Hi, open mike: According to the late, much-missed Gamble Rogers, the rhyme is as follows:   

"Red on black, friend of Jack;

Red on yellow, kill a fellow,

Black on head, you're dead"



As for predicting a hard winter, there are signs of such a thing here in France, too. Thicker, harder skins on shallots, earlier thick fur coats on our two cats, birds visiting the feeder before we had put anything out and then coming and tapping on the kitchen window to ask for a handout, cranes and geese heading south earlier than usual and so on. Brrrrr! A welcome relief from the hotter than hell summer, though!   

cheers,

Aux