Candlemas
03 February 2021
Sade
February has bought calm back into our lives. Like a lot of people we found parts of January very difficult. The news has been so depressing with so many deaths. The nights have seemed so dark and the days have been very wet. Our builders were at a standstill due to the weather, we were missing Tinker and we were fed up that Brexit means any future plans to sail round the Mediterranean are now so limited. To top everything my oncologist suggested I should shield until at least three weeks after my second jab, and even longer if the virus is still strong at that point.
We watched a wonderful programme by the artist Grayson Perry. He has displayed artwork in a Manchester gallery produced by amateurs who took to painting in the first lockdown. One of these artists said, ‘we need to find joy in the mundane everyday things’. So we too have tried to look for the joy in everyday events.
We have walked miles - 183 of them in the month of January. We have enjoyed our daily picnics and getting a takeaway coffee from the little bakery in the village to have on our walks. We have found even more routes into the forest right on our doorstep and have discovered that Patch’s recall is improving when I have chunks of cheese in my pocket. We have found some amazing fungus including Scarlet Elf-cup, but so far have not been persuaded to eat any, despite my foragers book saying they are perfectly safe. It has been lovely to see so many snowdrops around the village. It is traditionally a symbol of hope. According to legend, the snowdrop became a symbol of hope when Eve was expelled from the Garden of Eden. When Eve was despairing that the cold winter would never end, an angel appeared. She transformed the snowflakes into snow drops, proving that winters do eventually give way to the spring.
I got my first COVID jab, which was brilliantly organised by our GP surgery. We have a little bungalow in the village which the doctor’s use for people who can not get to the big surgery, and they based the vaccination site there for the extremely vulnerable. I was in and out in less than 10 minutes and as they had some vaccine left over from people who did not show up, Jules got vaccinated too. He got a call asking if he could make it to the surgery just a few minutes before they closed for the day. He ran there, and got one of six left over doses. We had planned a celebratory meal, but we both came down with flu like symptoms and spent the night huddling under blankets and popping paracetamol. The jab was doing its work, or our immune systems were working very effectively in trying to fight it off! We have been watching “It’s a Sin” about AIDS and the gay community in London in the eighties. As my friend pointed out, we have learnt so much more about Covid in a short period of time than they learnt about HIV and AIDS back then. We found the drama deeply moving. We had not realised that AIDS victims were locked away in isolation wards, with court orders and police outside the rooms, making it illegal for families to take them home unless legally challenged. We also noticed the similarities among those that felt that the AIDS virus was all a conspiracy theory in exactly the same way as some people talk about Covid. It made me proud that we live in a more accepting society today. I sobbed my heart out at the thoughts of those young men dying alone, as they didn’t want their parent’s to know that they were gay.
My sister bought me a great book for Christmas, an almanac of the year. Amongst other things it tells you which festivals and celebrations are taking place each month. So yesterday, we set about celebrating Candlemas. Candlemas focuses on the time when Jesus was presented by Mary at the temple. A man called Simeon held him up and declared Jesus to be the light of the world, hence why it is called Candlemas. The festival is celebrated throughout Europe and lots of Latin American countries. Homes are lit with candles to welcome light in and pancakes are traditionally eaten. It is said that the pancakes, with their round shape and golden colour are reminiscent of the sun bringing light into the world. The crepes should be flipped, whilst holding a golden coin in the left hand, in order to bring prosperity and health into the home, and only the first one flipped counts. It is a good job I had read that bit, as our first attempts went well, with rather splendid pancakes. However, I got a bit over confident and my second one ended up on the floor. It is a good job the kitchen floor is tiled. We tried to encourage Patch to clean it all up, but he wasn’t keen!!!
Hopefully February will continue to be good- after all we have Valentine Day, my birthday, Pancake Day, Ash Wednesday, Kissing Friday and Thinking Monday (22nd) to look forward to!
When the cat lies in the sun in February
She will creep behind the stove in March.
Of all the months of the year
Curse a fair February.
If it thunders in February, it will frost in April.
If February give much snow,
A fine summer it doth foreshow.