Predicting weather through proverbs:St Swithins Day by Michelle Styles

Today (15 July) is St Swithin’s Day. In English folklore, if it rains today, England is set for 40 days of rain. If it is sunny, 40 days of sun.  What is interesting is that his day  used to be 2 July but was changed to the 15^th – L believe after the change to Gregorian calendar. In Norway, it is still celebrated as 2 July and they have the same sort of proverb.

There is some truth to the legend as weather patterns with the Gulf Stream and England are often set about this time. Some say it is more around midsummer than mid-July. The legend was first recorded  in about the 12^th century.  St Swithin was the bishop of Winchester from 852 -862 and apparently a terrible rain storm made his coffin float out on to the road where it had to reclaimed.

People suspect the saying was co-opted to him to make it acceptable in the Christianised world and that it was quite possibly associated with some other god or goddess before that. It is one of the things early Christians did —  co-opting or creating a hybrid belief with some saint which had previously belonged to some god. In this way, they made it easier.

What is interesting is that other European countries have similar sorts of proverbs but attributed to different saints.

Anyway I am hoping that the weather stays fair today as my bees have been suffering in the rain and I would like to get a good crop of honey. I remain hopeful because of the old saying – a swarm in May is worth a load of hay, a swarm in June a silver spoon but the swarm in July is not worth a fly.  My bees swarmed in June and the new Queens have finally started laying and the colonies are starting to build.   Again, the old proverb has some merit as the earlier bees swarm, the more likely it is to have the colonies build up to sufficient strength. Most late swarms are what are called casts  or much smaller swarms.

Collecting old proverbs about the weather and animal behaviour is something I have started to do since I started keeping bees because there is some truth in the observation.

We are not in a drought up here in Northumberland so I am hoping for a fair day and I think we might just make it.

Michelle Styles writes warm, witty and intimate historical romance for Harlequin Historical in a wide range of time periods including Roman, Regency and Victorian but most recently Viking. Her next novel will be A Deal with Her Rebel Viking (to be published December 2019). You can find out more about Michelle and her books on www.michellestyles.co.uk

Christina Hollis—New Beginnings...

At the entrance to our Home Sweet Home

We first saw our current home, Tottering Towers, more than thirty years ago. It was my birthday, and our hunt for a house ended at these gates. Several of the fences sported huge Clematis Montana climbers. They were just coming into flower, and scrambled for yards in every direction. We would have put in an offer for our dream home anyway, but that sea of pink and white blossom sealed the deal. Fancy having millions of ready-made cake decorations to put on my birthday cake each year!

In those days scientists talked about a hole in the ozone layer rather than climate change, but over the following decades we noticed the seasons slipping. Winters got shorter, and milder. Spring came earlier and earlier each year, and it was often much warmer than usual. The most obvious sign of change came with the flowering of our clematis. It started sooner each year. Instead of coming into flower during mid-May, by 2009 the blossoms were all out (and over) during April each year. 

Then came a succession of the hardest winters we’d had in years. These reset our garden’s biological clock. Everything is back to normal. Since 2011, the clematis have flowered right on cue for my birthday, although the weather on the day hasn’t always been so lovely!

Alex at 8 weeks old

I’ve been concentrating on non-fiction work lately, and you can read one of my latest pieces here. It’s all about early starts and new beginnings, as we’ve acquired a puppy. He's a golden retriever/yellow labrador cross called Alex. He’s exactly thirteen weeks old today, and in the month since he arrived our lives have been turned upside down. Talk about new beginnings—it’s like having a baby in the house again! At least he provides plenty of snippets for my newsletter. The next one will include my recipe for a quick and easy orange polenta cake. Alex “helped” me to get the details right by supervising, then fell asleep on my feet as I was baking!

To get my new orange polenta cake recipe and more news about Alex, send me an email with the subject “newsletter” to: christinahollis(AT)hotmail.co.uk  (replacing the (AT) with @) 

When she isn't cooking, gardening or beekeeping, Christina Hollis writes contemporary fiction starring complex men and independent women.  Her books have been translated into more than a dozen languages, and she’s sold nearly three million books worldwide. You can catch up with her at http://www.christinahollis.blogspot.com, on Twitter, Facebook, and see a full list of her published books at christinahollis.com

Her current release, Heart Of A Hostage, is published by The Wild Rose Press and available at myBook.to/HeartOfAHostage  worldwide, and from http://bit.ly/1iNf2Gw in the US.

Christina Hollis: Writing As Winter Retreats and Spring Advances...

By Philip Halling

They say other countries have climate, while England has weather. When you visit, you soon find out why we’re all obsessed by it.  English weather is always playing tricks of one sort or another. For instance, I’ve never known such a long-drawn out winter. On 14th April, the temperature here struggled into double figures for the first time since September last year.  That’s good, but the wind is still cold and blustery. It's more of a trial than a pleasure to spend much time outside. 

It’s been a terrible twelve months for both wildlife and farm livestock. A short burst of bright and dry weather got everything going very early in 2012. Then we had a big, long freeze, and all the chicks, lambs and young shoots were chilled. After that, it started to rain - and forgot how to stop.  The deluge eased several times, but everywhere was wet for at least eight months, and many places were under water for much of that time. In December, the rain turned to snow. Although here in Gloucestershire we didn’t suffer as badly as many places, for three weeks the last half-mile of country lane between our house and the main road was blocked by both snow and ice. 

By Philip Halling

The terrain here is like an Escher staircase - a one in three slope, cut into a series of ninety-degree turns. The only way to get in, or out, was by walking.  We live in the middle of the countryside because we like solitude, and boy, did we have it this winter! At least I could do plenty of writing, while the temptations of the town were out-of-bounds.  It’s lovely to be snuggled up in front of  a  crackling log fire with bowls of hot soup, but by the beginning of March the novelty had worn off. I was worried about my bees, too. I didn’t harvest any honey in 2012 as it was such a poor summer, and I wanted to leave them with plenty of stores over winter. Even so, I still had to feed them additional food. Despite taking every precaution to help them get through, I lost 75% of my hives purely because of the terrible conditions.  

By Albert Bridge

Thank goodness we seem to have turned a corner. As I write there’s a haze of golden pussy willow in the wood, and I heard the cuckoo for the first time this morning. Summer must be on its way.

The whole of the UK is in desperate need of some sunshine. Have you got any to spare? 

Christina Hollis is an award-winning writer whose work includes best-selling fiction for Harlequin Mills and Boon. You can find her latest title, Lady Rascal, here. Christina loves to hear from readers, and you can contact her via her blog, website or email christinahollis@hotmail.co.uk