by
Jean Hughes
May 20, 1996
My life would have to have a thousand Mays for me to see and hear all of the beauty that has come to the hills this week. If you love flowering trees, and gardenfuls, meadowfuls and woodsfuls of wildflowers, these are your happy days.

I walk through a hay field dotted with yellow mustard, and through rose thickets into a quiet woods. I do not come to this place often, but when it is May I know that I can sit here surrounded by poppies.

Above the blooms, a scarlet tanager sings clearly and sweetly. From a small tree, an indigo bunting whisper-sings.

There are these pockets and crannies of beauty, like treasures, waiting on every hillside in May. I wish I could divide myself into parts and travel in every direction at once.

Along one hilltop, white violets mass around my feet. I turn a corner and am surrounded by thousands of purple violets. On the hillside, fire pinks flash red. At the bottom of a deep hollow are Jack-in-the-pulpits two feet tall and May apples with large blossoms and with umbrellas as big as dinner plates.

These days, it takes an hour to walk a path that I can usually travel in 15 minutes. Senecios, buttercups, lavender phlox and wild geraniums bring me to my knees.

I stop to share some moments with all the creatures who live here. A spider and I share a buttercup blossom. A ladybug and I visit a geranium. Hundreds of butterflies dance about me. Finally, after much patience, I see one resting. I am in the center of a fieldful of bronze coppers.

I never catch any wildling that is out-of-doors. Sometimes that makes identification difficult, but to take away the freedom of any living thing is not my way.

As I walk home through the field near my house, I am surrounded by small American coppers, tiger swallowtails, yellow and white skippers and scores of tiny brown butterflies. They flit so fast that I will never get to know them. A wave and a flick of a wing is all we have to give to each other.

A red-tailed hawk sails my way. The sun shines through the feathers of his tail and it glows as if it has been on fire and has burned down to pink embers. I wrote it 20 years ago, and it is still true: I live a bird-charmed life.


I come to every new day as a novice, for every day is different. I practice living and try to learn. I skip from birds, to flowers, to the music of thunder, to cooking. There seems to be time only to skim over the glory of it all.

Hawaiian Carrot Salad
Cook in salted water until tender: 1 lb. peeled and sliced carrots.
Add and cook for 3 minutes: 1 chopped green pepper.
Combine in a saucepan: 1/3 cup sugar, 1 t. cornstarch, 1/2 t. salt, 
2 t. vinegar, 2 t. soy sauce and the juice from an 8 oz. can of pineapple chunks.
Stir and bring mixture to boiling over low heat. Boil 1 minute.
Pour over vegetables that have been drained and mixed with the 
pineapple chunks, which have been halved.
Refrigerate overnight. Serve cold.

Today, a red-breasted grosbeak came into my dooryard. A brown thrasher comes regularly and a downy uses a big, porous rock that I have on my windowsill to hold his sunflower seeds while he cracks them open. He always uses the same hole when inserting the seeds. Feeding the birds gives me unending enjoyment and information.

* * *
This evening, I sit on my porch and watch and listen to the gathering of wings in the twilight. The birds stay with me until dark.

My yard is surrounded by small fields, and at the edge of each is a deep hollow. From two hollows, mourning doves and wood thrushes croon. From another, a catbird intones his nightly serenade. A robin calls for rain. Cardinal and titmice voices blend with the calling of the towhees. Owls cry and cry to each other. A whip-poor-will chants. I mimic them all.

As the last of light fades, I see a white dot skipping through the bottoms of the bushes. A rabbit tail to end the tale of a week of the beauty of May.

Copyright 1996, Jean Hughes.

Jean's book of ramblings and recipes "A Country Mile of Winter" and her book of poetry "The Earth's My Home" are available for $4.95 each plus $1.30 for postage and handling. Ten of Jean's favorite recipes will be included free with each book ordered. Order from...

Country Mile Publications
616 E. Monroe
Delphi, IN 46923

Return to the Main Page.