My How Time Flies
Mood:  bright
Topic: Seasons

Good Grief Charlie Brown!  Has it been that long since I thought of something?  What happens to my days?

Well at last they are getting longer and that is nice. Sun when I wake and sun when I return home.  Temp is better and time in the soil is fun now (especially since it has thawed).

Better hurry now to rake away the covers of leaves.  The last 2 days of rain have encouraged growth and all rising buds have hats of leaves that they have pierced on their way up to the light.

Rise up Mother Nature!!

 

 

 

Leap Year
Mood:  quizzical
Topic: Seasons

Soon a mythical day will arrive.

1. Every year divisible by 4 is a leap year.
2. But every year divisible by 100 is NOT a leap year
3. Unless the year is also divisible by 400, then it is still a leap year.

The mean time between two successive vernal equinoxes is called a tropical year, and it is about 365.2422 days long. This vernal equinox was the end of the calendar in Roman times and the beginning of the next year. Even the Romans added a month of days after the equinox to balance the calendar.

        Why must we mark our time in such minute increments. What happened with getting up with the sun and going to bed with the sun, and planting when the soil was warm enough by watching the forsythia and new oak leaves. Have we lost the connection to the swaying of the seasons and the twirling of the earth?  Could you continue your life and work without a clock or a calendar?  

Tradition, Folklore and Superstition

A tradition was introduced many centuries ago to allow women to propose to men during a leap year. This privilege of proposing was restricted to leap day in some areas. Leap day was sometimes known as “Bachelors’ Day”. A man was expected to pay a penalty, such as a gown or money, if he refused a marriage offer from a woman.
The tradition’s origin stems from an old Irish tale referring to St Bridget striking a deal with St Patrick to allow women to propose to men every four years. This old custom was probably made to balance the traditional roles of men and women in a similar way to how the leap day balances the calendar.

This tradition may trace to the 1200s, when a woman had the law backing her intention to propose during a Leap Year in some parts of Europe. She was required, however, to wear a red petticoat that showed beneath her skirts, "to give men the opportunity to run the other way," says Sharman Robertson, archivist at Hallmark Cards.

It was also considered to be unlucky for someone to be born on a leap day in Scotland and for couples to marry on a leap year, including on a leap day, in Greece.  These unlucky leap day babies have created the Honor Society of Leap Year Day Babies--4700 strong.

Observances on February 29

Leap day is also St Oswald’s Day, named after a 10th century archbishop of York who died on February 29, 992. The feast is celebrated on February 29 during leap years and on February 28 in other years.

Can you imagine the puzzlement of the last 18 members of Magellan's crew saling home in the only remaining ship of the four that departed in 1529 upon returning to Seville in 1522 to discover they were a day late? Their record keeping and inner gyroscope had failed them. They had lost 24 hours.  Is it true that the lives of men are determined celestrially? 

 

Changing Seasons
Mood:  bright
Topic: Seasons

I am carrying gloves, hat, umbrella, rain poncho, YakTrax, kitty litter, shovel, flashlight, and my cell phone each time I go out. In 12 hours there can be 3 kinds of weather and in these hills you never know what the travel will be like from one side of the hill to the other.  I don't remember having to do this kind of thing until Mid to late March in years past.  March should be the month of change--too much wind, a different season each day, children climbing the walls, horses throwing their heads and switching their tails. In like a lion; out like a lamb. So we said.

It wasn't so many years ago that this changable season was later, or am I older than I think?  I feel like my grandmother when I say, 'Back when . . . ' We live longer but things change faster. I don't know if we are accomodating as successfully as when the pace was a bit slower.  None the less, I don't mind the short winters. Now I won't have to move to Florida. I never was attracted to that particular sand bar anyway.