Funtime | Pilgrim's Perch

Oh, for a happy and sunny St Bartholomew’s Day!

St Bartholomew’s Day comes on 24th August – 40 days after St Swithin’s Day. Both are folk lore predictors of weather. Maybe you remember the saying:

“St Swithin's day if thou dost rain
For forty days it will remain
St Swithin's day if thou be fair
For forty days will rain na mair”

St Swithin's Day rain brings rain for the following forty days — *Forty days of rain predicted…*

How closely we’d all watch for rain or sun!

Less well known, perhaps, is the piece of folk lore surrounding St Bartholomew:

‘If St Bartholomew be clear, a prosperous autumn comes that year.’

Woman harvesting crops from vegetable garden — *A good harvest*

I rather like the saying, ‘All the tears that St Swithin can cry, St Bartelmy’s mantle will wipe dry…’

Child walking in field, all tears gone — *St Bartleby’s mantle will dry any tears…*

Bee keepers are also reminded that ‘On St Bartholomew’s day take the honey away.’

Honey potential! — *Beehives offer a fruitful harvest*

Honey is delicious when enjoyed on hot buttered toast – but it has numerous other benefits.

Honey - with a cup of tea, or used in many other ways — *The teatime jar of honey – full of possibilities*

In ancient times honey was used for embalming purposes but it also aids the living. Aristotle (around 350BC) undertook research into the healing and antiseptic properties of honey and Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, prescribed honey for sores and ulcers.

Scientific research into the properties of honey continues today — *Research into the benefits of honey*

Research continues today into the effects of honey on heart disease, arthritis, high blood pressure and numerous other conditions – so we can rightly celebrate the honey harvest around St Bartholomew’s Day.

St Bartholomew - a day to celebrate the many properties of the wonderful bee! — *A day to celebrate the noble bee!*

Joyful Midsummer in the Garden

It always seems a bit strange that we celebrate midsummer only two days after the summer solstice. This year feels particularly odd as summer has been a long time arriving in the northern hemisphere – only now are the winter woollies being put away and sunny summery clothes take centre stage.

Children on beach in summer clothing — *Summer arrives at last*

The days are at their longest, the sun feels welcomingly warm and gardens that were held back by spring chill are now bursting into life as though making up for lost time.

The garden gets going... — *Summer blooms*

Before the change from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar in 1752 St Barnabas Day fell close to midsummer and there’s piece of folklore that goes like this:

Barnaby bright, Barnaby bright
	The longest day and the shortest night.
	When St Barnabas smiles both night and day,
	Poor ragged robin blooms in the hay.

Ragged robin is a wild flower of the hay meadows and haymaking is at its peak at this time of the year. Good weather is essential to ensure the hay is harvested in peak condition and stored dry for winter fodder. St Barnabas day marks the first day of haymaking – the old country saying was, ‘On the day of St Barnabas, put the scythe to the grass.’

A field with hay gathered in — *Hay making gets under way*

The heat from the midsummer sun is thought to imbue herbs with their healing qualities so this is the day when they are gathered at dawn and then put to dry for use in simple herbal remedies or hung at doors and windows to ward off harmful spirits.

Gathering herbs at dawn — *Gathering herbs*

St John’s Day falls on 24th June and celebrates midsummer. There is an old belief that, ‘If the cuckoo sings after St John, the harvest will be late.’

The cuckoo starts to sing in April — *A cuckoo – the traditional herald of summer*

Usually the cuckoo arrives in April, starts singing in the middle of the month and stops in late June – so there appears to be a grain of truth in the observation that if the cuckoo is still singing after midsummer then the season is certainly late and the harvest will be late too – potentially serious if it coincides with the less reliable weather of early autumn.

Jigsaw Puzzles

If looking out of the window it has looked too cold and uninviting for venturing outside for very long why not indulge in the quiet and absorbing pastime of a jigsaw puzzle?

*Watching the weather on a rainy, cheerless day*

From an early age these delightful puzzles can bring hours of calm and content. Building up an image that reveals itself piece by piece is undemanding, tantalising and hugely satisfying. The quiet clatter as the pieces tumble out of the box creates a sense of anticipation and adventure. The initial sorting of the pieces brings hints of what is to come.

*A jumbled, tumbled pile of pieces. What will they reveal?*

After you’ve turned all the pieces so they’re face up do you just get stuck in? Or do you like to get all the edge pieces gathered together and then complete the outline of the puzzle? (That’s something that can be so frustrating if you find yourself short of a couple of pieces that prevent you from finishing the edge.)

Jigsaw puzzles come in all shapes and sizes. They can be educational or just fun – and very often, both! I recently completed a puzzle that depicted a collage of pre-Raphaelite arts of work. Identifying them and looking up the story behind each picture was a joy in itself. Now I can’t wait to start the next one!

*Discovering new delights with a jigsaw puzzle*

So, for a soothing, peaceful way to pass time when outdoor activities feel less inviting, turn to the trusty jigsaw puzzle – and create yourself a picture.