On May 2 I always think of my childhood playmates, the twins Marcia and Arthur MacDonald. One thing I especially remember about Marcia – we were riding our tricycles down the hill in front of the Pierces and the Campbells. houses. I was riding ahead of Marcia and came to a stop in front of the Campbell house. Marcia coming behind me couldn’t quite stop before she nicked the corner of my tricycle and I toppled over, resulting in a banged forehead…………Mrs Campbell carried me home – up the hill and around the corner – a distance of about 3 houses. Mrs Campbell was wearing a white dress which was soon covered with blood – my forehead was bleeding profusely. I still bear the scar 80 years later!

I have a picture of Marcia when she was a bit older and riding a bigger bicycle. Bicycles were a rare item in our youth because of World war 2. The photo below was taken after the War when Marcia was about 9 or 10.

May Day. May 1. I always think of my maternal grandmother on this date May 1. My maternal grandmother was born on May 1, 1874. And on that spring morning she was named May Belle. May Belle Willis, 1872-1940. She lived a full life – born in Boston, attended. Wellesley College, married an MIT graduate, moved to Minnesota, gave birth to 4 daughters, moved to Omaha, sadly buried one of the twin daughters, moved back to the Boston area, wrote and taught music, an active member of the Baptist church and the Winchester Community, raised the 3 daughters who in turn married and had children so May Belle was grandmother to 3 grandchildren before she passed away in 1940 at age 68.

Sadly I did not get to know my maternal grandmother as I was only 3 I/2 years old when she passed away.

..

The Greengage Summer by Rumor Godden

The Bolter by Frances Osborne

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro

The Painted Drum by Louise Eldrich

Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz

The list is for April is not very long but each selection was very good. Excellent reading and I would be hard pressed to pick a favorite.

I am having trouble with scanning my photos and postcards. I scan the postcard and I give it a name and save it. It should be easy to find. Well, it isn’t. I keep getting an old list of items scanned some time ago. Here is an example: I scanned a postcard of Lyme Regis (town in England). The image was from An Original Watercolor Drawing by A. R. Quinton. I save the scan in a Local Folder 20xxxxxx Lyme Regis. Then when I try to call it up for my blog, I get a file of older items that I have scanned.