May flowers

By Christine Tailer
HCP columnist

April showers bring May flowers, or so they say. It is May now, and the valley's wild flowers are blooming, but April's showers still linger. I can’t recall a recent day without rain, and so my curiosity got the best of me. Is there any truth to the saying about April showers bringing May flowers, and what could possibly be the origins of this phrase? 

I set to find out.

It seems that the saying dates back to 1557, in a poem written by an English farmer and poet named Thomas Tusser. He wrote a book titled “A Hundredth Good Pointes of Husbandrie."

The entire book is written in poetry with, you guessed it, 100 chapters, each of which is a poem. Chapter 38, "Aprils husbandrie," starts with the line "Sweete April showers, Doo spring Maie flowers" and then goes on to tell how one should not really despise the dripping rain, for it will pass and spring flowers will follow, and indeed, flowers do flourish in the spring rain.

On my walk today, I came across deep blue of Virginia bluebells growing in the woods down by the creek. I found Dutchman's breeches, looking like little men standing on their heads, clustered around the trunk of a woodland tree. Trillium lay low on the leafy forest floor, and Phlox spread out from the woods along the side of the valley road, trying to reach the purple Ground Ivy growing in the fields. These are only a few of the valley's May flowers. 'Tis the season.

Interestingly, Tusser's 100 points ranged from topics as varied as how to plant a garden, when and where different crops should be planted, as well as how to properly care for one's wife. The book was so popular when first printed, that Tusser followed up with a second book, titled Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry, with, you guessed it, 500 chapters, again all written in poetry.

The literal meaning of Tusser's April showers poem does make perfect sense, even though, as it did this year, April's rain might linger well into May. We know that spring flowers will bloom, as indeed they have. There is so much magic, however, in the figurative meaning of Tusser's words. Over the centuries, others must have also felt this magic, for Tusser's poem has grown to be a familiar proverb, reminding us that difficult times are followed by better times, hardship might be only temporary, and beauty will once again bloom. I so love this. I am always the optimist, always looking for that cloud's silver lining.

So, in late April and early May, as I slosh my way through knee high grass and mud, I smile to think of my fall harvest, and as August's humid heat slows me to a crawl, I dream happily of winter's first snow. Then, in the new year, as the woodpile burns low, I contentedly snuggle under the covers knowing that the cold days will soon be over, and when winter's grey skies and bare trees clothe the valley in somber hues, I know that it won't be long before everything becomes joyfully green once again.

Yes, difficult times really are followed by better times. Hardship might be only temporary, beauty really will bloom again, and April showers will bring May flowers. For all of this, I am so very thankful.

Christine Tailer is an attorney and former city dweller who moved several years ago, with her husband, Greg, to an off-grid farm in Ohio south-central Ohio. Visit them on the web at straightcreekvalleyfarm.com.