Day 78 - 18th March 2012 - Sheila's Brush, Cats and Ducks

A little cooler this morning, temperature is -0.6 when I got up this morning, which by the way was way too early. Am guessing many of you will be recuperating from the celebrations of St. Patrick's Day. Hope you enjoyed your green beer!
Since the weather has been favourable, Larry has been outside working on his new woodshed and my kitchen is being ignored. However, he does have the stuff for the tiles so am hoping they will get put down in the next few days. We are going to take a few hours today and head out to use some of our Christmas gift certificates. Probably won't spend them all at once, but have a few things I want to pick up.
Evelyn planted a little thought in my mind a few days ago with two simple words - Sheila's Brush. I've heard of it but thought I would check it out on google to see what the story was behind these words. If you are Irish or a Newfoundlander you probably already know, but for those of you who aren't, here goes - from the heritage newfoundland website - "Dictionary of Newfoundland English" [actually dictionary has lots of fun stuff] :

.......   Sheila's day is the day after St Patrick's Day, the eighteenth of March. C 73-98 Patty walks the shores around and Sheila follows in a long white gown... Sheila's gown apparently is a blanket of snow.

2 Comb sheila's blush*, ~ brush; also sheila: fierce storm and heavy snowfall about the eighteenth of March; LINER; see also PATRICK'S BATCH, ~ BROOM, ~ BRUSH. 1923 CHAFE 21 About St Patrick's Day [the sealers] start, most of them waiting until after Sheilah's brush or the equinoxial gale has passed. 1924 ENGLAND 124 Perhaps the most memorable of those occasions was on the night of 'Sheila's Brush,' which is to say the 18th of March. Newfoundland has two 'brushes,' Patrick's and Sheila's; that is to say, storms supposed to be connected with the birthday of St Patrick and that of his wife... The word 'brush' is not always used, however; you will hear Newfoundlanders say: 'We have our Sheila dis time o' year.' 1957 Evening Telegram 20 Oct In the days when 600 fishing vessel crews put out their gear around the coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador and when 400 of them went to the ice, the sailors, fishermen and sealers all looked for. . .'Sheila's brush' about the time the sun crossed the Equator coming towards us. 1966 FARIS 48 These storms are termed 'St Patrick's Storms' until St Patrick's Day in March. The much less violent storms after that are called 'Sheila's Blush.' 1969 Daily News 12 Mar, p. 1 Don't worry, it's only Sheilagh's Brush. Nothing to worry about, that is. It doesn't mean another long extension of winter. C 69-2 When I was growing up and we didn't have a storm on or before Paddy's Day (called around home 'Patrick and Sheila') someone was sure to say 'Ha boy, we got it coming yet.' 1982 Evening Telegram 3 Apr, p. 33 You seem glad to be alive even if you have to wait for Sheila's Brush before we can safely say summer is just around the corner.

Sorry that was so long, but I enjoy a little folklore and hope you do too. Well I think we had Sheila's Brush on Thursday unless she's going to arrive later. We've had several beautiful days with more to come.

This is Charlotte, she lives up the road. She was eyeballing Lexi and none to pleased with her.

Charlotte is quite new to the hood but seems to be settling in well and enjoying her new home.

This is Lester, he's been around for a couple of year, joined the neighbourhood as a kitten.

Now, Lester is just bad or demonic, I'm not sure which. He gets in to trouble, wakes his owner up in the middle of the night to watch him eat.... And he has wonderful big double paws and usually eyes as big as saucers!

Had to sneak a few more duck photos in that I took this afternoon.  I spent about 20 mins walking 6 feet carefully along/through bushes and got closer to them. Patience!

The lake was a beautiful color blue yesterday afternoon. This fellow was right at the end of the dock and I was just sitting near the top of it.

Better camera settings, made a big difference in the colors.

So, enjoy your day, sounds like a great day to be outside again!