THERE ARE few topics the British rely on more heavily for conversation than the weather. For country folk the purpose runs deeper than simply being a sure-fire way of filling awkward silence. Through centuries of observation of weather patterns, the rhythms of the seasons and animal behaviour, those whose lives are interwoven with the countryside have adapted their way of life in accordance with what they have learnt through well-established and proven adages, proverbs and rhymes. Here’s a month-by-month guide to steer you through the year.
JANUARY
While many believe that goblins will infiltrate houses where Christmas decorations haven’t been removed by Twelfth Night, others feared that crops and vegetation wouldn’t grow. Traditionally, farm workers in the West Country would toast to the harvest on this date. St Hilary’s Day on the 13th is often recorded as the coldest day of the year and if the adage ‘As the days lengthen, so the cold strengthens’ is anything to go by, it makes for a bitter start to the year. While winters of guaranteed coverings of deep snow across the country may be long gone, ‘Snow like cotton, soon forgotten; snow like meal, it’ll snow a
