Osterby on the weather

When it rains, it … rains.

Our old notice board went down a few months ago. Luckily, we managed to save some of the information there before it all blew away. So we’ll be posting some of the old things from our archives from time to time!

Here’s a notice that Osterby wrote about the weather.

On the weather

Well, I got to thinking about my early days, and the apprenticeships of sorts I was er encouraged to follow, ‘to mend my wayward nature’… anyways, over in Hobbiton old Olo Proudfoot despite his somewhat suspicious, rural, crusty charm, did leave me with these invaluable ruminations… to er cogitate over… ‘nods’.

Onion skins very thin
Mild winter coming in;
Onion skins thick and tough
Coming winter cold and rough.

He didn’t say much about muddy furrows and onion sets mind…

Plant your beans when the moon is light,
You will find that this is right;
Plant potatoes when the moon is dark,
And to this line you’ll always hark;

But if you vary from this rule,
You will find you are a fool;
Follow this rule to the end.
And you’ll have lots of dough to spend.

Mmm… I think it was an excuse to start the day early, and end it really late…

When oak is out before the ash,
‘Twill be a summer of wet and splash.
But if the ash before the oak,
‘Twill be a summer of fire and smoke.

Not sure about that one…

When sheep gather in a huddle,
tomorrow we will have a puddle.

Expect the weather to be fair
When crows fly is pairs

When ladybugs swarm,
Expect a day that’s warm.

When pigs carry sticks,
The clouds will play tricks;
When they lie in the mud,
No fears of a flood.

Mmm… animals don’t generally like getting wet true… though I never did train the pigs to fetch sticks, sit, or roll over…

If the moon lies on her back, She sucks the wet into her lap.
Tipped moon wet: cupped moon dry.

Mmm… generally of an evening I rarely looked any further than my mug, plate and bed

And finally:

When the sky is red in the morning,
And sounds travel far at night;
When fish jump high from the water
And flies stick tight, and bite;

When you can’t get salt from your shaker,
And your back gives you extra pain,
There’s no need to consult an almanac,
You just know it’s going to rain.

‘nods’ I well remember all the rain, the mud, and the puddles.

And to conclude his famous ‘Ode to the Weatherman’ which I think was Olo showing a rare flash of humour …

And in the dying embers
These are my main regrets:
When I’m right no one remembers;
When I’m wrong no one forgets.

Osterby