“ On such a night in June,
[84] With the beautiful soft half-moon,
And all these innocent blisses?
On such a night as this is!
Wordsworth.
When the wind's in the south
The rain's in its mouth.
No weather is ill
If the wind be still.
Old saying.
All through the sultry hours of June,
From morning blithe to golden noon,
And till the star of evening climbs
The gray-blue East, a world too soon,
There sings a thrush within the limes.
God's poet, hid in foliage green,
Sings endless songs, himself unseen;
Right seldom come his silent times.
Linger, ye summer hours serene! ”

“ Spring was o'er happy and knew not the reason,
And Summer dreamed sadly, for she thought all was ended
In her fulness of wealth that might not be amended;
But this is the harvest and the garnering season,
And the leaf and the blossom in the ripe fruit are blended.
W. Morris.
A bloom upon the apple tree when the apples are ripe
Is a sure termination to somebody's life. ”

“ And sweet the words—good-night, good-night."
'Twas one of the charmed days
When the genius of God doth flow,
The wind may alter twenty ways,
A tempest cannot blow;
It may blow north, it still is warm;
Or south, it still is clear;
Or east, it smells like a clover farm;
Or west, no thunder fear.
Emerson.
Where woodbines wander, and the wallflower pushes its way alone;
And where in wafts of fragrance, sweetbrier bushes make themselves known,
[73] With banks of violets for southern breezes to seek and find,
And trellis'd jessamine that trembles in the summer wind. ”

“ Almond Blossom.
Blossom of the almond trees,
April's gift to April's bees,
Birthday ornament of spring,
Flora's fairest daughterling;
Coming when no flowerets dare
Trust the cruel outer air;
When the royal kingcup bold
Dares not don his throat of gold;
And the sturdy blackthorn spray
[49] Keeps his silver for the May;
Coming when no flowerets would
Save thy lowly sisterhood;
Early violets, blue and white,
Dying for their love of light. ”

“ So much sun as shineth on Pancake Tuesday, the like will shine every day in Lent.
A hoar frost,
Third day crost,
The fourth lost.
Lancs.
Bean Sowing.
One for the mouse, one for the crow,
One to rot, one to grow.
Sow peason and beans in the wane of the moone,
Who soweth them sooner, he soweth too soon;
That they with the planet may rest and rise,
And flourish with bearing, most plentiful wise.
Tusser.
[22]
If February gives much snow
A fine summer it doth foreshow. ”

“ W. D. Howells.
Welcome, O March! whose kindly days and dry
Make April ready for the throstle's song,
Thou first redresser of the winter's wrong.
W. Morris.
Of Gardens.
For March there come violets, especially the single blue, which are the earliest; the early daffodil, the daisy, the almond tree in blossom, the peach tree in blossom, the cornelian (dogwood) tree in blossom, sweetbrier.
Bacon.
[26]
A frosty winter, and a dusty March,
And a rain about Aperill,
And another about the Lammas time
When the corn begins to fill,
Is worth a ploughy of gold
And all her pins theretill. ”

“ The Spring is coming round this way.
Whitcomb Riley.
Oh, what a dawn of day!
How the March sun feels like May!
All is blue again
After last night's rain.
Browning.
[30]
No summer flowers are half so sweet
As those of early Spring.
Under the furze is hunger and cold,
Under the broom is silver and gold.
The Spring.
When wintry weather's all a-done,
An' brooks do sparkle in the zun,
An' naisy-builden rooks do vlee
Wi' sticks toward their elem tree;
When birds do zing, an' we can zee
Upon the bough the buds o' spring—
Then I'm as happy as a king,
A'vield wi' health an' sunshine. ”

“ Nor even May, whose flowers
One frost may wither through the sunless hours.
C. Rossetti.
If it does not freeze on the tenth of March a fertile year may be expected.
In March is good graffing, the skilful do know,
So long as the wind in the east do not blow:
From moon being changed, till past be the prime,
For graffing and cropping is very good time.
Tusser.
[28]
In March and in April, from morning to night,
In sowing and setting good huswives delight:
To have in a garden or other like plot,
To trim up their house, and to furnish their pot. ”

“ There is a tradition amongst New Forest gipsies that you must not soap your face on Good Friday, as it is said that soapsuds were thrown in Our Lord's face on the day of His Crucifixion.
[35]
Thou wilt remember one warm morn when winter
Crept aged from the earth, and spring's first breath
Blew soft from the moist hills; the blackthorn boughs,
So dark in the bare wood, when glistening
In the sunshine were white with coming buds,
Like the bright side of a sorrow, and the banks
Had violets opening from sleep like eyes.
Browning.
If apples bloom in March,
In vain for 'um you'll sarch ”

“ Then comes the Bull, in May the Twins;
The Crab in June, next Leo shines,
And Virgo ends the northern signs.
The Balance brings autumnal fruits,
The Scorpion stings, the Archer shoots;
December's Goat brings wintry blast,
Aquarius rain, the Fish come last.
E. C. Brewer.
Spring is here when you can tread on nine daisies at once on the village green.
There is a saying that if boys be beaten with an elder stick it hinders their growth.
When our Lord falls in our Lady's lap
England will meet with a great mishap. ”

“ Sweet are the harmonies of Spring,
Sweet is the Summer's evening gale,
And sweet the autumnal winds that shake
The many-colour'd grove.
And pleasant to the sober'd soul
The silence of the wintry scene,
When Nature shrouds herself, entranced
In deep tranquillity.
Southey.
[122]
December frost and January flood
Never boded husbandman good.
When there are three days cold, expect three days colder.
Of Gardens.
I do hold it, in the royal ordering of gardens, there ought to be gardens for all the months in the year, in which, severally, things of beauty may be then in season. ”

“ Young and old must go warm at Martinmas.
Italy.
Weary the cloud falleth out of the sky.
Dreary the leaf lieth low,
All things must come to the earth by-and-by,
Out of which all things grow.
Owen Meredith.
[119]
The year's on the wane,
There is nothing adorning,
The night has no eve,
And the day has no morning;
Cold winter gives warning.
Hood.
The melancholy days are come, the saddest of the year,
Of wailing winds, and naked woods, and meadows brown and sere;
Heaped in the hollows of the grove, the withered leaves lie dead,
They rustle to the eddying gust, and to the rabbit's tread. ”

“ They bring some fowl at Midsummer, a dish of fish in Lent,
At Christmas a capon, at Michaelmas a goose,
And somewhat else at New Year's tide, for fear their lease fly loose.
G. Gascoigne.
Geese now in their prime season are,
Which if well roasted are good fare:
Yet, however, friends take heed
How too much on them you feed,
Lest, when as your tongues run loose,
Your discourse do smell of goose.
"Poor Robin," 1695.
If you eat goose on Michaelmas Day you will never want money all the year round.
Old Saying.
The Michaelmas moon
Rises nine nights alike soon. ”

“ October brings the cold weather down,
When the wind and the rain continue;
He nerves the limbs that are lazy grown,
And braces the languid sinew;
So while we have voices and lungs to cheer,
And the winter frost before us,
Come chant to the king of the mortal year,
And thunder him out in chorus.
E. E. Bowen.
"Decay, decay," the wildering west winds cry;
"Decay, decay," the moaning woods reply ”

“ When after a rough and stormy day there is a lull in the wind at the going down of the sun, old men say: "Us shall have better weather now, for the wind's gone to sleep with the sun."
Devon.
When a moorland shepherd meets his sheep on a winter's night coming down from the hilltops (where they prefer to sleep) he knows that a storm is brewing. ”

“ May's warm, slow, yellow moonlit summer nights.
Among East Coast folk there is a pretty belief, very widely held, that in May, when the sea-fowl are hatching out on the saltings, Providence checks the spring tides so that they do not rise high enough to interfere with the birds. ”

“ As Men, the Heavens have their Hypocrisie?
Herrick.
Summer in the penniless can stir the frozen prayer,
Summer sends a golden glow through needy bones a-while;
Bright and breezy is the dawn, and soft the balmy air;
[89] Summer, 'tis the breath of Heaven, 'tis God's own gracious smile. ”

“ November 1st. (All Saints' Day.)
On All Saints' Day hard is the grain.
The leaves are dropping, the puddle is full,
At setting off in the morning
Woe to him that will trust a stranger.
On All Saints' Day blustering is the weather,
Unlike the beginning of the past fair season:
Besides God there is none that knows the future.
From the Welsh. 1792.
Apples, peares, hawthorns, quicksetts, oakes. Sett them at All Hallow-tyde, and command them to grow; sett them at Candlemas-tide and entreat them to grow. ”

“ If apples bloom in April,
Why then they'll be plentiful;
If apples bloom in May,
You may eat 'um night and day.
From whatever quarter the wind blows on Palm Sunday, it will continue to blow for the greater part of the coming summer.
Hants.
As many days of fog in March, so many days of frost in May, on corresponding days.
Hants.
[36]
In Spring a tub of rain makes a spoonful of mud. In Autumn a spoonful of rain makes a tub of mud.
There is a tradition that twin lambs are scarce in Leap Year.
Sleep with your head to the North—you will have sickness; to the South—long life ”

“ If the down flyeth off colt's foot, dandelyon and thistles, when there is no winde, it is a sign of rain.
When a cock drinks in summer it will rain a little after.
Italy.
When sheep begin to go up the mountains, shepherds say it will be fine weather.
Sea gull, sea gull, sit on the sand;
It's never good weather when you're on the land. ”

“ Clouds without rain in summer indicate wind.
Saturday's moon, Sunday seen
The foulest weather there ever hath been.
When the new moon comes in at midnight, or within thirty minutes before or after, the following month will be fine.
Saturday change, and Sunday full,
Is always wet, and always wull.
Northants.
If mist's in the new moon, rain in the old;
If mist's in the old moon, rain in the new. ”

“ The days lengthen a cock's stride.
Proverb in the North.
[10]
A cold January, a feverish February, a dusty March, a weeping April, a windy May, presage a good year and gay.
France.
Warwickshire countrymen to ensure good luck bow nine times to the first New Moon of the year.
A snow year, a rich year.
The blackest month of all the year
Is the month of Janiveer.
Through all the sad and weary hours
Which cold and dark and storms will bring,
We scarce believe in what we know—
That time drags on at last to Spring.
The empty pastures blind with rain. ”

“ Gervatius' (or Servatius') Day loves more his wool than his sheep.
When the corn is over the crow's back the frost is over.
Cheshire.
Go and look at oats in May,
You will see them blown away;
Go and look again in June,
You will sing another tune.
The oak before the ash,
Prepare your summer sash;
The ash before the oak,
Prepare your summer cloak.
Dorset.
A windy May makes a fair year.
[60]
Cut thistles in May,
They grow in a day;
Cut thistles in June,
That is too soon;
Cut thistles in July,
Then they will die.
In the middle of May comes the tail of the winter. ”

“ The more it will spread.
Thunder in spring
Cold will bring.
March search, April try,
May will prove if you live or die.
March wind and May sun
Makes clothes white and maids dun.
March does from April gain
Three days, and they're in rain,
Returned by April in's bad kind,
Three days, and they're in wind.
Sun set in a clear,
Easterly wind's near;
Sun set in a bank,
Westerly will not lack.
Scotland.
[32]
In the morning look toward the south east;
In the evening look toward the north west.
China.
Pale moon doth rain,
Red moon doth blow,
White moon doth neither rain nor snow. ”

“ When bonfires great with loftie flame, in every town doe burne;
And yong men round about with maides doe daunce in every streete,
With garlands wroughte of motherworth, or else with vervain sweete.
Barnaby Googe.
'Twas midsummer;
The warm earth teemed with flowers; the kingcups gold,
The perfumed clover, 'mid the crested grass;
The plantains rearing high their flowery crowns
Above the daisied coverts; overhead,
The hawthorns, white and rosy, bent with bloom,
The broad-fanned chestnuts spiked with frequent flowers,
And white gold-hearted lilies on the stream. ”

“ Saint Nicholas money used to give to maidens secretlie,
Who, that he still may use his wonted liberalitie,
The mothers all their children on the eve do cause to fast,
And, when they every one at night in senseless sleepe are cast,
Both apples, nuttes, and peares they bring, and other things beside,
As caps, and shooes and petticotes, which secretlie they hide,
And in the morning found, they say, that this Saint Nicholas brought:
Thus tender mindes to worship Saints, and wicked things are taught. ”

“ Michael is invoked as a "most glorious and warlike prince," "chief officer of paradise," "captain of God's hosts," "the receiver of souls," "the vanquisher of evil spirits," and "the admirable general."
From Hone.
If Michaelmas Day be fair, the sun will shine much in the winter; though the wind at northeast will frequently reign long, and be very sharp and nipping. ”

“ When oxen do lick themselves against the hair, it betokeneth rain to follow shortly after.
Beast do take comfort in a moist Air: and it maketh them eat their meat better, and therefore sheep will get up betimes in the morning to feed against rain, and Cattle, and Deer, and Coneys will feed hard before Rain, and a Heifer [80] will put up his nose and snuff in the air against Rain. Worms, vermin, etc., likewise do foreshew Rain: for Earth-worms will come forth, and Moles will cast up more, and Fleas bite more against Rain. ”

“ No weather is ill
If the wind be still.
For morning rain leave not your journey.
Never a fisherman med there be,
If fishes could hear as well as see.
Kent.
If the sage tree thrives and grows,
The master's not master, and that he knows.
Warwick.
[97]
A garden must be looked into, and dressed as a body. ”