St Swithin's Day

Sunday 15th July was St Swithin's day and we got Sun! Yay....now how does that poem go?

St Swithin’s Day, if it does rain
Full forty days, it will remain
St Swithin’s Day, if it be fair
For forty days, t'will rain no more

Well...we got a fair St Swithin's day so how come i've got rain, and not just spits and spots but that stuff whereby every drop is a bucketful?

So who was St Swithin?

Correctly spelt St Swithun he was apparently the Bishop of Winchester. St Swithun died July 2, 862. Whilst he was dying he asked to be buried out of doors, where he would be trodden on and rained on, in the following century he was regarded as a saint, and the then Bishop had his bones reburied in a shrine inside the cathedral on 15 July 971.

The story goes that as St Swithin was being exhumed, it started to rain. Unfortunately the rain didn't stop for forty days and forty nights....sound familiar? Apparently this was St Swithun showing his disapproval and punishing the monks.

St Swithun's day used to be a “feast day” in the Christian calendar, but it is now just seen as a quaint British thing.

Oddly enough, while most of us would rather not see rain in mid July , apples need it. If the rains fail, the apple crop will be a poor one. Well, my apples certainly can't complain of water shortage this year.

The Fatsia japonica is really lovely after rain, the water sits in big droplets on the leaves. Since repotting the fatsia has really taken off.

Well we're not out of the woods yet and as the song goes 'I'm never gonna stop the rain by complaining'. Sooo as we can't do any gardening. Check out the weather trivia site for the answer to all those questions that keep you awake at night.....like how big are raindrops?