"This morning is the first of May, / The primest of the year"

May Day is a Big Deal in Oxford, where people first gather at 6am to hear Magdalen choir sing madrigals and then proceed to wander around in a puzzled, awake-too-early kind of daze as Morris dancers and Jack-in-the-Green weave their way through the crowds. This morning I didn't brave the rain or the early start, so here are some photographs from last year's idyllic May Day, when the sun shone.

Dawn over Magdalen


Looking up the High Street...

Looking down the High Street.


The towers of All Souls


Back then I lived next door to Holywell Cemetery, which explains why I went to take pictures in a graveyard on the year's most life-filled day. It was quiet and dewy and full of flowers.




Morris dancers in Broad Street:


Christ Church meadow, as the sun grew stronger:





This, I think, is may.