Tuesday 22 January 2019

January 22nd..........St Vincents Day

Nothing much is known about Vincent of Saragossa apart from the fact that he was martyred for his faith in AD 304.

Now his day is only remembered in weather rhymes


Remember on St Vincent's Day,
If the sun his beams display,
Be sure to mark his transient beam
Which through the casement sheds a gleam 
For 'tis a token bright and clear
of prosperous weather all the year


                                     

Oh here's another thing about the 22nd January. In 1901 this was the day Queen Victoria died, aged 81.


  (I said I was short of ideas for posts in January!)

But then I found these feathers on the meadow, among lots of other small black/grey feathers  where a predator of some sort (sparrow hawk/kestrel?) had taken some smaller bird. They are small but both have the flash of white ..........so any ideas? I thought maybe chaffinch?


Also did you see the eclipse of the moon in the early hours of Monday morning. The full moon in January is called The Old Moon or the Wolf Moon and it was a Super Full Moon too. Should have mentioned this on Saturday but I forgot.......now it's too late! By chance I woke up at 4.45 and looked out to grey low cloud, which apparently covered quite a lot of the country. A shame really as it was a clear full moon when I went to bed.

Back Tomorrow
Sue

13 comments:

  1. No, I missed the full moon....it was too cloudy when I first got up (around 4 ish), then a bit later on the cloud cleared and it was very, very dark, but the moon would have been somewhere to the side of the house where I wouldn't have been able to see it unless I went outside - and that wasn't happening, far too cold in my PJs!

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  2. I caught part of it, thanks to a bit of a wakeful night. I saw it just before the actual eclipse started, I think, and the moon was a weird colour. Then I caught it half way through, clear as a bell and beautiful. It was too cold to stay out of bed and watch for long though.
    I've never, ever heard of St Vincent. Thanks for the info.
    xx

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  3. I missed the moon too. Cloudy here. There is a transient beam through my window this morning so looking forward to the weather rhyme coming true.

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  4. I got up to see the moon too and it didn't want to see me! Even though there was a lot of cover it was still very light (natural light) in my garden.

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  5. Same here reference the moon.

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  6. Perhaps a sparrow hawk got a pigeon on the wing. It was foggy here all night and all day so no moon to be seen. Clear this morning though.

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  7. No I never saw the moon but I bet it looked lovely. it's a nice bright day here so will have a walk later to collect my prescription.
    Hazel c uk

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  8. I was fast asleep and missed the moon. Maybe next time!

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  9. "after being martyred, ravens protected St. Vincent's body from being devoured by vultures, until his followers could recover the body. His body was taken to what is now known as Cape St. Vincent [Portugal]; a shrine was erected over his grave, which continued to be guarded by flocks of ravens. In the time of Muslim rule in the Iberian Peninsula, the Arab geographer Al-Idrisi noted this constant guard by ravens, for which the place was named by him كنيسة الغراب "Kanīsah al-Ghurāb" (Church of the Raven). King Afonso I of Portugal (1139–1185)[ the first King of Portugal, Dom Afonso Henriques] had the body of the saint exhumed in 1173 and brought it by ship to the Lisbon Cathedral. This transfer of the relics is depicted on the coat of arms of Lisbon"
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_of_Saragossa#Biography

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  10. Very sensible putting the Bryant & May matchbox aa a scale indicator of those feathers as I was going to suggest Great or Blue Tit. Agree with Rachel; most likely pigeon.

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  11. I was so cross with myself - for a 'blood moon' expected during the night, I like to set my alarm and get up to see it - but this time I completely forgot, and didn't realise until the morning!

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  12. Dark and cloudy here so I couldn't see the wolf blood moon.

    I agree that they look like pigeon feathers.

    God bless.

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  13. I used to live on St Vincent's Street, I often wondered who he was, I obviously didn't wonder enough though as I never looked it up 😆🤣

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