February Days

First time out for the February plate

One month is past, another has begun

Since merry bells rang out the dying year,

And buds of rarest green began to peer,

As if impatient for a warmer sun,

And though the distant hills are bleak and dun,

The virgen snowdrop, like a lambent fire,

And in dark woods, the wandering little one

May find a primrose.

The poem above and on the plate is by Hartley Coleridge, who was (I discovered by googling) the eldest son of Samuel Taylor and sister of Sarah who wrote ........

February brings the rain

Thaws the frozen lakes again.

February  was the Roman Februaruis  and comes from the Latin verb februare  meaning to purify because the Roman festival of purification took place on the 15th.

February 1st .......... Imbolc (pronounced imulk) - The ancient Celtic feast day held to celebrate a stirring of life after winter and fertility at the beginning of the lambing season. The word Imbolc may derive from old Irish meaning 'in the belly'. The celebration  was presided over by the Goddess of youth and fertility -Bride who became Bridget.

February can bring any sort of weather and has many weather sayings attached. It is often cold around the third week

When gnats dance in February, the husbandman becomes a beggar

A February spring is not worth a pin

Fogs in February mean frosts in May

                                                                 Double faced February

There is always one fine week in February 

February usually speeds by. For me this month there are 2 WI meetings, 4 Exercise group meetings, 1 WI Knit and Stitch group, some swims, Middle Grandsons 3rd birthday, a Rural Bygones Sale, Six Nations Rugby starts on TV, A Craft Fair Coffee morning to visit and I'm having the trellis replaced. 

Busy, busy - but with plenty of time for reading too.

Back Tomorrow

Sue

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