“The truth of a life really has little to do with its quality. The quality of life is in proportion, always, to the capacity for delight. The capacity for delight is the gift of paying attention.”

~ Julia Cameron

Welcome to May — a month of flowers, pollen overload and a feeling of gladness for warm sunshine, silvery raspberry leaves turning throats toward sky and calves frolicking in the pasture.

The Turtle and I venture toward Greenville to pick a load of paintings up: we take backroads home, avoiding four-lanes and traffic.

Mile after mile of white-painted fences gracing lush green pastures, old country churches, neatly-kept clapboard farmhouses and yellow flowers drift along as we wind peacefully toward our soft-blue mountains. Creeks sparkle. Fields of lush green hay wave in long ribbons in sweet breezes. A red-headed woodpecker flutters low through trees.

Quietly, a young turkey strolls across the road, in no particular hurry: sort of like me and Turtle. Take your time, turkey friend, I tell him through the open window — Thanksgiving is months away.

Butterflies float alongside the road, over the Turtle, delighting us. Cows graze, some napping in the sun.

We’re all feeling a bit thankful on this green-grass blue sky yellow-flowered May day. Everything seems possible.

• Saluda Welcome Table at Saluda Methodist Church is every Tuesday from 5:30-6:45 p.m.

• Learn about Saluda Community Land Trust by visiting saludaclt.org or calling 828-749-1560. The next “Walk in the Woods” is May 6, Palmetto Trail to Blue Wall. Meet at Saluda Library parking lot, 2 p.m. Sunday to carpool. For more information on walks, contact Chuck Hearon at 828-817-0364 or chearon@skyrunner.net.

• Saluda Tail Gate Market opens Friday, 4:30-6:30 p.m., and every Friday May-October.

• Everyone is invited to an Open House with Dr. Lisa Broyles at Saluda Family Medicine, 1347 Ozone Drive, on Tuesday, from 4-6 p.m.; ribbon-cutting at 4:45 p.m.

• Saluda School: Wednesday is National Walk to School Day! Meet at Saluda Library on Main Street at 7:25 a.m. if you’d like to walk to school with school staff.

• Sing! With The Saluda Community Singers, Tuesdays, 7-8:30 p.m. at Old St. Matthews Church, 396 Irving St.

• Social Singles will have a potluck dinner on Thursday at 5 p.m. at Saluda Center.

• Saluda Living in Place is offering a new service: free blood pressure and diabetes risk screening on the third Tuesday of each month, starting on May 15 at Saluda United Methodist Church’s Wesley Cottage, 132 Greenville St.

• Donations to help support Saluda Historic Depot can be sent to P.O. Box 990, Saluda, NC 28773 or HistoricSaluda.org website. Saluda Train Tales are held the third Friday each month April-October. The next Train Tales feature Saluda native Clark Thompson on May 18 at 7 p.m.

• The 15th annual Saluda Arts Festival is May 19 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Dancer’s Extension will have their seventh annual spring concert at Saluda School’s auditorium at 11 a.m.

• Saluda Garden Club meets at 10 a.m. May 21 at Saluda Library parking lot for trip to Bullington Gardens.

• Coon Dog Day is July 7.

• Saluda Get-Well goes to Roy Eargle, Rita Igoe, Ruth Anderson and Mary Ann Asbill.

• Happy May Birthday to Amy Copeland, Corinne Gerwe, Chris Anderson, Mark Jackson, Cary Pace, Lisa Hipp, Trevor Young, Jemme Latell, Paul Marion, Jesse Thomas, Margaret Sease, Elizabeth Baldwin, Chad Baldwin, Lynn Cass, Thelma Jones, Betsy Burdett, and Melia Bradley.  Happy-belated April birthday to Lauretta Cook and Hilda Pace. Please add your names to the list — it’s a promise no ages will be mentioned unless you’re under 2 or over 100!

Thank you for reading this column; as ever, the goal is to make you feel like you’re enjoying small town life in a friendly mountain town called Saluda.  Feel free to contact me at bbardos@gmail.com, 828-749-1153, or visit bonniebardosart.com.