My calendar says that today is the First Day of Winter - but my sensibilities and memory tell me that is hog-wash! As I look out my front window, I can still see a small mound of white stuff - the remnants of a 3-foot high pile of snow that the city's snow plows shoved onto my lawn 2 days after the 7" snowfall that made heralded winter's arrival on - Friday the 13th!
At least the temperatures rose into the mid 50s (F) - that's about 13C for you folks who use that system - and caused such a rapid melting that several neighbor's yards were strewn with carrots, twigs and bowler hats - ghostly remnants of three-day old snowpeople. [It's not PC to just say 'snowmen' is it?]
"Who ever saw a blydi snow-woman?", you say. "I'll tell you who", says I, "the geezer wot took this blydi photo did, that's who!"
Well, back to the matter at hand: Winter Solstice (pay attention now, I said 'Winter Solstice' - not 'Winston Sausage') [Translation for the uninitiated: 'Bangers' is UK-speak for 'Sausages']
- that is a fine product obtainable from their store in Tinsley Park, Chicago. [Honest, I'm not getting any kick-back for this unsolicited (unsolsticed?) advertisement.]
Oh - there I go again; if you've read my stuff before, you know I tend to digress sometimes.
Winter Solstice - what is it? Well, if you subscribe to 'Mashable' (must be an Idaho potato grower's magazine!) it's what it said - right there, under its name. If the 'Washington Journal' is more to your liking, then pull back the wrap to see what it said.
Did you notice the URL for the latter had at its tail, the phrase 'sunset already creeping later'?
That is not exactly what my mother (and probably her mother before her - and many other Welsh women too - whether they were snow-women or not) used to say. Of the Winter Solstice, she would say:
Mae bob dydd yn ymestyn cam ceiliog
Just in case ew didn't lurn to speek propully, like wot we does in Wales, it means this, mun:
Every day is lengthening by a cockerel's stride.
- and if you never saw a blydi cockerel stepping, go watch a video of Hitler or Kim Sum Un's troops marching - feet lifted high but advancing only a very short distance forward.
Time for egg-nog is approaching, too - Happy Solstice!
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