Mar 20 2023 - Spring Arrivals

What is the significant Spring arrival this week?  Spring itself arrives today around 5:30pm DST.   A little Crocus tommasinianus is blooming in my garden, along with Iris Reticulata, Snow drops and Winter aconite.  That's the garden story.   Trump's arrest would likely be the big event. It is reported that he posted in all-caps on his Truth Social platform:  "ARRESTED ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK."  The prospect of Trump’s arrest—the first in history for a former president—raises questions about the process Trump would be subject to during his arrest and trial—including whether any extraordinary measures would be in place. TIME spoke to legal experts about each step of the process and outline it HERE.  Can you imagine Trump walking into the front entrance of a courthouse or police station?  Can you imagine jury selection?  Wouldn't the majority of people have some opinion? Or multiple opinions. So we await the revelation of the Trump prophecy. And for the equinox news?  It is pagan festival time. According to the BBC, "this turn in the seasons has been celebrated by cultures throughout history who held festivals for their gods and goddesses at this time of year. Aphrodite from Cyprus, Hathor from Egypt and Ostara of Scandinavia. The Celts continued the tradition with festivities at this time of year.  Today, Pagans continue to celebrate the coming of Spring" Ostara is continued to be used as its festival title today.  Poor Stonehenge - it is a commercialized tourist destination.  Look through all those tour listings.  The English Heritage website says that the Solstice will be celebrated at sunrise on Tuesday 21 March.   We can go to skycap HERE. This shows the ambient, skyscape and tour views.  Click on the about at the bottom left and find out about the website developed by English Heritage.

Here are the garden club spring gardeners on Saturday.  They are planting the pots that will hang along the main street in Grimsby.

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And Then April Arrives

Which is it?  April Fools' Day or April Fool's Day.  Grammars.com tells me that it is plural possessive, and that the singular is a variant spelling.  I figured that it must be plural.  However, the usage is split evenly for each spelling.   What is the earliest reference? There is a dispute over Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales (1392) reference to "Syn March bigan thritty dayes and two." The discussion is whether Chaucer meant this to be April 1st or whether it was a copying error. In 1508, French poet Eloy d'Amerval referred to a "poisson d'avril." There we have it - the expression used in France and other European countries.  In the past, the idea was to attach a paper fish to the victim's back without being noticed. In the U.K. the holiday 'ceases' at noon, according to Wikipedia. One can be called a 'fool', 'noodle', 'gob', 'gobby' or 'noddy' in England.  That's a lot of choices.  Other countries consider April Fools' jokes to finish by noon. After that they are considered inappropriate and not classy. Here's a preview of how outrageous April Fools' jokes have been: "I never did anything wrong, and I won't do it again," said former President Richard Nixon, announcing that he would run for president in 1992." National Public Radio’s piece on Nixon’s 1992 presidential run is one of its most famous April Fools’ Day pranks. Not only did people believe it, they were outraged. Here's today's image.

Baxter Arrives

Sometimes Baxter comes for a walk in the morning, following along or leaping ahead.  Last week, I took the camera out with us as the sun peaked out from the clouds with an early morning pink. I thought I might catch reflections on the wet pavement.  I caught this little dog and cat story in front of the house.