February 2, 2011 . . . My niece is celebrating her birthday today. Her date has always been easy to remember. I hope she has a great day of celebration as she hears that the famous woodchuck did not see his shadow this morning so one of her gifts today is the news winter is leaving and spring will abound. Happy Birthday Eileen, may you have many more of them.
I read up a bit on the ground-hog and find it is one of fourteen species of marmots. Like the bears, they gorge themselves all summer and go underground to burrow and snooze away the winter until spring arrives. According to Folklore, if its cloudy it will leave the burrow . . . if sunny, retreat back to continue its winter snooze for another six weeks. I learned that it is an ancient celebration of Candlemas a point mid way between winter solstice and spring equinox. Superstition has it that fair weather was seen as a prediction of a stormy second half of winter.
Old English saying: "If Candlemas be fair bright/winter has another flight/ If Candlemas brings clouds and rain/winter will not come again."
So today, check the weather report in your area and see if this little ground-hog saw his shadow in your area. Hopefully he herald the end of a very long hard winter and sends hope for an early spring with lots of sunshine and wild flowers. I think back east they are having stormy weather so that is good news for them; here we have a break of sunshine . . . um, now I wonder if our woodchuck is hanging around to tell us we are going to have winter weather . . nah!, Hopefully it only counts back east. I'm ready for some warmth and sunshine.
Make your day a celebration, try something new and different for lunch today. Walk out and breath some fresh air knowing spring is on the way. Hugs to all.
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