On a quiet green morning in the last days of May....

Above: "As I Roved Out" performed by Northern Irish singer Cara Dillon, with her husband Sam Lakeman on guitar. The song appeared on her recent album Live at Cooper Hall (2021). 

Below: "May Morning Dew" performed by Scottish singer Siobhan Miller (with Innes White, Charlie Stewart, and Euan Burton) in Glasgow. The song appeared on her album All is Not Forgotten (2020).

Above: "Searching for Lambs" performed by English singer/songwriter Nancy Kerr with her husband James Fagan, at the Bath Folk Festival in 2013. The song can be found on their joint album Steely Water (2016).

Below: "Maying Song" (the English version of a Flemish song) performed by singer/songwriter Bella Hardy, from Derbyshire. It appeared on her first album, Night Visiting (2007), as well as on Pockets & Postcards (2019).

Above: "May Song" performed by singer/songwriter Lisa Knapp, from south London. The song appeared on her EP Hunting the Hare: A Branch of May (2012). I also recommend her 2017 album Till April is Dead, a collection of English folk songs of ritual, fertility, and celebration of the month of May.

Below: "Hail! Hail" the First of May" performed by English singer and fiddle player Jackie Oates. The song appeared on her album he Spyglass & The Herringbone (2015).

Winter time has gone and past-o,
Summer time has come at last-o.
We shall sing and dance the day
And follow the Obby Oss that brings the May.

The pictures above: 1. May flowers - the blossom of the hawthorn tree - are a symbol of spring's fertility, regeneration, hope, and the healing of hearts. 2. The Storyteller (folklorist Lisa Schneidau), the Jack-in-the-Green (naturalist Tony Whitehead), the Obby Oss (Howard) and the Oss-minder (me) at our recent Jack-in-Green Procession here in Chagford. (Photographer: Carol Amos.) 

Below: The Obby Oss prancing across Ore Hill, with Jack just behind him. (Oss costume & mask: Nomi McLeod. Oss performer: Howard Gayton. Photographer: Andy Letcher.) I'm gathering more pictures from our May celebration and hope to post them this week. 

All rights to the Jack and Oss photographs reserved by the photographers; used with permission.