It rained here last Friday, the sort of rain we get when a cold front comes through, a wide swath of it coming down diagonally across the peninsula. We won’t be seeing much of this for a while, not while summer is here. Friday’s may very well have been the last cold front we’ll see until next fall. In its wake came perfect weather: cool and dry. It lasted for days and days and still it is pretty pleasant out, to be honest. I like to think it was our brush with Cold Sophie and the Ice Saints. Maybe they came a bit early this year.
May 11, today, is the feast day of St. Mamertus. Tomorrow, the 12th, St. Pancras. On the 13th we remember St. Servatius and on the 14th, St. Boniface, and then on the 15th, Cold Sophie herself: St. Sophia. In old German weather lore, this group of saints, led by Sophia, are known as the Ice Saints, die Eisheiligen. Kalte Sophie or Cold Sophie is their ringleader, and she and the Ice Saints are thought to bring one last blast of cold air before summer finally settles in. And so today they begin to make their entrance on the scene. If you live in a place that is more temperate than ours, you may experience colder temperatures than you have been, and if you do, you can give a nod to Cold Sophie and the Ice Saints. Cold Sophie may have come early to Lake Worth this year, but for all of you in cooler climes, take care. Avoid planting cold-sensitive crops until after the days of Cold Sophie and the Ice Saints have run their course. A good story, and good common sense, too.
Image: A fresco from St. Sophia Church in Ohrid, Macedonia. Circa 11th century. [Public domain] via Wikimedia Commons.
Cold Sophie and the Ice Saints are definitely in Maine! It has been a cold wet spring! I hope that they run their course very soon!
I don’t know if Cold Sophie ever really clears out of Maine, Doreen. She’s always lurking about somewhere!
We had rain and cool temperature here in the Mojave desert- a welcome respite before summer settles in to test our mettle.
“Summer settles in to test our mettle:” That’s exactly how it is here in Lake Worth, too, Jerri! Only I imagine your heat is dry. Ours is most definitely not. And while it never gets extreme (it’s rare that it hits even the upper 90s here), it is constant and repetitive once it settles in. Once our last comfortable day passes later this month, it’ll just be hot and humid through to sometime in October, most likely. And it does test one’s mettle.
Cold Sophie 5/15 is that day of my knee surgery How appropriate. My Blessed dying Mother turned 89 on the 11th. We live in would seem in parallel lives between earth and whatever is to come. Your enriching words and thoughts feed my Soul on days that are just sometime to hard to bear. BLESS YOU lads.. many years it has been since Seth, ran naked along that beautiful beach, and I, was a young man who was enriched and nurtured by his parents and sibs. The Road some days seems steep, and hard, but the memory that time keepeth never fails. You guys have each other and for that, I give thanks… and rejoice. Cole, Doreen and I occupy the space allotted to us and we prosper i trust that is good for this Day. Happy Mothers Day Lads
Good luck with the knee surgery, Steve. My sister is four weeks now along her own recovery from knee surgery and doing very well; I wish you the same. Speedy recovery and blessings on you, too.