Candlemas

If Candlemas Day be fair and bright
Winter will have another fight.
If Candlemas Day brings cloud and rain,
Winter won't come again.

Well it was not a clear sky, slightly overcast, but no rain for sure, and although it was hazy, it was bright as I had to pull the shades on my south window today. Do you suspect, Dear Reader, that according to the poem it means that we have undefinable weather coming? That is rather typical, so no big news there, eh?

A farmer should, on Candlemas Day,
Have half his corn and half his hay.

On Candlemas Day if the thorns hand adrop,
You can be sure of a good pea crop.

OR

February second, Candlemas day:
half your wood, and half your hay.

Half the winter has passed away,
we'll eat our supper by the light of day!

For sure we have nearly half our hay but our sheep are now in need of alfalfa because they are milking. So we are good on that score. Our wood pile is unending because Dirt makes sure that we have lots of wood. As far as thorns drooping, I wasn't sure which thorns to be checking or what the heck drooping means but I am going with the pea crop being good this year because I want it to.

And I must say it is very groovy that the day is noticably longer, so that when days are like they were today, Dirt can come home and have tons of time to do his other "job" in the daylight.

My dining room is littered with boxes because the other poem I attended to is:

"Down with the rosemary, and so
Down with the bays and mistletoe;
Down with the holly, ivy, all,
Wherewith ye dress'd the Christmas Hall"
— Roberr Herrick (1591–1674),

So the last of the Christmas decorations are being put away today as we come to the close of the season of Epiphany. Except I do like to keep out my snowmen and winter village until after St. Valentines Day, just in case we do have some more winter weather. When I was little there was a poem about Valentines and it was illustrated with a scene of snow and ice skates, that is how I think of St. Valentine's Day. But that, Dear Reader, is for another post.

By the way, February is cake month, according to Anglo-Saxons. Let's eat Cake!