright. I have heard of the "Queen of the May" but always in reference to someone thinking they were better and "all That". Raised Catholic I only remember that May is Mary's month and I remember celebrating her. There were pictures of us, but my mother burned most of them and I do not know what happened to the movies my father took. Which is probably why I say everything for my kids, ha ha .
I love all flowers equally.
May flowers!
Yes, Mother’s day & everyday.
No, I don’t even know what it is?
No, Princess of “mother May I?”
You are so funny and spirited..So many opposites uniting in one little piece of writing...how refreshing.
I love Ranunculus because of the many layers of the patels..and I don't believe that any other flower comes with so many colors and shades combos. I love all flowers..okay may be Gladiolas not so much (:
I love reading your previous posts too..the ones I haven't commented on, yet was very touched by them..Your beauty will live forever and ever.
I left you a couple of awards on my blog hon! Come snag emmm!
Love, Sarah
Renee, I received the envelope of goodies ... thank you so much ... I really appreciate it. You are an angel.
Renee....
Isnt funny How our memories hold on to tid bits that were major right then and there and funny and wonderous memories now.
Fond memory of my Dad was going fishing on the Delaware river across the river from Hope NJ on the PA side...He would put the worm on the hook(because yuck spit slimey)and then he would say ok cast out. I would lift my arm hold the button down and arm over head. And then those pesky trees would loom there branches down and block my cast. I would dangle my pole and pull and wiggle and it would come loose. No worm any longer...Once again new worm he would put on and up over the head hold button down and splash...ok 2 feet away in the edge of the river in the muck...no worm it flew out farther...Then I would hear.."God Damn It Sonia...This is the last time you are going to touch the worm or no more fishing"..Worm on, button down, over head. Out it goes 5 ft this time..I reel it in and no worm. "No more dammit sit down and thats it"...That was the last day of fishing.....
Thank you Renee...
Geraniums..moms day was nice, and my kids made me feel good..and my mom resides with me and I give her back all she gave me....and she still drives me nuts.
kisses
Smiles,
Sonia ;)
We had a similar upbringing Renee. We called our May festival “Flores De Mayo. I attended catechism classes all summer long every afternoon where we learned stories of the Bible and how to be a good Catholic. The classes were taught by nuns and my teacher the nun was beautiful in her habit. I sat there looking at her and dreaming about becoming a nun, I so wanted to be a nun. Did you know that at 15 I actually inquired to join the convent? Very expensive, more expensive that going to college and nuns are not allowed to wear lipstick, I soon discovered. I won the Declamation Contest and I was the lead girl in the Holy Communion procession. I wore a white dress with white veil and my father diligently photographed the event.
There are two stories that stuck to my mind. The first was one about working together and the other one about patience and doing the right thing. On the first lesson, the nun, she was a Sister and very pretty (Mothers were stricter and not very attractive and looked glum and the Mother Superior almost looked dead!) she talked about a single stick easily broken but a bundle of sticks is more difficult to break. Simple enough. The second lesson was being patient and doing the right thing. She used the example of threading a needle. She said that Satan would thread a needle with a very long thread and then run back and forth to sew several clothes while an angel would thread a needle with just the appropriate length and then sew much faster sitting comfortably on a chair.
I was young and virginal. Had I known more about the doings of the world I would have told her that Satan did not need to sew because Satan was naked and clothes will burn in hell.
Long live our Moms and Dads!
Gee, bummer about that plane. Glad you were good at religion though.
Hi Renee....I have so many flowers I love....but my favorite all time will always be...Lily of the Valley....
and this is why....
My Special Lily of the ValleyHugs
and thank you for reminded me ....
Diana
You know why I like your blog so much? Because you don't give a toss about what others think.
Normally I would cringe at foul language but in your case I loved it. It enhanced the content of the post and gave me a very big smile in this rather tepid London evening. And it could not come at a better moment. I am still mourning the passing away of one of my favourite poets ever, Mario Benedetti, who died last Sunday and I am listening to Beethoven's 'Pathetique' on my stereo. But you know what, bugger that! Let's play some Fela Kuti and celebrate May. And yes, I love tulips. My favourite flower.
Many thanks.
Greetings from London.
First timer here. I glidid in while browsing!
Wow! you have a fantastic blog. So much ideas.
Japanese cherry blossoms, pioness & roses are truely the favs.
Thanks!
My faves are Daisies-love them.
Speaking of Dads...I never really knew my dad, but when I was in labor my husband and the doctor were talking about, oh, golf, the back nine, the latest clubs, ummm, ahem....excuse me assholes :)
So easily distracted.
Just like a man to have such a short attention span. ; )
Hi,
Will do-join in I mean if I see. I have visited both of them and I have one of Tessa's lovely prints after reading your post about Swaziland. I have Precious Ramotswe -I love her! As for your list-interesting but the bit about your Dad videoing the plane instead of his little Princess is hilarious! Never mind!
Mine are roses, April showers- s##t no umbrella, always, don't celebrate but did wish many bloggers happy it and never a princess. I am quite tall and I had to be the boy in any type of ballroom dancing with the small pretty girls in my all girls school. It still stings!
Sarahx
You're so funny, Renee.
I love the way you start poetic and end with a curse (and a love note in parentheses).
My dad was in charge of filming my son's first bath out of the operating room, when he was born, while I was being stitched up after the C-section. Two weeks later he confessed he recorded over it. Something about an open-house visit to a place he wasn't even interested in afterall. Fuck Dad! (Miss you and love you)
Oooo that is just like dad's isn't it, mine's the same way. We have hours of tape of the orange van outside, the trailer, the bushes all the while you can hear us in the back ground!! LOL
Dear, i've been thinking about you. I hope your holding up under your ambiguity. :0)
(Oh and my favorite flowers are lilacs, lilies and roses... well actually just about anything that blooms) :D
this post is too funny. i was the "may queen" in catholic school. did you see "polish wedding"? that's the kind of may queen i was. i mean, i wasn't pregnant because i was only in 2nd grade. but i am sure i was destined to be baaaad even at that age! my uncle was the designated photographer. i think he was drunk because after he had the film developed he realized he had not taken the lens cap off. how could he not have realized the lens cap was on when he was filming it? childhood is weird!
Oh, my - I am laughing about your dad filming the plane. My dad would have left us to bleed to death in the streets if a jet flew over, or a new Oldsmobile drove by. haha! Favorite flower...hmm...I love daffodils. Mostly because I know that winter is well and truly done when they bloom.
I have such mixed feelings about mother's day - and such a mixed relationship with my own mother. But I love being a mother, so I guess that makes up for it.
Flowers - there are so many I adore - gardinias and camleias and jasmine and lilacs and honeysuckle for their smell. And the beauty of dogwoods and tulips and many, many others. I can't pick.
WHERE ARE YOU?! Go check out Bella!
Pierre is mine Renee....
I loved my mom...
But at the end unfortunately we had become farther apart.... That is a long long long story....
My favorite flower is......
Almost too many but I love Lilac's~
Oh, sorry about dad messing up and not catching your special moment. Your memories are quite vivid for that reason alone.
I found out that I was getting kicked out because of the Feedjit site beinbg down, so I removed mine. Have you been to Bellas?Go check out Bella!
I don't really know much about flowers. Im gonna be boring and say roses lol.
Don't worry you have many May days ahead of you :)
It's a blog counter site and I am not really sure that it was the cause but I notice that when it was not displaying that's when I got kicked out so I just removed the feed. I have not been kicked out since.
Bella commented somethign about us being nuns on my blog. I told her any order that will have us as nuns will be lucky!
I am doing the second picture. Your Moleskine will be tailored to "Renee". Did you read my reply to Pieterbie on my blog?
He is a Belgian blogger friend of mine.
LOL Renee, bless you! You definitely how to post an entry and zing all the emotions in there! Loved this post!
Re Mother's Day, yes, I thought of my mom and I missed her terribly. She was such a beautiful, sweet, loving woman. I'm so proud she was my mom.
I do not like the nuns showing their legs. I want them to wear their gowns and habits. I don't want modern nuns! You can be mother superior, I won't be worthy to touch your habit but Your name will no longer be Renee but something like Sor Concordia De La Sagrada De Corazon and I will still be Sister Ces. I will never get promoted because I talk back. Will you please make me your assistant? I will fetch things for you.
You and Ces would make some KICK-ASS nuns!
Queen of the May. What a good story despite the missing video. I was never smart enough to be Queen of the May. I had Mother's day in Edmonton with my little Livia Kathleen.
Love, Barb
You are not going to brainwash me with a political agenda, are you? I am a servant of heaven, ot of a political party. May I wear a Capuccine habit?
How come they have privileges and I don't? Renee, honest to God, I don't need to shave my legs but one or twice a year maybe to remove one or two tiny hair on the shin. Ask the Viking. I have no hair on my arms either, they are very very tiny and they are almost colorless.
You mean to say I will have to tell you who I vote for in the general election? Wouldn't it be someone who is pro-life, Sor Concordia De La Sagrada De Corazon De La Familia?
You can't say the V word especially in the chapel! That is blasphemous!
I am getting out of the convent. I am a conservative nun. I am a nun who has fun but I am a pious nun. I will start my own order. No men!
First I have to go to sleep. Haha! Good night Renee!
aw darlin think you'll have to restage that may day princess parade...get your communionesque dress on and let the cameras roll...
Renee, I have an armfull of butter yellow tulips for you my friend... I also miss my Dad so much..
love to you
Kath
xoxoxo
What a wonderful post, and I'm smiling at your father being distracted by the plane...
Memory is a strange thing. My daughter Courtney was chosen for the May procession at her school too, and was so excited at the time to wear her communion dress and place the wreath of flowers on Mary's head...quite an honor at the time. But when I reminded her of it recently, she had absolutely no memory of the day whatsoever.
Favorite flower....impossible to choose, although I'm particularly fond of irises and yellow roses. :)
~ Carolee
Harumphhhh-eekksleckle! um, was eating a hotdog. Choked. Was he wearing plaid pants? I had him wearing plaid pants while he taped that airplane.
Hi Renee,
Lovely post.
I laughed when your Dad made the faux pas when videoing.
I have two many flowers that I love
roses, lily of the valley, violets and the list goes on.
Have a lovely weekend
Hugs
Carolyn
My favourite flower is a tulip too Renee...but it's a tough choice because really, I love so many.
Also... I have just given you another awe-summm award for being such an awesome blogger. I know Jacinta nominated you last week but I had to include you on my list too because your blog is my favourite of all time.(But I think you can be excused from reissuing the award!)
I don't think I could pick a favourite flower. Maybe fresias because of their delicious scent. Made me sad about your Dad missing videoing you. How maddening. I've never ever celebrated May Day. What's to celebrate?
1) I love tulips also!
2) Your dad story is hilarious!
Roaring laughter!
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