Ne'er cast a clout till May be out

Ne'er cast a clout till May be out

My mother used to say that I could not take my vest off till the month of May has passed. In later years I have become believe that it could mean ‘The May Blossom’ of the common Hawthorn has come out. 

Well today I noticed that the May Blossom in the front garden was indeed out. ‘Yay, I can take my vest off’

After taking the photo seen here I did a quick internet search and the meaning of ‘May is out’ seems to be questionable. There did seem more evidence that the expression did mean the month of May.

So Mother was probably right, BUT I am still going to leave my vest off :)

(We will not get into the debate about global warming and the seasons moving etc).