On Wed, 15 Apr 2015 14:20:47 +0100
George Booth wrote:

On 15/04/2015 14:09, philgurr wrote:
"Anne B" wrote in message
...
At a guess, I'd say duckduckgo isn't a friend of yours. Do you get
lonely? You should get into geology. It's ideal work for an
outgoing personality with no friends.

Shows how much you know about geologists. They love going to
outcrops in company with lots of friends and discussing the
processes that resulted in that particular feature. Or sitting
over cups of coffee or pints of beer with lots of friends
discussing the processes that resulted in various rock phenomena.
Very sociable people indeed, are geologists.

Anne

Hear Hear!

Phil



Seconded, or is it thirded now? Same applies to glider pilots by the
way.


And meteorologists. More likely beer than coffee though, at least it is
with the ones I've known. Hic!

--
Graham P Davis, Bracknell, Berks. [Retd meteorologist/programmer]
http://www.scarlet-jade.com/
I wear the cheese. It does not wear me.
Posted with Claws: http://www.claws-mail.org/

On Tue, 14 Apr 2015 23:30:24 +0100
wrote:

In message 20150413142709.2822a43b@linux-pkou
Graham P Davis wrote:

On Mon, 13 Apr 2015 12:44:48 +0100
Asha Santon wrote:

On 13/04/15 12:30, Scott W wrote:
Which begs the question 'where did the saying come from?'. I'm
sure there's a botanical reason.

http://www.nottinghampost.com/Tim-Se...ally-mean-dry-
summer/story-20952021-detail/story.html

http://www.theweatherclub.org.uk/fea...-the-folklore-
oak-and-ash

DuckDuckGo is your friend.

I have to say that I've never heard of this proverb and a quick
check around suggests I don't know anyone who has either.


It used to be a well-known saying but may have gone out of fashion,
perhaps like this one about the cuckoo:

Cuckoo, cuckoo, what do you do?
In April I open my bill;
In May I sing all day;
In June I change my tune;
In July away I fly;
In August away I must.


Or the version I learned from my mother many years ago:

The cuckoo comes in April,
He sings his song in May.
In the middle of June he changes his tune
July he flies away.



That's closer to the way I remember it.

I suppose I ought to explain the meaning of the rhyme for those like
the Springwatch "expert" who are in ignorance. In April and May, the
song of the cuckoo is the one everyone is familiar with, i.e.,
"Cuckoo". However, in June the poor old thing is getting a bit tired
and confused, forgets the tune and throws in an extra note so it
becomes "cuck-cuck-coo" - or is it "cuck-coo-cuck", I can't remember
as it's been decades since I've heard the bird.

The cuckoo has another song, which my Observer's Book of Birds
describes as "low, harsh calls like coughing or clearing the throat."
The first time I heard it, I was walking along a bridleway with
overarching trees and it sounded as though someone was up one of the
trees laughing at me. It was much like the dirty laugh you'd get from
Sid James.

--
Graham P Davis, Bracknell, Berks. [Retd meteorologist/programmer]
http://www.scarlet-jade.com/
I wear the cheese. It does not wear me.
Posted with Claws: http://www.claws-mail.org/

On Wednesday, 15 April 2015 02:51:11 UTC+1, Alan LeHun wrote:

The clout part most definitely refers to your[?] winter clothing. There is
no doubt about that.

Apart from the fact that the very poor won't have a set of winter clothing and the rich won't give a damn. So where do you get the idea a clout is an article of clothing/set of winter wear?

Agricultural lore tends to be based on agriculture. The month of May is based on a family of Italian Mafiosi, the head of which made his bones by committing genocide all across Northern Europe from France to Yugoslavia.

While May is the de facto name of the period when the RA of the sun is between 2:35 and 4:34 degrees (http://people.physics.tamu.edu/krisc..._sun_2014.html) such a period is not likely to apply to all farms throughout the regions where it is believed. (An hill farm in the Cairngorms and a farm on a flood plain in Cornwall for example.)

Don't let me put you off your beliefs just because you are obviously wrong, though. By all means continue pleasing yourself. I always do. At my age I can't be bothered listening to reasons; so many of them are dawlish.

Of course I am assuming the saying applies to agriculture. If anything about that one is obvious, that is the unstated certainty.

On Wednesday, 15 April 2015 10:13:41 UTC+1, Asha Santon wrote:

It's the only search engine I use and took the opportunity to promote it.

I use it because Google is a loaded biatch.

No, I never get lonely. What's it like?

It doesn't really apply to people like me as we are peerless.

On the basis of your description, I am very obviously not the right type
of person to engage in geology although I have been known to pick up
pretty stones from the beach.

That's the best type. Any agates on your beach?
There are likely to be lots of semiprecious stuff with that coastline.

That probably doesn't count and no doubt stems from being deprived of
beaches during my early childhood.

I grew up on one that smelt of stomach cancer in the height of summer with the Spring Tides during an heatwave.

Count yourself lucky.

On Wednesday, 15 April 2015 10:37:54 UTC+1, Anne B wrote:
At a guess, I'd say duckduckgo isn't a friend of yours. Do you
get
lonely? You should get into geology. It's ideal work for an
outgoing
personality with no friends.

Shows how much you know about geologists. They love going to
outcrops in company with lots of friends and discussing the
processes that resulted in that particular feature. Or sitting
over cups of coffee or pints of beer with lots of friends
discussing the processes that resulted in various rock
phenomena. Very sociable people indeed, are geologists.

Proof that democracy is a form of idiocracy. Where foolishness is bliss one who is like god fears to tread. But don't let me stop you having fun. So long as I can presume rain, I won't be jealous.

On Wednesday, 15 April 2015 10:38:34 UTC+1, Asha Santon wrote:
On 15/04/15 02:51, Alan LeHun wrote:

The clout part most definitely refers to your winter clothing. There is
no doubt about that. There is still much doubt as to whether the saying
refers to the Mey flower or the month of May.

Personally, I think it is the month.

The clout does indeed refer to winter clothing and having checked with
the available ancestors (so three generations ago and three cultures),
there appears to have never been any doubt that May referred to hawthorn.

The fact that a proverb was devised would suggest there was a variable
involved in the matter (red sky at night, oak or ash, etc) and the first
of June is not a variable. The flowering of the hawthorn is.

But surely the proverb asserts variability. That is the whole point of proverbs. They are rules of thumb that fit into variables.

On Wednesday, 15 April 2015 14:20:43 UTC+1, George Booth wrote:


They love going to outcrops in company with
lots of friends and discussing the processes that resulted in that particular feature.
Or sitting over cups of coffee or pints of beer with lots of friends

Same applies to glider pilots by the way.

I've been saying that about large earthquakes for years.

On Wednesday, 15 April 2015 14:47:51 UTC+1, Graham P Davis wrote:

The cuckoo has another song, which my Observer's Book of Birds
describes as "low, harsh calls like coughing or clearing the throat."
The first time I heard it, I was walking along a bridleway with
overarching trees and it sounded as though someone was up one of the
trees laughing at me. It was much like the dirty laugh you'd get from
Sid James.

That was a jay

In article ,
says...
Apart from the fact that the very poor won't have a set of winter clothing and the rich won't give a damn. So where do you get the idea a clout is an article of clothing/set of winter wear?


Clout has meant (amongst over things) cloth or clothing since the 15thC.
It is a very very common word and is still used in that meaning up here
in Scotland.

The earliest known written example of the proverb doesn't seem to sit so
well with your explanation.

From Fullers Gnomologia 1732

Leave not off a Clout,
Till May be out.

For those who are not sure if May refers to May or the Hawthorn, I shall
requote the proverb in the context of the other proverbs that came
before and after it in the book

A cool May and a Windy
Barn filleth up finely

May come early. come late.
'Twill make the Cow to quake

An hot May, as I have heard,
Maketh a fat Church-yard.

Leave off not a Clout,
Till May be out.

A May-flood
Never did good.

Shear your sheep in May,
and clear them all away.

A swarm of Bees in May,
Is worth a load of Hay;
But a swarm in July,
Is not worth a fly.

Be sure of Hay
Till the end of May.

--
Alan LeHun
Reply-to is valid. Add "BPSF" to subject: to bypass spam filters.

On 15/04/15 22:13, Weatherlawyer wrote:

That's the best type. Any agates on your beach?
There are likely to be lots of semiprecious stuff with that coastline.

Nothing like that I'm afraid.
The occasional bit of polished quartz is the most interesting thing so
far but not of the amethyst, rose, etc. types. Lots and lots of granite
and we found a piece of flint once.

Lots of nice seashells ... including an intact (empty) sea hedgepig.

--
AS
http://minnies.opcop.org.uk/