Country sayings

Your selection of seasonal folklore

• Mackerel sky; not long dry
  
  
• If you hear the mistle thrush sing there is a chance of rain in about eight hours
  
  
• A green Christmas means a full churchyard
  
  
• Wind in the east on March 21, then there for three months  (From Newark)
  
  
• Wind in the east, will last three days at least (Old Leicester saying)
  
  
• The old custom that makes me smile was of the maidens in the village who caught the curate.  They soon had his trousers off him and took him by arms and legs and dropped him on the field to be cultivated. If it was not right for sowing he would squeal at the cold. If the protest was not about the wet cold then the crop could be sown.

Heather Anderson

Button to chin til May be in, ne er cast a clout till May be out

Louise Sargent's mother-in-law, who was born in the 1880s

• Rain before 7, clear by 11
  
  
• Red sky at night shepherd’s delight. Red sky in morning shepherd’s warning

Lesley Howles 'From my grandmother who was a sheep farmer’s daughter from Ashdown Forest, Sussex.'

• Dont tread on a black beetle as it will rain
  
  
• If there is a haze around the moon it means a frost
  
  
• If your corns hurt it means rain later
  

Linda Blackburn

• If the ash is out before the oak, then we're going to have a soak. When the oak is out before the ash, then we're going to have a splash

Janet G 'Learnt that one in infants' school nearly 70 years ago.'

• A Michaelmas chicken and a parson`s son never pays for raising

Martin Maylam

• Ne'er cast a clout til May is out (Sussex saying)

Jeannie Luck

• If there's enough frost as carry a duck, the rest of the winter's slush and muck

Bill Meek 'An old farmer I used to work for always used to say this.'