If April be dripping...

I grew up saying "April showers bring May flowers."

I don't know who decided on that timeline because it hasn't always felt very relevant to my location.

One early reference to the poem is found in Tusser's (1580/1557) Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandrie and after diving in a bit, I don't see why this isn't required reading for everyone...good gardening tips set in lovely little couplets (with, at the very end, a cliffsnotes sonnet for the whole year, and an acrostic of Thomas Tusser's name). I see nothing to complain about here:

Swéete April showers,

Doo spring Maie flowers.

....

If April be dripping, then doo I not hate,

(for him that hath little) his fallowing late,

Else otherwise fallowing timelie is best,

for sauing of cattel, of plough and the rest.

April doo be dripping...usually...so that means I can be a little late on my fallowing without being the target of Tusser's horticultural ire. I love any excuse for some wiggle room when it comes to deadlines!

Anyway, I'm not sure how relevant Tusser's 16th century English countryside wisdom is to my childhood in southern Alberta (when we could still find ourselves snowed under in April) or here in Georgia where we're typically counting down the days until they open the pool by April (even if April be dripping...it's still pretty warm...so we may as well be swimming, no?).

Today we went for a walk and Miriam pointed out that we have daffodils blooming in our yard! We've noticed daffodils in the yards of our neighbours at the top of the hill, but our house (aka The Jolly Sinkhole) seems to be on, like, another latitude or something? We don't get as much sun? It's colder down here? Whatever the case, our daffodils bloom later than the ones in the yards at the top of the hill.

Which just prolongs daffodil season...which literally no one is complaining about.

Anyway, we were happy to see daffodils blooming in our yard and I sang out, "January's cold and chill brings February's daffodil!" 

That rhyme is much more apt for our location. 

(Please doo bee on the lookoute for mie booke of five hundred points of good husbandrie—coming soon to bookstores near you!)

This seems like a good time to note that whenever anyone says anything that rhymes, Alexander will announce, "It rhymes so it must be true!" 

Andrew says this is a reference to The LEGO Movie, when Vitruvius says: "One day, a talented lass or fellow, a special one with face of yellow, will make the Piece of Resistance found from it's hiding refuge underground. And with a noble army at the helm, this Master Builder will thwart the Kragle and save the realm, and be the greatest, most interesting, most important person of all times. All this is true because it rhymes." (start at 1:10 below to hear the prophecy)

I'm not sure I buy that because we know our family lore of "WHERE'S MY PANTS?!"—also a quote from The LEGO Movie—actually predates The LEGO Movie (so it isn't a movie quote at our house...it's an Aunt Emily quote).

But, I guess I can agree that Alexander was at least influenced by this movie...and is simply misquoting it. It's become as ubiquitous a quote as "Play it again, Sam!" or  "Luke, I am your father!" (two famous movie misquotes) for us.

*****

After I sang my spontaneous rhyme Phoebe gleefully announced, "I love baffobills!" 

She's since called them daffobills, baffodills, and daffodills (however the moment strikes her). I also overheard her read-singing Baby Beluga to herself and she was singing, "...heaven bebove and the sea below..." so I'm happy that "bebove" is living on as the obvious (and far superior) opposite of below.

Imagine pairing below with above when you could pair it with bebove!

Here's a little montage of Phoebe enjoying the daffodills through the years:

February 23, 2022

February 19, 2023

February 19, 2023

March 23, 2023

February 22, 2024

I guess I didn't take any pictures of Phoebe with daffodils in 2025. I took pictures of Phoebe. I took pictures of daffodils. I have none of Phoebe with daffodils. So we'll have to settle with a picture of a daffodil that Phoebe picked for me that I asked her not to pick (R.I.P. to every single daffodil that bloomed in our yard and many from the neighbours' yards as well) and Phoebe with a dandelion.

And, finally, here are some pictures of Phoebe with our early daffodils from today:

(It's incredible how fast these babies go from teensy to not-so-teensy, isn't it?)

Source:

Tusser, T. (1580). Five hundred points of good husbandrie. The English Dialect Society. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/51764/51764-h/51764-h.htm (Original work published 1557)