So what is Plough Monday? For many centuries, the second Monday of the year's first month was thought of as a back-to-work day after holiday celebrations in Great Britain.
While no longer widely remembered even there, Almanack followers sometimes pay attention. I realize, of course, I didn't tell you last week, and now yesterday was Plough Monday, and you missed it.
Still, you can make up for lost time. As the sun rises a little earlier in the morning these days, you could be following its retreat across the floor or wall as solar movement tracks the advance of spring.
You might start a daily check and record of the pussy willows. Their opening keeps time for the first quarter of the year; each cracking catkin tells of spring’s approach.
If you see the green tips of snowdrops emerging from the garden, measure them before they are covered with snow again; then, measure the approach of March with their stems as they slowly grow.
And if you have made a twelve-week “Advent” wreath with a candle for each week of winter beginning the first week of December, Plough Monday marks the end of the sixth week. When the twelfth week is over, the chilly but promising season of Early Spring will have begun.
Plough Monday also marks the period in the Deep South during which pine trees have started to pollinate: Keep track your allergy reactions as pollen arrives on the winds of upcoming thaws.
This is Bill Felker with Poor Will’s Almanack. I’ll be back again next week with notes for the third full week of Deep Winter.
In the meantime, you are already a day behind with your Plough Monday observations. Think about beginning it today, or next year.
