May 2018
Tuesday 1st May 2018, Mayday
May blossom
Walking along a path near our house today I came across a maytree in blossom and I stopped to take a photograph. As I did so, I remembered something that happened many years ago. The maytree or hawthorn (Hagedorn / Weissdorn in German) is much more common in the English countryside than it is our region of Switzerland, probably because it is fiercely thorny and has been widely used to make hedges between fields. As a result, in mid-May many fields in England are surrounded by snowy white (or occasionally pink) bushes of may blossom.
The flowers are very pretty and it’s tempting to go out and pick a bunch to decorate your house. However, folk tradition says that it’s unlucky to bring may blossom into the house. In our area of the West of England people used to say that elves or fairies came out of the flowers at night. My mother was very much against superstition, and as though to prove that the tales of fairies was nonsense, we brought a large bunch of may blossom into the house to decorate the front room.
But the next morning we really regretted having brought them in!
No, the problem had nothing to do with elves. The front room was filled with an unbearable smoky, rotten smell. The may blossom, which has slightly odd smell during the day, really gives off a foul odour at night.
I rather suspect those stories of elves and fairies were told for a very much more practical reason – to remind people to admire the charming flowers out there in nature and not inside the house.
The flowers are very pretty and it’s tempting to go out and pick a bunch to decorate your house. However, folk tradition says that it’s unlucky to bring may blossom into the house. In our area of the West of England people used to say that elves or fairies came out of the flowers at night. My mother was very much against superstition, and as though to prove that the tales of fairies was nonsense, we brought a large bunch of may blossom into the house to decorate the front room.
But the next morning we really regretted having brought them in!
No, the problem had nothing to do with elves. The front room was filled with an unbearable smoky, rotten smell. The may blossom, which has slightly odd smell during the day, really gives off a foul odour at night.
I rather suspect those stories of elves and fairies were told for a very much more practical reason – to remind people to admire the charming flowers out there in nature and not inside the house.
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Look back to 1665: the Plague Year
Contact
If you’re interested in English lessons or translation and checking services, please feel free to contact me in the language of your choice - English, French, German or even Lingala!
Here are my details:
Here are my details:
Mobile
078 609 56 51
+41 78 609 56 51
+41 78 609 56 51
Location
Tödistrasse 9, 8634 Hombrechtikon
(New address from 24th March 2018)
(New address from 24th March 2018)
If you are travelling from Rüti / Wolfhausen, drive past the Hombrechtikon place-name sign for about 300 metres and turn right into Tödistrasse, just before the Tobel bus stop.
Approaching from Hombrechtikon
If you are approaching from the centre of Hombrechtikon, follow the signs to Rüti. At the Tobel junction (the Methodist Church is on the left) turn left. Tödistrasse is the next turning on the left, just past the Tobel bus stop.
The entrance to our new flat is about 100 metres from the junction with Rütistrasse, on the left-hand side of the road.
The house number is number 9 and we are on the first floor.
There are a few visitor’s parking bays a short distance beyond the entrance, on the left.
There are a few visitor’s parking bays a short distance beyond the entrance, on the left.
Arriving by bus
If you arrive by bus from Bubikon, get off the bus at Tobel and follow Tödiweg until you get to Tödistrasse. Our house is on the right.