SUPERSTITIONS - EASTERN SHORE STYLE

On this chilly morning, as I watch the sun come up- and watch the temperature finally move up a notch instead of down, I am grateful as we move above freezing. But before I get too excited, I also notice that in spite of yesterday’s temps rising to 50, we still have snow on the ground, 4 days after it snowed. No, not from shoveling into great piles like the store parking lots, just plain old snow from our last mini-storm of 3 inches (compared to the previous one that brought 14 inches!) and I was reminded of my ancient neighbors (probably in their 70s- I was in my 20s) who always said snow hanging around a couple days after the storm was just waiting for more. Now, having lived in the Poconos, Maine, and one year near Buffalo, NY, snow ALWAYS hung around. OK, so there was usually more on the way… but living here on Virginia’s Eastern Shore, snow could be absent for years at a time. I mean, back in the day when one put snow tires on before Thanksgiving, some folks down here never bothered! And chains???? Are you kidding? My father taught me how to put chains on my tires when I got my first car (in PA.) I also had to rotate all my tires and back out of the quarry road at night (and not go over a cliff or hit a tree) before he handed me the keys. But I digress…

            It is supposed to get to the mid-50s today. An opportunity to clean up after the last snow, fill my 12 birdfeeders, etc. Will the snow finally all melt?????

 

But this morning, I also read a former neighbor’s blog that had a picture of a horseshoe collection they saw at Shelburne Farms in Vermont. All the horse shoes were pointing down! I instantly remembered my other ancient neighbor (he was 80, I was in my 40s, LOL! Funny how time changes one’s perspective, doesn’t it?????) arriving at my house as I was about to hang a horseshoe on my barn. “NO! NO!” he shouted! "The points go UP! UP!"

Well, having them down nearly made me fall off the ladder when he yelled at me, so I quickly turned it the other way. “How come?” I asked.

            “You gotta keep the good luck in,” he answered. “Put it the other way and your luck will spill out. Ya need t’keep your luck in place, Dontcha?”

            He also explained that I was extra lucky since I had found the horseshoes while digging to plant a camellia. “Don’t ever kill a camellia. Trim it back if you must. Dig it out if it dies, but killing a camellia will bring you at least 7 years bad luck. Put a curse on your property. You don’t want that, now, do ya?” He went on to say I needed to plant some camellias around the house to protect it. I figure by now, I am seriously protected. I honestly do not know how many camellias I have here. there were absolutely none - zero - no azaleas, nothing but a couple bunches of daffodils out in the woods when I moved here. A friend called my yard "bleak." I vowed to change that!

            Years ago when I had to have my pine trees cut down (pine bark beetle) a huge camellia was in the way of the tree cutting equipment. I made the men carefully dig and transplant the camellia being sure to not kill it. It survived and is huge today.

 

It is believed that the good luck powers of the horseshoe originate with the story of a blacksmith named Dunstan. The Devil came to Dunstan and requested that he fit him with new horseshoes. Dunstan recognized the devil and nailed a horseshoe onto his hoof. This caused the Devil great pain. While he was in agony, Dunstan chained him and only released him after the devil promised never to enter a place that had a horseshoe hung over the door. Dunstan became the Archbishop of Canterbury in 959 AD and is known as St. Dunstan.

 

 

Some believe that if guests come to a house where a horseshoe is above the door, they must leave by the same door through which they entered or they will take the luck from the horseshoe with them from the house. Folks around here believe that is true even if there is no horseshoe above the door. “Never enter thru one door and exit from another!” OK, OK. Geez.

 

Some believe that hanging the horseshoe with the opening pointing upward like a “U” holds in all the good luck and the powers it brings. Hanging it upside down would allow the powers to spill out. Others think that hanging it with the opening pointing down allows all of the good luck, protective powers and good fortune to shower upon you and surround the home.

 

There are, of course, tons of other superstitions, some indigenous to your area and perhaps not mine. I’d love to hear them!

HOOVER AND FALL CAMELLIAS AND AZALEAS before the deep freeze hit! (Front Yard)

 

Last Wednesday, the hand writing was on the wall, tho it was hard to believe. We have not even had a frost yet but the weather people were telling us it was going to be down in the 20s by Saturday morning! Really???? The yard was beautiful. Several camellias were in full serious bloom. These are huge camellias now, well over 15 feet, a couple over 20 feet tall and diameters on some of them of over 10 feet. Many of them have been trimmed back for years.

For the first time ever, Hoover decided to follow me around the yard close enough that she was not hidden. Her coloring makes for a perfect natural camouflage. She has always followed me around but has managed to stay out of sight. But not now… perhaps because her buddy Spook is gone so she is lonesome. 

Anyway, I thought you might enjoy seeing the flowers from Wednesday that are now drooping in the cold, the ground covered in red, pink and purple petals. I have never seen Yule Tide look this good. It is huge. It was a first Christmas-in-my-new-house gift from Sabra when I moved in- 1987, I think. It has been moved twice. Yule Tide is not a thick bush, but tall with a 10 foot diameter. The flowers are small but the red color is rich.

My “birthday” camellias have filled the bushes. I have one on each side of the house.

Several pink camellias are in bloom. These are some of the fall azaleas out by the street. These flowers are large for azaleas, the spring only variety being much smaller.

This is only a fraction of what is in bloom here now. And, as usual, Blogger will not allow me to place them where I want them... so, sorry for such a sloppy looking post. Enjoy the flowers anyway!!!!!

PLAYING CATCH UP – SPRING GARDEN

OK, OK, I know I have been unbelievably busy… and yes, I must admit, I am slowing down. A lot. SIGH. But I promised several of you pictures from the yard this spring. This has been a very different spring… the winter stretched itself out longer than usual and colder than usual, so that meant camellias that normally bloom in the winter – start in December, actually, were blooming at the same time as the later spring camellias. It made for an exciting spring but a bleak winter. I am used to having fresh flowers on my table just about all winter long. Anyway, here are the plants in the order in which they bloomed. Some of the shots are more to show the size of the bushes than to brag about the beauty of the blooms. And many of the blooms this spring were tinged with just a hint of frost bite – but it took a real close look to notice it.

                         

So there you have it… these were taken one month ago. did I mention I have been busy? OK, next, the azaleas a couple weeks later. Note - PP= Pink Perfection, 2 variations I and II.

HAPPY YULE TIDE

Rusty wishes you a very Happy Holiday, whatever your belief. See? He is bringing you some Yule Tide camellias.

    

 

AND THE POSSUM!

Winter Storm Janus 1-22-14

Well, Winter Storm Janus blew in last night in a bad temper. Snow is one thing we all enjoy every once in a while, the high winds are another thing. Then, too, temperatures in the teens are a shock to our sensibilities around here. My camellias are frozen. Not nice, Mr. Weather! In truth, we had only 4 inches more or less – with the blowing it is hard to measure how much actually came down – but here on the Shore, 4 inches might as well be 4 feet. The phones started ringing at 6 AM with cancellations. The radio had been broadcasting nothing but cancellations since 5 AM, foregoing all other broadcasting except ABC News and Mike Huckabee and a couple funeral announcements. I mean, who needs to listen to advertising when you can’t get out of your driveway anyway, right?

One interesting comment by our announcer (and owner of the station) was to tell the Good Old Boys to stay off the road. “Yeah, I know,” he said, dropping his voice and adding the drawl of the uneducated, “I got 4 wheel drive, man, I can go anywhere. I am out here to help people who get stuck!” Then he paused for dramatic effect, “And you end up in the ditch with the rest of them causing more problems than you can ever could fix, blocking road clearing crews and even emergency vehicles. So stay the heck home and off the roads!” Of course, the bulk of the sales on days like this are – guess… go ahead… milk? No. Bread? No… Baby formula? Nope, not that either… beer. Well, if you can’t get to work what else is there to do? So, half of the 4 WD pick-ups in the ditch are drunk drivers anyway. Whoopee.

OK, I digress… so what else is new? Anyway, here is the scene out my back door onto the carport which is protected on one side by the house, a little by the furnace room, and, of course, has a roof over it. Look at that snow, will ya? It was all the way up on the top step. See how it has drifted by the bottom step? I had to sweep off the steps to get to the snow shovels. I have 2 – one is an old aluminum shovel, one is plastic. This was an aluminum shovel type of snow because that is ice under there on the ground and on the concrete. My van was covered with almost as much snow as my truck that was sitting out in the yard.

   

The greenhouses were struggling to stay above freezing with ice crystals on the doors. My little incandescent bulbs were working overtime keeping my bucket of bricks warm. I hoped none of them burn out during this below 20 weather. I would hate to open the doors to change a bulb!

It was not a ‘pretty’ snow. The high winds blew most of the snow off the branches. On the other hand, that kept things from snapping and coming down on power lines… unless the wind did it. The prayer flags got a good workout blowing so hard you couldn’t even tell if it was Sanskrit or Hebrew on them. But the early morning sun was pretty and a promise that things would thaw. Eventually. The daffodils have been up, some as much as 6 inches, but they were invisible this morning. In a good year, they bloom the end of February. I have a feeling they will wait until March this year. But, who knows?

The Buddha was wrapped in a nice blanket of white while St Fwankie kept an eye on the birdbath deicer. The little critters were very thankful for that tiny pool of not quite freezing water. However, I have a couple wrens and sparrows that have discovered the cat’s heated water dish and take an occasional drink out of that. I tried to get a shot of one of the little fellows last week when it was so cold hunkered down at the bottom of the door to the furnace room. When I opened the back door, he hopped out a ways, but went right back to the door after I shut the kitchen door once again. I think he is smarter than Spook who has abandoned his heated box now that Punkin is no longer there to defend him. Bless his heart. A friend renamed Spook last week calling him a kittidiot. I have to agree. He is such a scaredy-cat that it often applies.

The new generator is here… but the inspector has not been here and I am on a long waiting list for the gas tank. I can only hope I don’t need it.

And these last 2 shots are of my CoCoRaHS official precip cylinder – minus the inner core that stays in the house during freezing weather where it will measure the melted snow for water content.

I hope the storm was not a bad event for you and yours. Stay in, stay warm, stay safe!