Birds for May

I have a sweet little story to share with you of childhood dreams come true. The other day, my daughter Rosemary painted a picture inspired by her favorite folksinger’s song about a pair of tin birds in love. It was a beautiful watercolor of two red birds facing one another, and in my opinion was quite good. She asked me if I would send the picture to Daisy May. I told her I didn’t know the address but I would try my very best. Little did I know that in a little over a week, we would meet May and give it to her in person! Life works in mysterious ways.

May Erlewine has been Rosemary’s folk singing hero for about a year now. I discovered this Michigan musician when I won a beautiful peyote stitch necklace from Su Smith of StarSunflower, and along with it she sent me a live recording of May and her partner Seth Bernard playing a show at a brewery. I immediately loved Seth and May’s music, for the beautiful instrumentals, folk harmonies, and messages of stewardship, sustainability and peace.  With each of their albums we listened to around the house, they really grew on my family, especially my daughter. She started taking “Mother Moon” up to her room and listening to it over and over. Since appreciation of good music made on real instruments by down to earth people is something I have worked at imparting on my children, I was very pleased and counted this among my parental successes.

When Halloween came around, Rosemary announced that she was going to dress up as Daisy May. More specifically, as the cowgirl in the songs from her first album, “Sleepless.” She talked her best friend into dressing up with her, and we threw some costumes together. I sewed them some faux buckskin skirts out of an adult sized skirt from the Goodwill, and they made quite a pair in their boots and hats. I loved that she came up with such a creative idea all on her own, rather than being a witch, ghost, or princess like most other kids. Her brother was Smokey the Bear, and last year they dressed up as chickens, so I guess that’s just the way our family rolls.

So, back to the present and the painting. I wasn’t quite sure how I would get this piece of original art to May, but I didn’t have to wonder long because a few days later I found out she was coming to play in Portland at one of our favorite spots, Edgefield. It was short notice, mid-week, a couple of hours away, and we were busy, but it was so serendipitous that I didn’t care. I told Rosemary she was going to deliver that painting in person. Not only that, we were going on a just-us-girls getaway. When I was growing up, my mother used to take me to Seattle once a year or so, just me and her. We went to museums, took in ballets, canoed around the arboretum and ate chocolate croissants. There was always something very special about having my mom all to myself and going on adventures together in the city, and I figured it was about time I did that with my daughter. She does have a twin after all, so undivided parental attention can be hard to come by.

So, Rosemary and I took off on an adventure. I took her out of school for the day and we went to the big city. We did some thrift shopping at the Goodwill bins (these are literally bins in a big warehouse where you dig through for treasures, and buy clothing by the pound!), visited Powell’s used book store, and re-affirmed that these things are fun, but we are happy to be country folk.

We made our way to Edgefield, where we spent a good part of the afternoon just wandering around seeing what was in bloom in the gardens. I’m usually not one for hotels, but the McMenamin’s establishments are something special. Edgefield was a county poor farm built in the early 1900’s, which the McMenamin brothers transformed into a hotel destination with a pub, a 3$ movie theater (where you can have pizza and beer – Ruby Ale is my favorite), winery, brewery, distillery, creamery, restaurant, saltwater soaking pool and 74 acres of organic gardens and vineyards. As new hotel and restaurant construction can be fairly un-sustainable, I am quite impressed with the McMenamin’s model of fixing up old institutional and historical buildings and turning them into establishments that celebrate that building’s history. They try to use every structure on the property and give it an exciting new life, and they are committed to sustainable operating practices. One of my favorite things about Edgefield is the art everywhere you look. They turned a team of 12 artists loose with paintbrushes, old photographs of residents, and stories about the poor farm and the local area. The history is literally all over the walls. Needless to say, it’s a place I thoroughly enjoy visiting.

We walked around the hallways looking at all the murals to pass the time before the concert.

Being a mama of twins, I always was partial to this one.

No exit sign, pipe or stairway is left un-decorated.

Enough about the art and the gardens though, we came to hear Seth and May! The show was in the winery, so Rosemary sat in a chair right at edge of the arched doorway entrance to the rest of the hotel, and I sat at a nearby table with our friends Erin and Julia who moved to Portland a while back. When Seth came in he immediately shook Rosemary’s hand and gave her a high five, and May came back to meet her during the set break. She also shook Rosemary’s hand and introduced herself. Rosemary, who was beaming by this point, gave her the painting along with one made by her brother, and May said she loved them and would hang them on her wall at home. She asked if she could play Rosemary a song, and the request was the one that inspired the painting. May started the second set by dedicating “Celia and Wendel” to her young friend Rosemary and showed off the painting to the whole room with a round of applause. Two more times during the show they called for a round of applause and cheers for their friend in the back who just grinned and looked as pleased as pie.  I’m pretty sure it was one of the biggest highlights of her young life, and definitely worth missing school for.

So, that is my story of dreams coming true. It was a good reminder to me that spontaneity and fun are important parts of life, and when we allow time for the un-planned and seemingly impractical, some of our most treasured memories are made. This is the stuff that we tell stories about in the rocking chair when we’re old and gray.



Here’s a video of May and Seth singing one of our favorites at the Wonder Ballroom in Portland, just a couple nights after we saw them, called “Greens.”

And a handful of links to some other Daisy May favorites:

 Heartsong, Seeds, Rise Up Singing, and

Please (protesting water pollution at Michigan’s capitol). 

And here is a short video about Seth and May’s recent community supported music project, Project Ethiopia, and them singing My Family with a group of school children in Adis Ababa.