I've been singing all the night and nearly half the day-o
and to you all a-reading here, I've brought you a branch of May, oh
Hal an Tow, sing merry, o
Hal an Tow, sing mer-ry!

Happy May Day to you all;
I got up at 4:51 this morning, fit as a fiddler for May Day (to tweak Shakespeare's quote a bit), to bustle into kit (black pants, white shirt with longies under and white longsleeve over, and many ribbons, significant pins on my grey tophat and green frock coat) and bundled out the door with Lise, to pick up Malaika and head up the hill to dance up the Dawn this May Day morning along with Redtail Morris, who I'm playing for this year, and Goat Hill Morris, who I've played with in a previous year...from atop Twin Peaks in San Francisco, one of the most stunning views of the Bay, and the sunrise, one could wish for.

Those of you in English speaking countries might find morris dancers in your town - hankies flashing, sticks clashing, bells jingling at the knees, waking up the earth with these cheery stompful dances, capers and leaps - with the advent of the internet, dancers also weave the stories and are able to relate to one another the weather and the audinece scene where they are, and one is better able to imagine that global wave of hankies aloft in celebratory dancing-up-the-sun starting in Eastern New Zealand and ending in Santa Cruz, CA (where local dawn isn't till 6:21 local time 'cos it has to climb over that coastal range o' mountains...)

Blessings of this New Year to you all, happy summer's-coming-in!
jingling off to work...

Ruth Temple
Fiddler, Redtail Morris, Swords of Gridlock
alumnus: Goat Hill Morris, Ring of Cold Steel Sword Dancers,
Seabright Morris & Sword, Uptown on Calhoun, and
Moonwood Morris & Sword (r.i.p.)
honored to be a regular guest musician for:
Dead Ringers, the Black & White Tour,
the Bridgetown Morris Men