If you’ve been around a little while, you know I like to make note of certain folklore weather predictors. Most consistently: persimmon seeds and goldenrod blooms. The seeds give an indication of the weather to come in Winter, the goldenrod a forecast of the first frost.
This year’s persimmon seeds consisted of a multitude of spoons {heavy snowfall to shovel}, and more knives than I care to see {cold that cuts like a knife, or sometimes “ice”}. I’m hoping for the snow and not the ice, nobody wants ice.
Last year, their forecast was the same and it actually came true. We had multiple snow events, including a freak event in early November and a gorgeous 8-10 inch fall the end of January. We also had a stretch of extremely cold days, including a day that never made it warmer than 18. {The chickens did not leave their coop at all during the worst of it: they decided to hibernate!}
The goldenrod has been teasing, with outliers starting to bloom ahead of the larger clumps, but enough of it is in full bloom now that I feel safe counting out the weeks. Tradition says that once the goldenrod is in bloom, there’s 6 weeks until the first frost – which puts us at October 28th this year. This predictor has been a little more hit or miss, but it’s a fun one.
We also have an enormous population of Cloudless Sulphur butterflies this year. They arrived the end of July {or maybe very early August?}, and have been increasing exponentially since then. There’s something rather enchanting about walking to check the mail, with a cloud of these tiny pretties flying around your feet.
While I cannot locate any sort of folklore surrounding their prognostication abilities, Mr and I both feel like it’s got to mean something. {Of course, it could simply be that we’ve created a perfect habitat for them to stop and refuel mid-migration}.
There’s no question the seasons are shifting; I’ve even seen a few maples starting to pop into a riot of color. With the official start of Fall next week, the time for cozy has {finally} arrived.
Are you seeing signs of the upcoming Fall?
Have you checked your folklore for a Winter forecast?
It’s so fascinating what God reveals to us in nature. Around here we go by the wooly worms. The more black in their coats, the more snow. Have not seen any yet this year, but last year they were loaded with black stripes 🙂
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Very fascinating indeed, I love the way He’s got everything there for us to see, if we only take the time to look 🙂 There’s a town a few counties over that has a big wooly worm festival every year 🙂 I’ve not seen one yet this year either, although I did see a similar one that was all white 😮
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I love those kind of folklore predictions. The one I’ve heard here is that when you hear the crickets chirping, it means 6 weeks until frost. I have no idea if it’s true because I hear them all the time! I suppose they’re right at some point during the summer!
Those butterflies are so pretty!
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The folklore predictions can be so fun 🙂 Maybe it’s a particular kind of cricket? Because like you, I’ve been hearing crickets all summer long!
I love the butterflies so much, I just wish they’d sit still long enough to get a better picture, haha
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I love these indicators of the seasons, and these are both new to me. I also hope for more snow than ice!
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I’m always on the lookout for new/more fun things to try, but these have become my go-to indicators the last few years. Especially now that I’ve figured out the trick to cutting those persimmon seeds, LOL!
Fingers crossed for SNOW!!!
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It’ll be interesting to see if the forecast comes true again this year or not. I cant get over how spoon like some of those seeds look. I hope you get the snow you long for without the bitter cold 🤞 after the extreme summer it seems hard to imagine a chilly winter. Although I did almost put a cardigan on for the dog walk today 😂Ive never seen those type of butterfly before. What vibrant colours 😍😍
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I know, it’s so amazing the way they look when you cut them open! The forks, when I’ve cut and gotten those, are also freakishly fork-like in appearance 😂 Fingers crossed for beautiful snow and reasonable cold 😂🤞
The butterflies are so sweet, and so pretty. They’re small, but so enchanting. And almost impossible to get really good photographs of, lol
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We like to look for wooly bear caterpillars for a forecast!
And I would love to walk to get my mail with a cloud of butterflies about me. How magical!
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I’m still so surprised I haven’t seen a wooly worm this year! Normally we see them crossing the driveway, but not a sign this year … I think that might scare me a little 😂
Magical is definitely the word for the butterfly clouds ❤
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Maybe the chickens got them all! I haven’t seen any yet either honestly, and that does seem a little scary.
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I mean, those baby chickens are all about hunting so it’s possible! 😂
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[…] life: sometimes there’s a lot and sometimes there’s not. I did share this year’s folklore forecast, which predicts a cold and snowy Winter. There was also a chicken update; random Tea Time chatter […]
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[…] Rebecca shared her folkloric forecast telling us what the local flora is hinting at in terms of winter weather for her. If you’ve never seen persimmon ‘spoon’ seeds before its such an unusual marvel of nature. […]
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