Sweet February Twenty-Nine!
This is our grace-year, as I live
Quick now! this foolish heart of mine;
Seize thy prerogative!
This lines of Walter De La Mare tell us to enjoy the extra day of the Leap Year.
I wish you a wonderful new week!
This extra day
ReplyDeleteDo'th have its say.
Here I bring you
Rain and grey.
At least that is
The scene
In Wien.
It's nature's way
ReplyDeleteto do spring clean-
ing!
It may be grey in Wien,
ReplyDeleteAnd also in Berlin.
But my eyes shine bright,
And spread the light,
Because the joy I feel
Is real.
It always feels special to me to have that extra day Britta ...... an extra 24 hour gift so we must use it wisely !!!!! XXXX
ReplyDeleteThat is my feeling too, Jackie - and today Berlin served an extra rosy-baby-blue evening sky, just as the icing on the cake. XXXX
DeleteI wonder how far back in antiquity the day was added to calendars? I can imagine the aristocracy being up to date on calendars, but country parishes not, and their calendars being months or years out of date, and all those dates in parish registers being wrong. Just a flight of fancy.
ReplyDelete45 BC, first Leap Year, says Wiki - though I follow your interesting questions, Joanne: even as a gardener you see the year with different eyes: cut roses back (IF you must) when the forsythia flowers, not when the calendar tells you...
DeleteAnd the many rural proverbs and sayings often make sense - e.g. listen to the deep wisdom of a German rural saying:
"If the cock crows on the dung heap,
the weather will change.
Or not."
(In German it rhymes of course :-)
A leap year is considered to be bad luck in Italy. It is also said that a man should never make a marriage proposal on a leap year. My husband's proposal (being married for nearly 40 years now) and my son's birth (8 years later), each took place on a leap year - it means good luck for me but, I suppose, not so much to my husband:-) Greetings Maria x
ReplyDeleteHa, I am utterly convinced that your husband will praise this day! (AND he doesn't run the risk to forget the wedding day often). If I am right you celebrate your 11th wedding day now - see the advantage: it makes you incredibly young!!! Your son is 1 year younger than mine - now think how different it sounds if you can say: "My son is 9 years old" (when I tell somebody Lennart's age, I see the calculator in their eyes, rattattat, rattatat. So difficult to pretend I am only 42 :-)
DeleteYour reply made me laugh Britta! Yes, that mental calculator. I do get a lot of, you-look-much-younger, compliments. My secret, easy peasy, just add on a lot more years to actual age, ha! xx
DeleteI searched my soul, Maria: I really couldn't do that... you are a wise one!
DeleteI suppose I am the only one who does not notice a difference in the length of the year this year. I just live one day at a time.
ReplyDeleteThat is a good philosophy, Emma - keeps one calm.
DeleteHappy leap-day, Britta!
ReplyDeleteTo you too, Sue - come to think of it: we might make a start-up of that (of cause cards for no-leap-years and an added lottery ticket for the leap years :-)
DeleteI'd like to say that I did something special with this extra day, but the truth is that I just went to work.........but then, when I think about it, I also had tea with an old friend, a nun. We went up the street to visit another old nun who is in a nursing home. It was rather uplifting, as it has always been, to spend time with these women - so I guess I did do something with my extra day after all.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds very elevating, Pondside! I know nobody who did something special yesterday - but maybe the feeling was just nice, "abundance of time", or thinking about time at all...
DeleteI delight it the words of a favorite poet, and in the Rheinsberg boat with the sail that is a hand. A lovely, timely post!
ReplyDeleteYou look very sharp at things, Geo., to notice the 'Rheinsberg' - wow! I took the photo (as one can see as well) in 2008 - I was there with a group of women in a 'Literary Circle'.
DeleteAnd to notice that the sail is a 'hand'... (I always pause for a moment, because I think I count six fingers, but that can't be?? :-)