29th May is Oakapple day, commemorating the preservation of the Monarchy in Britain (Charles II, Roundheads, Cavaliers and spaniels and all that), when Charles hid from Cromwell's forces in an oak tree.

It's one of the tunes used for 'All things bright and beautiful'...

It's also Manitas' birthday, but don't tell him I said.

In Tudor times, for the court and gentry, the whole of May was a holiday. Every day there were activities, hunting, dances, masques and banquets held. High born ladies had a new dress for every day and green was a common colour - it's supposed to mean you are up for a 'romp in the hay' as it were..... It was a good time to get pregnant, because the 1st semester (with the morning sickness & greatest danger of miscarriage) would be over by harvest time so you could help out. You'd be living off the harvest for the next semester and by the final semester, you'd have little heavy work to be done, lots of dark nights to rest up in, and by the birth, it would be Feb/March. After that, the baby would be living off your milk and you would be getting the best of what was left, but, with Spring just around the corner, the food was increasing again, and when the baby was ready for solids, it would be summer again with lots of good, healthy food around.

All part of lifes' rich wossname and today's pointless information.

LTS