The Canterbury Tail

Whan, yes, whan, the calendar turns to April, the first two lines of Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales run through my head: 

    “Whan that April with his showres soote
The droughte of March hath perced to the roote...”

My professor read the lines in Middle English to the class and the vaguely familiar words were burned into my memory. The gist of the first paragraph is that both the natural world and a motley group of pilgrims start to activate in the winds of spring.

April showers were falling and making the afternoon dark when I took this picture.

I’ve yet to see a medieval pilgrim, but a sign of the changing seasons here are stands of irises, commonly spotted in older neighborhoods. They seem to visibly squeak when they unfurl, showing off their velvety petals, fuzzy beards, and distinctive fragrance. In my design, a cottontail rabbit sits on top of a few leaves and stems.

This idea comes from when my mom and I planted several (doomed) lily-of-the-valley pips in our backyard. We chose the shadiest spot near a north wall and made a shelter out of decorative fencing to protect them. This proved irresistible to our resident cat, who enjoyed naps inside the shelter on top of the leaves!