6:13 p.m.

Yesterday I did a rain dance out on our driveway after Don and Barney came home from school.They sat on the Adirondack chairs on the deck and watched, Don with a silly grin and Barney with incredulous delight (“God, what’s she doing now?” I can almost hear him thinking). I strung together some vowels and consonants in a singsong chant, raised my arms to the sky invoking water to fall from it, and did the stereotypical Indian-dancing routine.

I didn’t really think it would work, but there was nothing to lose.
And today, we got the rain we so desperately need.

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From the book:

+++
“If on the trees the leaves still hold,
The winter coming will be cold.”

That’s what happened this past winter, when many leaves clung to the branches right through till spring. And indeed, it was a pretty cold winter.

+++

“If rooks are noisy, cawing loudly to each other,
it is a sign of rain, and so is the flying of
swallows near the ground. Bats flying about on a
summer evening are a sign of fine, hot weather
the next day.”

+++

“Sensitive people can distinctly smell frost or rain
upon the wind; though this is less possible in the
polluted air of our cities than it is in the open
country.”

+++

“There was an interesting discussion about weather on the Dimbleboy Talk-In program on BBC televison in April 1963. The participants were a number of orthodox meteorologists, together with farmers and students of weather folklore. One of the latter remarked that he had noticed for some years past, how four days in the year gave an epitome of what the weather was going to be like for the next quarter. These were Lady Day (25th March), Midsummer Day (24th June), Michaelmas Day (29th September), and Christmas Day (25th December). As the weather was on those days, so it would generally be for the next three months.

“It also appeared from the discussion that there were two dates in the year which gave a reverse forecast. That is, the weather from then on would be the opposite of what it had been like on that day, for a while. These two days are Halloween (Oct.31) and Candlemas (Feb. 2) ...

“During the television discussion mentioned above, a remarkable suggestion was made by Mrs Doris Munday, a hypnotherapist who claims to be able to influence the weather. This lady said that she believed the weather was influenced by people’s thoughts. In her opinion, the reason why the BBC’s weather forecasts used to be more reliable than they are now, was that when broadcasting first came out, people tended to believe these forecasts implicitly and therefore they came true!”

Coming soon ... Magic of Dreams:

“In olden days, nightmares were believed to be caused by evil spirits or black magic. A remedy against such terrors was to hang a large stone with a natural hole through it, on the wall over the head of the sufferer’s bed. A large old-fashioned iron or steel key would serve the same purpose.”