FACTS ABOUT THE MONTH OF MAY

                                          Gemstone: Emerald.

                                         Flower: Lilly of the Valley.

May is named after the Greek goddess, Maia. May is a time of celebrations. It is the time when flowers emerge and crops begin to sprout.

The Anglo-Saxon name for May was Tri-Milchi because this was when lush new grass began to grow in the meadows and it meant that the cows could now be milked three times a day. Before 1430 May was called Maius, Mayes or Mai, it is only since then we began to call it May.

The flower of the month ( Lilly of the Valley ) also known as our Lady’s tears because according to Christian legend it first sprang up as a result of the tears from the Virgin Mary as she stood weeping during the crucifixion of Christ and it grows wild in the valley of tears in Baca in Palestine.

May 1st. May Day ( Garland Day ) was when Britain marked the end of the Winter and welcomed the beginning of Summer. For our ancestors mainly in rural areas it was a major festival celebrated throughout the country with music, dancing and games. Traditional May Day celebrations included the dancing around the May Poles, playing with ‘hobby horses’ and characters like ‘Robin Hood’ and ‘Jack in the Green’.

Young children would collect greenery and flowers to make garlands, they would decorate sticks to look like a cross and fix them to a hoop and parade around the village green. In some towns and villages these celebrations still take place. Charlton-on-Otmoor in Oxfordshire is just one of them.

Superstitions.

There is an old saying that if first thing in the morning on May 1st young girls who washed their face in the morning dew would have a beautiful complexion all through the year and this dew was also able to remove your freckles, spots and pimples due to it’s Magic properties.

The month of May was also considered to be an unlucky month particularly for getting married hence the old saying,

‘Marry in May and you’ll rue the day’

Other sayings include.

Being born in May would produce a sickly child.

It was also considered bad luck to buy a broom (sweeping brush) or wash your blankets;

Wash a blanket in May.

Wash a dear one away.

Weather-lore.

“A wet May makes for a big load of hay. A cold May is kindly and fills the barn finely.”

“A swarm of bees inMay

Is worth a load of hay.”

“Mist in May, Heat in June, makes Harvest time come real soon.”

Other Days in May.

Oak Apple Day May 29th also known as Pinch-Bum Day.

On this day traditionally people would wear oak apples or oak leaves pinned to themselves to remember that on this day King Charles 11 returned triumphantly to London after the restoration of the monarchy in 1660. The reason for wearing oak leaves or oak apples was to celebrate the King’s

narrow escape from capture by Cromwell’s soldiers by hiding in an oak tree. The name Pinch-Bum Day came about because if you were found not to be wearing either oak leaves or oak apples on this day, you could be pinched, kicked or otherwise abused. In some parts of the country Whipping the guilty persons with nettles was a favorite punishment, hence the name Nettle Day in some places.

King Charles 11 Who Hid In An Oak Tree To
Avoid Capture By Oliver Cromwell.

Notable Dates to Remember.

1st of May-Labour Day.

1st of May- May Day.

5th of May- 1930 Amy Johnson flew solo from England to Australia.

6th of May- Saw the first postage stamp the ‘Penny Black’ come into use, in 1840. Also in 1954 Roger Bannister ran a mile in less than four minutes.

8th of May- 1945 VE Day (Victory in Europe)

9th of May- Captain Blood the famous Pirate tried to steal the crown jewels in 1671.

12th of May- Florence Nightingale was born.

29th of May- In 1953 Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reached the summit of Mount Everest.

Also this day is ‘Oak Apple Day.’

30th of May- The deaths of King Arthur in 542 and Joan of Arc burned at the stake in1431.

Dancing Around A May Pole.

FACTS ABOUT THE MONTH OF APRIL.

    Gemstone: Diamond.

                                                        Flower: Sweet pea.

Historians are not sure where April got it’s name from but it is believed to originate from the Latin word ‘aperire’ which means ‘to open’. April is the month when most of the flower buds on plants and trees start to open and things begin to grow again after the winter.

Eostre monath or Eastremonath was the Anglo -Saxon name for this month and it is from the Anglo- Saxons that the name of the Christian Festival of Easter comes from.

Superstitions:

 The Cuckoo.

The arrival of the cuckoo is the signal that spring has come. It arrives some time in mid-April but it’s sound is becoming scarce as it’s numbers are in decline. The cuckoo’s song can be heard from St. Tiburtius Day ( 14th April ) to St. John’s Day (24th June ).  Here is a old traditional rhyme about the summer life cycle of the Cuckoo.

In April I open my bill

In May I sing night and day

In June I change my tune

In July far far I fly

In August away I must.

In different parts of the country there are various dates in the month called ‘Cuckoo Day’ and some places even hold ‘Cuckoo Fairs;

Marsden Cuckoo Day ( West Yorkshire )

Heathfield Cuckoo Fair ( East Sussex )

Downtown Cuckoo Fair ( Salisbury Wiltshire )

It was also said that if you heard the Cuckoo’s call on St. Tiburtis Day and you turned over all the money in your pockets and spat on the ground without looking at it!  and if you were on soft ground, it would bring you good luck but if you were stood on hard ground when you did it, it’s call would bring you bad luck.

The Cuckoo.

The Swallow.

The Swallow also makes it’s reappearance in April after it’s migration flight from it’s winter hide away in Africa. In very olden times people were mystified by the sudden  disappearance of many migratory bird’s at the end of the summer and they thought that the Swallow spent the winter months hidden in the mud in the bottom of ponds. Traditionally April 15th is ‘Swallow Day’ the date that the first Swallow’s could be seen.

Weather - Lore, Beliefs and sayings.

Like many other months in the calendar April has it’s fair share of beliefs and sayings, here are just a few;

April showers bring May flowers.

If early April is foggy

Rain in June

Will make lanes boggy.

When April blows its horn

‘Tis good for hay and corn.

Other Dates to Remember.

April 1st.  April Fools Day also Palm Sunday and Daffodil Day all fall on April 1st this year.

        5th.   Maundy Thursday.

        6th.   Good Friday.

        8th.   Easter Sunday.

       17th.  St. Patricks Day.

       18th.  Mothering Sunday.

       19th.  Primrose Day. 

       23rd.  St. Georges Day.

       25th.  Start of British Summer Time.

       30th.  Walpurgis Night. ( Beltane Eve. )

Walpurgis Night.

Walpurgis night is a Celtic and a Viking celebration, the reason for the celebration by the Celts was to celebrate the coming of summer and to the Vikings it was to hasten the arrival of spring and summer and also to frighten away evil spirits. The lighting of Bonfires on hilltops and in villages was an essential part of the ceremony, in other parts of the world it would also include other customs and celebrations. It is not widely celebrated in Britain except in Scotland and in Ireland but it is in Northern Europe in Norway, Sweden and Finland being the main countries of this celebration.

Walpurgis Night Celebrations.

Love Is in the Air.

Love is in the air, spring is just around the corner. The weather seems to be more like normal so far for this month but whatever the weather is life has just begun again.

The Snowdrops have been nodding their dainty little heads in the gardens and hedgerows for several weeks now, Catkins and Pussy willows are in flower and the Crocus are all in flower, Daffodils also are bursting into bloom as I speak

A Host of Golden Daffodils.

Snowdrops at Hodsock Priory.

Hazel Catkins.

Pussy Willows.

and I am busy in my garden as new shoots in the perennial flower bed are pushing their way through.
The Goat Willow or Pussy Willow (Salix caprea) as it is commonly called was believed by the Druids to have healing properties the Druids called it "sunshine fire" because it could turn from Silver to Gold, they believed that it had a natural alchemy to be able to do this. The natural healing qualities of the willow are well known. One cure for "insomnia" was to put a piece of wood from a willow under your pillow and it will help you to fall asleep.

                                                             Looking For Signs Of Spring.
These are just a few of the signs of spring, on the 20^th of this month it will be the Vernal Equinox the first official day of Spring and as the time progresses we hopefully will see warmer weather arrive.

I love to get out and about in the countryside to see all the woodlands, hedgerows, listen to the birds singing their heads off, the Dawn Chorus is much better heard away from the town in the countryside.

The Rooks here have been busy since early February. They can now be seen in their nests preparing to lay.

The Rookery near where I live is alive with activity as the birds busy themselves repairing old nests and making new ones, I noticed that some birds are already sitting in their nests and either laying their eggs or even sitting on them as they start laying early March and the incubation period is a short one 16 to 18 days so by early April there will be young ones in the nests and the Rookery will become a very noisy busy hive of activity.

Ducks Nest. (very hard to spot.)

Mother and Ducklings.

Ducks have been pairing since October / November and have started treading while getting on with their nest building and so they to will be sitting eggs very soon. They nearly always nest near water but I have found nests over a couple of miles away from the nearest pond or river. They will often nest in trees and when I was a gamekeeper we often collected eggs for the incubator from a Christmas tree plantation where we would find their nests hidden under the the trees in thick cover, the nearest water was the Canal which was nearly a mile away.

 Rabbits and Hares are also busy, I have seen several Hares chasing around the fields and having their boxing matches, Rabbits have been bucking with their tell tale signs of their amorous activities to be seen around the warren.

bucking with their tell tale signs of their amorous activities to be seen around the warren.

Hares Boxing.

I have not found any Frogspawn yet, last year my pond had some in it quite early but I did find some spawn of the Toad on the banks of a pool the other day.

Frog Spawn.

 As spring moves on and Summer (if we have one arrives) we shall soon see Lambs gambolling around the fields, Fox cubs at play and the rest of the countryside will have turned into a pastel of colours as the various trees in our countryside burst into flower and leaf.

                                Yes spring is upon us love is in the air, enjoy it while you can.

Facts About The Month Of March.

Facts About The Month Of March.

Gemstone: Bloodstone.

  Flower of the Month: Jonquil.

The month of March gets it's name from the Roman word 'Martius' and was originally the first month of the year in the Old Roman calender and it is named after Mars who was the god of war. March was also the start of our calender until the year of 1752 when we changed over to the Gregorian calender.

The Anglo – Saxons name for this month was 'Hlyd Monath' which means the Stormy month or 'Hraed monath' Rugged month.

The month of March was a month of many games that were all played through the period of Lent the traditional games that were played were Marbles and Skipping games.The playing of all these games were stopped at twelvenoon on Good Friday, in some parts of the country it was called Marble Day or Long Rope Day.

The game of Marbles is believed to date back many thousands of years, clay balls have been found in caves once lived in by early cave people, other marbles have been found made from stones, Hazel Nuts, Clay and Marble. The first glass marbles were made in Germany around 1848 when a German glass blower made a mold for them to be made in.

Borrowed Days.

It is said that the last three days of March were borrowed from the month of April, here is an old saying that tells the story.

                                                                       “March said to April'

I see three hoggs upon a hill;

And if you'll lend me dayes three

I'll find a way to make them dee.

The first o'them was wind and weet,

The second o'them was snaw and sleet

The third o'them was sic a freeze,

it froze the birds nebs to the trees.

When the three days were past and gane,

The three sily hoggs came hirpling hame.

Superstition.

It was once said that if Easter should fall on Lady Day ( March 25^th ) then it was said that some disater would be sure to follow, hence the old saying;

'When my Lord falls in my Lady's lap,

England beware of some mishap.'

The Lent Lily.

The Lent lily is a Wild daffodil a member of the 'Narcissus' family and is one of the flowers most associated with the month of March.

The flower was named after the boy in Greek mythology who was changed into a flower because of his own vanity, conciet and selfisness. The story says that he refused the advances of 'Echo' an Oread ( a Mountain Nymph ) who saw him one day and fell deeply in love with him but he ignored her. She then spent the rest of her life all alone until nothing but an echo sound was all that remained of her. The Greek god Nemesis the goddess of revenge heard of the sad story and decided to punish him, so she lured him to a pool of water where he saw his own reflection. He was so amazed by the beauty of his own face that not realizing it was his own reflection he fell in love with himself. He eventually figured out that his love could not be addressed and so he died, soon after his death a beautiful pale flower appeared on the spot where he died a Wild daffodil and it was named after him 'Narcissus'.

Narcissus is the orgin of the term 'narcissism' a fixation with oneself.

                                                                                                                                   The Nymph Echo.

      Narcissus At The Pool.

The daffodil became so popular in Wales that in the 19^th Century it became the Welsh symbol, in England the daffodil inspired the poet William Wordsworth to write his famous poem “Daffodils”.

A Host Of Golden Daffodils.

Weather Lore Beliefs And Sayings.

Like all other months March has some old sayings to guide us regarding on how the weather behaves.

'March winds and April showers

Bring forth May flowers'.

'As it rains in March so it rains in June'.

'When March comes in like a Lion

it goe's out like a Lamb'.

'A dry March and a wet May

Fill barns and bays with corn and hay'.

Before we had modern weather forecasters to tell us what sort of weather we could expect, many of these old sayings were how we predicted the weather and most of them all proved to be reasonably accurate.

Festivals And Traditions. (2013)

March 1^st St Davids Day. Patron Saint of Wales.

March 5^th St Pirans Dayin Cornwall.

March 10^th Mothers Day (2013)

March 17^th Saint Patricks Day. Patron Saint of Ireland.

March 24^th Palm Sunday.

March 29^th Good Friday.

March 31^st Easter Sunday.

Anniversaries.

March 3^rd. Alexander Bell was born in 1847.

March 15^th. Julius Caesar was murdered in 44bc.

March 25^th. In 1948 Heathrow Airport was opened.

March31st. The Eiffel Tower was opened in Paris in 1889.

FACTS ABOUT THE MONTH OF FEBRUARY.

Facts About The Month Of February.

                                                  Gemstone; Amethyst.

                                                    Flower; Primrose.

The Romans and the Celts regarded the month of February as the beginning of Spring.

The month of February and also January were both introduced to the Roman calendar when it was extended from ten months in a year to twelve by the roman Numa Pompilius who was the second King of Rome.

February comes from the word 'Februa' which means to cleanse or purify, due to the many rituals that took place before spring.

The 'Anglo Saxons' called this month 'Sol – monath' or (cake month) because they baked cakes and then offered them to their God's during this month.

The Welsh called February 'y mis bach' which means the little month because it only has 28 days except in a leap year.

Candlemas Day.

February 2^nd is Candlemas Day ( the Christian festival of light. ) This ancient festival marks the midpoint of winter, the halfway period between the shortest day and the spring equinox. In the Christian Church on this day all the Candles that were to be used during the New Year were brought in to the church to be blessed at the alter and so this day became known as Candlemas Day, an other name for this day is the Festival Day of the Candles.

Traditions,Superstitions and Weather Lore.

Borrowed Days.

The Days February 12^th - 14^th were said to be “borrowed” from the month of January. It was said that if these days were stormy, the rest of the year would be favoured with good weather: but if they were fine, then the years weather would be foul.

The Legend of the Snowdrop.

A small flower called the Snowdrop appears in February and it is thought to be symbol of hope. The Legend of the Snowdrop comes from the story that when Adam and Eve were expelled from the garden of Eden they faced long cold winters and Eve was about to give up hope that they would ever end, when an Angel appeared and she transformed some of the falling snowflakes into the flowers of a Snowdrop, proving that the winters do eventually give way to spring.

An Old Rhyme.

The Snowdrop, in purest white array,

First rears her head on Candlemas day.

The Latin name for Snowdrop “Galanthus “comes from the Greeks, gala means “milk” anthus means “flower”.

Snowdrops are also called Candlemas Bells.

The name Snowdrop does not mean 'drop of snow', it means drop as in “eardrops” the old name for earrings.

Shrove Tuesday.

Shrove Tuesday marks the start of the forty days before Easter, this is supposed to be a period of quietness and fasting. Sometimes called “Mischief Day” Shrove Tuesday is the last day before “Lent”.

In certain parts of the country a special game of football is played. This game of football has no rules and is played on Shrove Tuesday. In some villages and towns the streets would be closed for the duration of the game which could last for several hours or more. The small town of Ashbourne in Derbyshire is one of the places where this game is still held each year on Shrove Tuesday and on Ash Wednesday.

Festivals and Traditions.

February 2^{nd .}

Candlemas Day commemorates the ritual purification of 'Mary', forty days after the birth of “Jesus”.

It is now the day when all the candles to be used by the church during the new year are blessed.

February 12^th.

Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Day is on the 12^th of February this year. This is the last day before the start of Lent.

February 13^th.

To day is Ash Wednesday. It was once the custom that children on this day would carry a twig from an Ash tree in their pocket or down their socks and if they were caught without one then the other children would stamp on their feet.

February 14^th.

St' ValentinesDay, this was the day when we originally thought was the day when birds chose their mates.Valentines Day has always been associated with love and romance, it was once said;

The first man an unmarried woman saw on this day,

would be her future husband.

If a woman saw a Robin flying overhead, she would a sailor wed,

If it was a Sparrow, she would marry a poor man and be happy,

If she saw a Goldfinch she would marry a rich man.

February 15^th.

Kissing Friday. It was once tradition that on this day that schoolboys were allowed to kiss the girls without being punished or rejected for doing so. This tradition lasted until the 1940s.

Leap Year.

A leap year occurs every four years when an extra day is added to the month. On this day a woman may propose to her loved one.

Aniversaries.

February 6^th. In 1952 Queen Elizabeth 11 came to the throne.

February 7^th. In 1812 Charles Dickens was born.

February 11^th. Sir Francis Drake became the first Englishman to sail the Pacific in 1578.

Thomas Edison the famous Inventer was born this day in 1847.

February 12^th. Birth of Charles Darwin in 1807.

February 14^th. St' Valentines Day.

February 15^th. In 1971 Britian went Decimal.

February 23^rd. The birth of 'Handel' the musician in 1685, a German born British composer.

Samuel Pepys was born also on this day in 1633. He is famous for his Diary but also as a Naval Adminstratior to King Charles 11 and also to King James 11, he also became a member of Parliament from 1685-1688.