Will It Be A Harsh Winter? The Signs Say...

I was taught this little rhyme many years ago:

Man is but a mortal fool:

When it's hot, he wants it cool.

When it's cool, he wants it hot.

He only wants what he has not.

Very true! I have seen a slightly different version of that poem credited to Benjamin Disraeli, who probably had had it up to THERE with people's complaints.

There's also this saying, pithy and still true: "The wealthy get their ice in summer; the poor theirs in winter." It sounds like something from the 1920s.

Besides mooning for something, anything, we don't have, humans also like to know what is going to happen, weatherwise. Thus, there is a tremendous, and most probably worthless, lot of lore about whether there will be a harsh or a mild winter coming our way.

 

I have been examining several weather signs, and so far, they all agree: Harsh winter.  

The onions have a thick, insulating layer this year, and corn husks are thick

The leaves have begun turning early

Thick clustering of pinecones, far more than usual

Owls calling and hunting heavily

Doves bedding down earlier

Tiny ants running in a line

Big ants tugging too-big seeds backwards

However, mice behavior isn't indicating a harsh winter. They are going about their mouse business as usual.

2020 was bound to try to end strangely! But remember this: A hard winter brings a lucky spring.

    Kind regards,

    Olde Dame Holly Rose