Weather – Ember Day – the
weather today indicates the weather of January.
Today is the first of the
Winter Ember Days, the other two being this coming Friday and Saturday. These are days set aside in every
quarter of the year during which we fast and pray, thanking God for his many
blessings, and asking for the grace to use them well and in the service of
others.
I wrote more about them here.
For the fun of it, I took
again the Medieval Personality test, and this year – or at least right now – I am
Phlegmatic.
The Phlegmatic:
Is deliberative; slow in making decisions; perhaps
overcautious in minor matters.
Is indifferent to external affairs.
Is reserved and distant. [painfully shy…]
Is slow in movement. [Yeah, well, creaking old bones and a tendency to embonpoint can account
for that…]
Has a marked tendency to persevere.
Exhibits a constancy of mood. [Yep, even-keel, that’s I]
 |
| (And enjoys hibernating before the fire) |
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Meanwhile, I have been
checking the weather to see how close the prognostications for the month have
come. These were the ones for
December:
Weather for December:
Based on the 12 Days of
Christmas: Sunny and less cold.
Based on the first 12 days
of January: Rain, wind, cold, raw. Brrrr…
Based on the Ember Days: Dark clouds in the morning, bright sunshine
in the afternoon.
The last Sunday of the month
indicates the weather for next month: The
last Sunday of November had clear skies and high winds, very chilly high winds.
Well, here we are in the
last half of the month, and so far, at least in this corner of the Smallest
State, most of the days have been plenty darksome, with overcast, rain,
threatened rain, fog – no appreciable snow yet, God be thanket. But while we haven’t had many sunny days,
it has been less cold than could be expected
Speaking of snow, another
weather superstition is that the date on
which the first snow falls indicates the number of snows we will have that
winter. Our first snow (a mere
dusting) was on the 27th of November, which means we can look
forward to twenty-seven snows. Oh,
joy… Couldn’t have waited a few
more days and fallen on the 1st of December, could it?
(The Widow is not overly
fond of snow, except for the picture-postcard kind which falls on the fields
and leave the roads and sidewalks clear.
When she was growing up (in California), she went to the snow, it did
not come to her. Those were days
when people put chains on their tires after hieing themselves to the mountains
for some Winter Recreation.)
One final superstition: The
general character of the weather during the last twenty days of December will
rule the weather for winter. Starting from the 12th, the weather
has been nearly half and half, so far.
Three continuous days of bright sunshine, followed by five days of overcast
and rain. I wonder which will
prevail?
