Into August

 I wonder how much rain we'll get in August? There's not much in the forecast for the first 12 days - maybe just one thunderstorm if we are lucky.......... Seems so odd to say that.

 Usually it's  a mixed month but this first old bit of folklore is so wrong this year as harvest has more-or-less finished. The combines, balers and grain carts were backwards and forwards "making speedy carriage" past the house through much of July.

Dry August and warm

Doth harvest no harm.

If weather be fair and tidy thy grain,

Make speedy carriage, for fear of rain.

Grain lorries from farms further afield also go through the village (although they aren't supposed to) to the huge grain drying and storage facility nearby.  Flour prices are sure to rise again...........

"During the extreme European heatwaves and drought of harvest 2026, intense heat and parched soils have caused cereal crops to dry down rapidly—sometimes below 10% to 12% moisture. This creates severe financial loss from reduced crop weight, high physical brittleness, and commercial rejection by mills"

Looking back at previous August posts, I found all this post about one of my books from 2021....... five years ago and long forgotten!

The lady who painted all the wildflowers did it for a friend who wanted to learn the names of the flowers she saw. She started in 1943 and carried on painting even after her friend died, until 1999, traveling widely and painting wherever she went. She then donated 150 pages of paintings to the Kendal Natural History Society who published the collection as this small book in 2016 - such lovely paintings.

She was a Modern Languages Graduate before WWII when women studied for degrees but were not awarded them but was finally awarded her degree 40 years later. She taught Modern Languages in Kendal and died in 2009 aged 94.

Looking through the book there are so many flowers that I've never heard of. On the August pages above I puzzled over the Ploughman's Spikenard - such an unusual name and something I'd not come across. It should be around everywhere except the North of England and Scotland but only grows on chalky soil. So maybe  not  growing much in our Suffolk clay soils.

Then I looked up the word "Spikenard" and it's also called Nard, an amber coloured essential oil from a flowering plant of the honeysuckle family from the Himalayas.

It's even mentioned in the Bible...............

 

And being in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman  having  an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard, very precious; and she broke the box and poured it on his head. Mark 14:3

There's lots more about this plant on the Wiki pages here.

Now, how about this for a weird coincidence...........I wrote this post several days ago, copying over the piece about Spikenard from 2021, a word I'd never come across before or since. Then on the evening of writing the post I'm reading  the British Library Crime Classic book "Puzzles of The Parish" a collection of short crime stories featuring members of the clergy. One of the tales in the book is a Cadfael (the medieval Monk) short story by Ellis Peters, and it says........ 

Brother Jerome was scandalised "Has he not given them to Our Lady herself?" he lamented indignantly. "Beware of the sin of those apostles who cried out with the same complaint against the woman who brought the pot of Spikenard.............

 Coincidences seem to happen more often than you'd think!

June Country Days and Country Ways

June is a favourite month - I probably say this every year. The meteorological start of summer so I've put Spring back in the cupboard and Summer is on the bookshelves.

Nothing new for this year, just all my favourite summery pieces

Below is the June page illustration by Eugene Grasset in the Illuminated Book of Days.

It is thought that June is named after the goddess Juno or possibly from Iuniores which was the lower level of the legislature in the constitution of ancient Rome.

 In a Year of Story and Song by Lia Leendertz there's a page about the words for June from all parts of the UK

 

 

Not a lot of folklore attached to the days of June............. there would have been very little time for celebrating the Saints Days as farmers would have been busy with haymaking and sheep shearing. Watching the weather would have been the main occupation.

Calm weather in June, sets the farmer in tune

 The weather pattern for June often alternates between spells of stormy weather and shorter periods of dry calm. The farmers prefer calm and warm with night-time dew to speed up crop growth.

In the Almanac for 2026 again by Leendertz these are the events listed for June. She (or the editors) have made a big error as the FIFA World Cup Final is on 19th July rather than June - whoops.

But in my opinion she's missed out one of the most important - The start of Wimbledon tennis fortnight on 29th June!

Back Tomorrow

What's Happening in April?

                                                         The first of April, some might say,

                                                              Is set apart for All Fool's Day,

But why people call it so

Nor I nor they themselves do know

                                                      From Poor Richard's Almanack (1760)

April flowers from the 'Illustrated Country Year" by Celia Lewis. From left to right they are Bluebell, Yellow Archangel, Bugle, Forget-me-not, Petty Spurge, Wood Spurge, Ramsons, Cuckoo Flower or Ladys Smock and White Dead Nettle.

April was Aprilis in Roman times derived from aperio to open. Giblean in Scots Gaelic. Apryle in Scots, Aibrean in Irish Gaelic, Averil in Manx and Ebrill in Welsh.

April weather, rain and sunshine both together

April wet, good wheat

April has 30 days, and if it rained on 31 no harm would be done

A dry April is not the farmer's will

April wet is what we should get

Till April's dead, change not a thread.

April full moon tomorrow in the UK - it has many names in the past, the Pink Moon,  Budding Moon, Seed Moon, New Shoots Moon.

The mobile library will be bringing me a nice lot of books - fingers crossed,  then Easter weekend coming up, a very quiet one for me. Easter Events are almost all for families, no fun if alone. The nearest car boot starts as long as we don't get inches of rain, then ED and the two grandsons are coming up from Surrey for a few days as long as they can get fuel for their car OK. One garage here had no diesel at the weekend.

Once they've gone I'll be able to get the windowsill electric propagator out and get seeds started.

Mid month I'll be another year older - all downhill towards 80 then!

On the financial side of things it's always an expensive month with TV Licence, House insurance, birthdays and this year a bill for the boiler repair too.

And before we know it May will be on the horizon.

Back Tomorrow

Spring Has Sprung

 

The Vernal/Spring Equinox is today, the moment with equal hours of daylight and darkness, so whether you think Spring starts on the 1st of March or at the Equinox, either way..............it's definitely here.

Spring has sprung

The grass has riz

I wonder where the birdie is? 

The birdie is upon the wing,

No, that's absurd

The wing is on the little bird

This is the segment from the wheel of the year for Spring from my book 'Ceremonies of the Seasons'.

 The day was once known as Ostara, the Pagan festival celebrating Eostre, Saxon or Germanic Goddess of Spring. There is a story that Eostre found a wounded bird and to save it's life she turned it into a hare, but even though the bird looked like a hare it was still able to lay eggs. As a thank you to the goddess the hare decorated the eggs and gave them to her as gifts. Eostre was often depicted as having a hare's head on a human body. 

The word Vernal comes from the Latin vernare meaning To Bloom

(Resorting to repeating blog posts from past years!)

Wash Day?

 Is Monday still washing day?

This is one of the pages in my scrapbook--------------

I came across some old sayings about wash day

They that wash on a Monday

Have all the week to dry;

They that wash on a Tuesday

Are not so much awry;

They that wash on a Wednesday

Are not so much to blame;

They that wash on a Thursday

Wash for shame;

They that wash on a Friday

Wash for need;

And they that wash on Saturday

Oh, slovens are indeed.

Wash your clothes on New Years Day and you'll be 'Washing for the dead' or washing a loved one away, meaning someone in your household will die in the coming year!

Why is wash day on a Monday? One story says "the Pilgrims disembarked from the Mayflower on a Sunday and the first priority of the women after the voyage was to wash all the clothes, thereby setting a schedule from that day forth that continued for centuries".

I was reminded of this old song that used to be on children's radio 'Listen with Mother' in the late 1950s

Back Tomorrow

This Week

 We know about Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday but  each day of this week has a name..................

Collop Monday had other names in different parts of the country - Carnival Monday, Rose Monday, Hall Monday, Peasen Monday and Nickernan Night.

Nicky, nicky nan,

Give me a pancake and then I'll be gone,

But if you give me none

I'll throw a great stone

And down your door shall come.

This was the last day for eating meat and  for eating up collops of bacon and meat. Any fresh meat still available would be sliced and salted to preserve it until after Lent . A Collop - a Scandinavian word, means a slice of meat.  

 

Shrove Tuesday also had other names -Bannock Night, Brose Tuesday, Fat Tuesday, or Mardi Gras.

Shrove Tuesday is the last day of Shrovetide and can fall anytime between 3rd February and 9th March.  And since medieval times  the last day for rich foods before Lent fasting starting the next day -and it really was fasting back then - no eggs, no fats, no meat. It was customary to make confession on this day too. But it was also a day for merrymaking and fun and feasting on the last of the eggs and butter.

Pancake Tuesday is a very happy day,

If we don't have a holiday we'll all run away,

Where shall we run, up High Lane,

And here comes the teacher with a great big cane.

Mix a pancake, stir a pancake, pop it in the pan,

Fry the pancake, toss the pancake -

Catch it if you can.

( children's rhymes from the past )

Lacemakers had to stop using candles on this day, no matter the date or the weather conditions.

Ash Wednesday 
The first of the 40 days of  abstinence. The word Lent comes from old English lencten  and Germanic langatin  meaning spring or lengthening of the days. Originally only 1 meal a day was eaten during Lent. It's thought the origins  of fasting might date back as far as 325CE to the Council of Nicaea.

Fritter Thursday
Maybe because of the dough fritters that were often eaten in meatless Lent or perhaps using the last of the stored apples dipped in a flour and water batter?

Kissing Friday or in some places Nippy-Hug day
Once this was the day when boys had the right to kiss girls without being told off,  if the kiss was refused they could nip the girls bottom!

(Information from some of my folklore books)

*********************

And meanwhile .......how about GB at the Winter Olympics.........3 Gold Medals - Never been done before! Well done to them all.

Back Tomorrow

February Plans

It can be just as cold and grey in February as it is in January and just as likely to get snow. The last big snowfalls here were at the end of Feb 2018 and then the beginning of February 2021 so we are possibly due for another. 

My February will be spent mainly at home again, keeping warm and there'll be plenty to keep me company on the TV as the Winter Olympics start on Friday and the first of this years 6 nations rugby matches is on Thursday, so lots of good sport coming up.

The mobile library is round this week with more books for me - not many crime this time but several non-fiction for a change. They might be  for reading or just for browsing.

There will be Keep Moving Group, maybe a church visit and not a lot else.

Today is Candlemas which I've written about many times before like HERE in 2024 and  HERE in 2019  

And I've also mentioned February weather folklore many times so just one rhyme today............

 

 If Candlemas day be fair and bright

Then winter will have another flight

If Candlemas day be clouds and rain

Winter is gone and will not come again

Monday meal plan for the week in no particular order...........

Leek and Bacon Pilaff + Chunk of home made focaccia bread 

Mini pizzas ( from freezer -uneaten from Christmas) and salad leaves

Quorn Korma curry (one of the batch made recently) with rice and some party extras (bhajis)

and other things!...............

Sunday 25th January is St Paul's Day, Burn's Night and St Dwynwen's Day

 Tomorrow, 25th January is St Paul's day and Burn's Night and also celebrates a Welsh saint too - St Dwynwen's Day - Wales' patron saint of lovers. According to my book Everyday Folklore couples might peer into Dwynwen's Well and have a look for the fortune telling eels and if they can see them their relationship will last.

According to my Book of Saints January 25th actually commemorates The Conversion of St Paul. A man who hated and persecuted Christians. He was on his way to Damascus  to seize the Christians there and bring them to Jerusalem for punishment when the famous conversion took place.

 It's another Saint's Day with lots of weather lore attached. In the past they thought it could even affect political events.

If St. Paul's Day be fair and clear,

It doth betide a happy year;

But if by chance it then should rain,

It will make dear all kinds of grain;

And if the clouds make dark the sky,

Then neate* and fowls this year shall die;

If blustering winds do blow aloft,

Then wars shall trouble the realm full oft.

* Neate is an old word for cattle

Also                                          

St Paul fair with sunshine

Brings fertility to rye and wine

It's party night  up north of the border and in many other towns and cities here and overseas to celebrate the birthday of poet  Robert Burns in 1759. Hope everyone enjoys their Haggis, neeps and wee drams of whisky.

If things are still the same and blogger is not letting me reply to comments today or tomorrow, I'm apologising in advance! Of course it might have righted itself - who knows.

Have a good weekend, I'll be back Monday.

January New Moon

Yesterday, the 18th we had the first new moon of 2026 and the first new moon of the year was very useful in the past for girls wanting to find out who they would marry.....

On the evening of the January new moon sit on a gate or across a stile, look at the moon and repeat:

All hail to the moon, all hail to thee, I prithee good moon reveal to me this night who my husband should be.

After that they would go home and straight to bed and their intended would be revealed in their dreams and apparently putting a sprig of oregano under the pillow would make the dreams clearer.

Did girls  really do this? 

I do wonder where some of these old sayings come from.  

Plough Monday

Plough Monday, the first Monday after Twelfth Night was the day the agricultural year started, but before they began  their hard work, the plough men and boys took the opportunity to have a bit of fun by dressing up, disguising their faces and processing around the village to perform a plough play and hopefully be given some money.  The plough was often blessed in the church on the Sunday before, so that day was named as Plough Sunday.

Turn out for plough Monday

Up, fellows now

Buckle the horses

And follow the plough. 

Photo of picture from my book 'The English Year' by Steve Roud. It's described as 'from George Walker's - The Costume of Yorkshire 1814'

The church in the village still celebrates Plough Sunday and in the past I've walked up the road to take a photo of the decorated plough, the Morris dancers and the procession around the village.

This was 2023

This year I didn't - it was freezing out there, no sun and rain threatened, not good for hanging around waiting.

The 12th of January is also the Old New Year's Day which many people carried on celebrating after the calendar changed in the 1752.

If on the 12th January the sun shine

It foreshadows much wind.

Country folk often went on using the old calendar for years so there was also 'old twelfth night' on the 17th, which means there is still time to get Christmas decor down or to Wassail the apple trees.

January Full Moon

 Tonight's full moon is called the  Wolf Moon named by Native Americans and Medieval Europeans due to the hungry wolves coming to the villages for food.

Every now and again there is talk of reintroducing wolves to the UK. After persecution in the 17th century they disappeared from here but remain in a few Eastern European countries. 

It's unlikely they could be brought here as they need many square miles of woodland, open country and plenty of wild deer or wild boar to hunt.

Yesterday was another day of tidying up, finishing the paper work sorting plus working out how to use my new hoover [AKA a vacuum cleaner in other countries!) I found one online £100 cheaper than original price. Never want to pay full price or too much - they don't seem to survive for many years however much is paid for them. I got a Vax upright this time- I'll see how I get on with it. I got out for a short quick walk while the sun was shining, only to the bottle bank - not very exciting.

Have a good weekend - I'll be back Monday.

October Days

 OCTOBER

I'm not sure where September went but it's gone.

 October was originally the eighth month of the Roman calendar. The Anglo Saxons called it Wynmonath - the wine making month or Winterfylleth meaning the the month with the full moon (7th) heralding winter. This year the October full moon will be a super moon and is also the latest date possible for a Harvest moon.

I've probably mentioned all the bits of weather folklore for October in previous years but here are three good ones. 

Dry your barley in October,

Or you'll always be sober.

(Malted barley is the main ingredient of beer, which was drunk by everyone when water wasn't safe)

A good October and a good blast,

To blow the hog acorn and mast.

(Dating from the time when villagers were allowed to turn their pigs into the woods to feed on acorns and Beech mast - called pannage

In October manure your field

And your land it's wealth  shall yield

(Best time for muck spreading, before the fields get too wet,  ready to sow crops in the spring)

A page from the Brambly Hedge Autumn Story by Jill Barklem

A  poem from the book " A Child's Garden of Verses" by Robert Louis Stevenson 

AUTUMN FIRES

In the other gardens

And all up the vale

From the Autumn bonfires

See the smoke trail!

 

Pleasant summer over

And all the summer flowers,

The red fire blazes

The grey smoke towers

 

Sing a song of seasons

Something bright in all

Flowers in the summer

Fires in the fall.

 

 

I like the line "Sing a song of seasons" and as I get older it seems to be easier to appreciate each season as it arrives - after all if I'm still around to see a new season then that has to be a good thing!

And Thank you to everyone for comments yesterday about the unusual crop growing in the fields around here. The conclusion was reached that it's definitely Quinoa ........probably!

Back Soon

Storm Names

 I heard  Storm Amy being mentioned about three weeks ago. I googled to find out why it began with A - because I thought it would only begin with A in 2026.

This is what I found...............

But it turns out they start with A in September which is the start of storm season. The names are chosen by The Met Office, Met Eireann (Irish Meteorological Service) and KMNI which is the Netherlands Meteorological Institute. These storms are the ones likely to have medium to high impact on the three countries. Seven choices for names from each country by public suggestion. 

Apparently Storm Amy was forecast a few weeks ago but wasn't actually named by the Met Office. It brought strong winds on 14th September to Scotland and the local newspapers called it Storm Amy - but it seems it wasn't strong enough to be officially named.

Here's a link for next year when names for 2026 -27 can be submitted 

Meanwhile today is the  29th of the month, St Michael's Day or Michaelmas........ the day with many weather sayings attached.

If St Michael brings many acorns down Christmas will cover the fields with snow. 

As many days old as the moon is on Michaelmas Day, so many floods 

shall we have after. 

If there is snow at Christmas that will be a big surprise, but there certainly is a huge crop of acorns this year to fall if it's windy today. The new moon was on the 21st so we should expect eight floods before the end of the winter - oh dear.

Back Soon

September Days

 Fair on the first of September, fair for the whole month

Autumn Hedgehog and Fruit one of the  Angela Harding prints from her book
'A Year Unfolding'

" I saw old Autumn in the misty morn,

Stand shadowless like silence listening to silence"

Ode:Autumn .Thomas Hood (1799-1845) 

 SEPTEMBER

Now everyday the bracken browner grows,

Even the purple stars

Of clematis, that shone about the bars,

Grow browner; and the little autumn rose

Dons, for her rosy gown,

Sad weeds of brown.

 

Now falls the eve; and ere the morning sun,

Many a flower her sweet life will have lost,

Slain by the bitter frost,

Who slays the butterflies also, one by one,

The tiny beasts

That go about their business and their feasts.

                         Mary Coleridge ( 1861-1907)

It's an amazingly good year for hips, haws and sloes which is a worry because...............

Many haws and many sloes make many cold toes.

The full moon this month is on the 7th and in the past the September full moon was  called the Fruit Moon, Wine Moon or Barley Moon. It is also a total moon eclipse or blood moon. The moon will rise at around 7.30pm and will already be in total eclipse.

Back Soon

August 1st

  AUGUST

The Emperor Octavian, called the August,
    I being his favorite, bestowed his name
Upon me, and I hold it still in trust,
    In memory of him and of his fame.
I am the Virgin, and my vestal flame
    Burns less intensely than the Lion's rage;
Sheaves are my only garlands, and I claim
    The golden Harvests as my heritage.

from The Poets Calendar by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Illustration from The Illuminated Book of Days by Eugene Grasset

Today is Lammas, the 1st of August was one of the Celts 'cross quarter' days. The dates that fall between the solstices and equinoxes that were used to mark the agricultural year. Lammas or Loaf-Mass marks the wheat harvest. In early Christian  days a loaf of bread made from the new crop would be brought to church to be blessed.

Dry August and warm

Doth harvest no harm.

 This year the harvest was going well with tractors and full grain trailers passing all the time but then came the last two weeks of July with rain on and off and it's all gone quiet again in the fields.

 Looking back at what I'd written for previous  1st August posts and came across this, which I'd forgotten - but the bit about making the most of our time while we are here is a good thing to remember...............Apparently I found this in one of the old Folklore diaries.

The act of sacrifice at harvest is a reminder that we all follow the same path of life and death and reminds us to make the most of our time whilst we are here. Consider the passing of the summer and enjoy the bounties it has brought us and think how best to prepare for the coming autumn and winter.

It was an important day in the country, as land which had been harvested could be made available for village people to graze their animals. It was once a public holiday when fairs were held.

 Perhaps that was why the first Monday in August was a holiday for years until it was moved to the end of the month. 

I decided to find out more........................ and discovered ..............

1. Prior to 1834, the Bank of England observed approx. 33 saint’s days or religious festivals and took them as holiday.
2. Bank holidays were first introduced by the Bank Holidays Act of 1871 and reduced public holidays to 4 days (Easter Monday, 1st Monday in August, Boxing Day and Whit Monday).
3. The act was introduced by Sir John Lubbock, the 1st Lord and Baron Avebury, (30th April, 1834-28th May, 1913), English banker, politician, naturalist and archaeologist.
4. The 1871 Act was repealed 100 years later and its provisions incorporated into the Banking and Financial Dealings Act 1971, which remains the statutory basis for bank holidays.
5. Bank holidays designated since the 1971 Act are appointed each year by Royal Proclamation.

 (Much of this post has been on previous August 1st posts from several years ago, hopefully long forgotten by everyone! )

Back Soon

 Apologies for not replying to yesterdays comments - had a long morning out and then a busy afternoon.

St Swithin's Day

A well known weather saying that has - thankfully - never  proved correct.

St Swithin's Day, if thou dost rain

For forty days it will remain.

St Swithin's Day, if thou be fair

For forty days, twill rain no more.

It was especially wrong in 1976 when there were lots of violent thunderstorms with rain over night on the 15th and then for the next 40 days there was virtually no rain, leading to the hottest summer and worst drought in living memory.

[I was working on the mobile library which was before any sort of air conditioning, so we sweltered in a 'tin box' - day after day].

St Swithin was an English  monk who became Bishop of Winchester in 852 and died 10 years later. At his request he was buried in the churchyard rather than inside. On 15th July 971 his remains were moved to an appropriate resting place inside the Cathedral. This coincided with a period of heavy rain that lasted for 40 days - and that's how the prediction started. 

Another old rhyme, found in one of my folklore books - written in the 18th century

Now if on St Swithin's Feast the welkin lours,

And every pent house streams with hasty showers.

Twice twenty day shall clouds their fleeces drain,

And wash the pavements with incessant rain.

('welkin' is the sky and 'lours' means glowers or  threatens)

The picture comes from The Farmers Almanac website

Back soon.

PS Hooray to the BBC for Quizzy Mondays being ⅔ back - a small crumb after the weeks of tennis watching! and I promise no more mentions of tennis until next year!

June Country Days on the 2nd of the Month

June - my favourite month of the year, meteorologically the start of summer (or  wait to the 21st for the astronomical start)

It is thought that June is named after the goddess Juno or possibly from Iuniores which was the lower level of the legislature in the constitution of ancient Rome.

Calm weather in June, sets the farmer in tune

 The weather pattern for June often alternates between spells of stormy weather and shorter periods of dry calm. The farmers prefer calm and warm with night-time dew to speed up crop growth and statistically June is England's sunniest month.

 

Summer Moon Walk . An Illustration by Angela Harding from her  book 'A Year Unfolding'

Other people in the past have also enjoyed June and written poems

 

Christina Rossetti said in her poem                    Summer

If the year would stand

Still at June for ever,

With no further growth on land

Nor further flow of river.

If all nights were shortest nights

And longest days were all seven,

This might be a merrier world

To my mind to live in.

JUNE 

Mine is the Month of Roses; yes, and mine

  The Month of Marriages!  All pleasant sights

And scents, the fragrance of the blossoming vine,

  The foliage of the valleys and the heights.

Mine are the longest days, the loveliest nights;

  The mower's scythe makes music to my ear;

I am the mother of all dear delights;

  I am the fairest daughter of the year.

From 'The Poets Calendar' By Longfellow 

And another written for children by Irene F Pawsey

Month of leaves,
Month of roses;
Gardens full
Of dainty posies;
Skies of blue,
Hedgerows gay,
Meadows sweet
With the new mown hay.

Flowery banks,
A-drone with bees,
Dreaming cattle
Under trees:
Song-birds pipe
A merry tune—
This is summer,
This is June.

And way, way back in 1557 Thomas Tusser said in his Five hundred points of good husbandry

In June get thy wedehoke, they knife and thy glove,

And wede out such wede as the corn doth not love;

Slack no time weding, for darth nor for cheape;

Thy corn shall reward it, or ever thou reap.

I think this means - keep weeding that garden!

Back Soon

Sue

A Book Find, The Mystery of St. Servatius Day and other unknown Saints

At the Bank Holiday Sunday car boot sale, just as it started to rain and everyone covered their stuff  I found the first book of the year, with a very apt cover.  

Another book about weather sayings and folklore to add to my collection for £1............

The author has also put together collections of sayings in books  on Gardening, Cooking and House and Home.

 I thought the book would have many of the weather lore sayings that are in my other books, and it has but also some lore and stories that I'd not come across before.

This is  one...........

Who shears his sheep before St Servatius' day

Love more his wool than his sheep.

St Servatius?? No mention in my book of Saints but this book above says he was a fourth century bishop of Tongeren in Belgium, with his Feast day being today the 13th. He is one of the so called Ice Saints, whose feast days fell between 11-14th May, traditionally a spell of cold weather - but not here this year!

I'd not heard of the Ice Saints either but apparently the others are .......

11th May - St Mamertus, a fifth century archbishop of Vienne in France

12th May -  St Pancras - the patron saint of children who was martyred, aged just 14, in Rome in AD304. Relics of this saint were sent to England and an early Anglo-Saxon church was dedicated to him in Canterbury (and the area of London and then the station too).

CANTERBURY – ST PANCRAS CHURCH, SUGGESTED SITE OF KING AETHELBERT’S PAGAN SHRINE

14th May - St Boniface, an Anglo-Saxon Benedictine monk, baptised as Winfrid at Crediton in Devon who was martyred in Germany after becoming archbishop of Mainz in AD 754.

According to wiki and my Saints book his special day is June 5th , and even accounting for changes in calendar it doesn't explain the May 14th day.

So no idea where the author found her dates for the book, but I suppose any tales from 1400 years ago are bound to change with time!

Thanks for comments yesterday, I'm glad it made a smile for a Monday morning.

Back Soon

Sue

May Country Days and Country Ways

  In April Spring is in the air

But in May Spring is on the ground

From 'The Illustrated Country Year' by Celia Lewis

For ancient Celtic people May 1st was Beltane (Bel's Fire). The first day of summer and bonfires were lit to help the sun regain it's strength. A day of feasting and in many places there are still traditional events on this day, involving dancing round maypoles, May Queens, Garland dancers and Morris men and hobby horses.

The May-pole is up,

Now give us a cup,

I'll drink to the garlands around it,

But first unto those,

Whose hands did compose

The glory of flowers that crowned it.

'The May-pole' by Robert Herrick, 1648

Most old sayings prefer a wet and cold month, we need some of the wet bit - especially for the farmers' fields as April was a record breaking month for sunshine and warmth (love it for myself but not good for crops).

May damp and cool fills the barns and wine vats

Water in May is bread all the year

A cold May is kindly,

And fills the barn nicely.

A wet May

Makes a big load of hay.

In the middle of May comes the tail of the winter

And a warning for shepherds

Shear your sheep in May,

And shear them all away.

Watch out for late frosts around the third week of May. These are attributed to Saint Dunstan (or St. Franklin in some versions). Apparently he made a pact with the devil in order to obtain good sales of his beer. In return for his soul the devil promised to attack the blossoms of the  apple trees in the orchards so that the cider makers would have less cider to sell.

The Full Moon this month is on the 12th and was called The Milk Moon or Mother's Moon.

Apologies for anyone with a really good memory because much of this post has been on May 1st posts in previous years back to 2017!

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Sue

Cuckoo Day?

Today is St Tiburtius Day and traditionally the first day to hear a cuckoo - according to two of the folklore books on my shelves.

The Cuckoo sings from St Tiburtius day to St John's day

BUT unless you are lucky you probably won't hear one now and even less likely to see one. They were very common in the 50's and 60's - we all knew the rhyme 

The Cuckoo comes in April and sings his song in May

In June he changes his tune and in July he flies away

In the 80's Colin used to come home from bridge inspecting out in the countryside with news of the first cuckoo every year. Even in the early 90's we would hear one from the woodland close to the smallholding.

Now I can't remember the last time I heard one. 

So who was Saint Tibertius? According to the legend of St Cecelia  Tibertius was the brother of Valerian, to whom Cecelia was betrothed by her parents. Cecelia was determined not to marry so as to devote herself to God. On their wedding day she told Valerian and was so persuasive  about her faith that he was converted to Christianity and persuaded his brother Tiburtius too. They set about showing their conviction by collecting the bones of Christian Martyrs and giving them a proper burial. When caught they refused to change their belief and were both taken outside of Rome beaten and beheaded.

If you are lucky enough to hear the cuckoo remember to turn the money in your pocket to ensure future prosperity.

Turn your money when you here the Cuckoo and you'll have money in your purse till he comes again.

It's unlucky if the Cuckoo arrives too early before the leaves on the trees................

When the Cuckoo sings on an empty bough,

Keep your hay and sell your cow.

When the Cuckoo comes to the bare thorn,

Sell your cow and buy your corn.

I've certainly never seen a Cuckoo but here's the illustration by Carrie Ackroyd from my lovely book ' A Sparrow's Life's as Sweet as Ours'.

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