Saturday 1 August 2020

August Country Days

The mice are back.
This is the August page illustrating the Sara Coleridge poem from a childrens book I've used before.



The mice are gleaning the cornfield for their winter stores.


Don't worry about rain in August because...........

"August rain gives honey and wine"

But on the other hand..............
  "Dry August and warm doth harvest no harm".

The first of August is celebrated in some parts of the Northern hemisphere as Lammas or Loaf Mass. This is when the first loaf of bread made from the first wheat harvested is blessed in a church service.
It would have been a public holiday when fairs were held and also marked the start of the time commoners were allowed to graze their animals on the stubble fields.

Combines are out and about here cutting the barley, the wheat will be next, it's almost ready.

Here's an obvious saying............
.
If weather be fair and tidy,
thy grain make speedy carriage,
for fear of rain. 

 
*******************************

There were plenty of "speedy carriages"on the road yesterday when I popped over early to see Youngest Daughter and Florence. The mass of traffic heading up the A12 to Lowestoft was crazy. With fewer people going abroad this summer I reckon the coast roads will be madly busy on any sunny day.

I shall be staying close to home through August.

Have  a good weekend, whatever your plans - hope you don't get stuck in a traffic jam.
Back Monday
Sue

18 comments:

  1. Hi Sue, I always love seeing your snippets of wheel-of-the-year books :)
    If you do fancy a breath of sea air, I have found Bawdsey and Sizewell to be mercifully quiet.

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    1. Spent too long living almost under the high voltage cables from the power station to want to visit Sizewell beach!
      I'm glad you enjoy reading the First of The Month posts

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  2. I was looking forward to some rain last night but it didn’t come:( Enjoying tennis as well!

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    Replies
    1. There was rain here sometime in the night, woke me up and I got out of bed to pull the big windows in by the time I'd then gone to the loo and got back in bed the rain had stopped! So Not a Lot.
      Loving the tennis - they look as if they're enjoying it too

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  3. I'm just glad I'm not back in Bournemouth!

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  4. The beaches round here, Scarborough, Whitby and others were terribly crowded but it was very hot yesterday.

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  5. It was interesting to read about August, I heard the rain last night but I don't think we had.very much but it's a lovely day so far, we have something on outside our village hall this morning a lady has set up a few stalls to sell plants etc. I hope she does well I might have a walk round to see what she has. Enjoy your Sue and everyone else.
    Hazel c uk 🌈🌈🌈

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  6. Not going out anywhere here. Saw photos of the packed beaches on Facebook - madness in a Pandemic!

    Love the country lore for August. We have a Lammas Street here in Carmarthen. There are no grain crops planted round here (too wet). You have to be nearer the border before you see them.

    Two more viewings today, so will be opening a bottle of wine tonight.


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  7. Love all your country lore, and the little mouse family are so cute :)

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  8. Did Tolkien borrow that word lammas for his elf-bread? (It's 40 years since I read Lord of the Rings perhaps I ought to go check for myself.) We love your pieces of seasonal lore. In modern times we can get too easily separated from the seasons because we can change our climate indoors with the flick of a switch and get any food we want in a supermarket - irrespective of season. Perhaps you need to have lived on the land, or lived 'off' the land to take such an interest in its cycles.

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  9. I love your first of the month posts Sue. They keep us in touch with the cycles of the earth.

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  10. Don't go. Stay home. Keep sane.

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  11. We had a thunder storm last night with sheet lightning. I also love your beginning of the month stories and illustrations. Thanks.x

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  12. We had lots of weird extremely heavy showers here at the Van all over the weekend, it's just as though a tap is turned on for a minute and then turned off again. It's making the bloody grass grow though.

    No traffic jams for me I'm safely settled at the Van for a couple of weeks, until I need to go home and babysit the cat and chickens again.

    I do enjoy seeing the books pictures at the start of each month, it reminds me of the Alfie books by Shirley Hughes that I used to read to the boys when they were small. We always pored over the pictures picking out the details, I was disappointed when they outgrew them, but I kept the books for quite a while for me to look through.

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  13. "August rain gives honey and wine" that sounds so promising. A couple of rainy days here gave way to much cooler temperatures, so we are definitely grateful for that.

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