We’ve been enjoying an unusually long January Thaw – a few days every year when the winter is interrupted by mild weather, temperatures above freezing. This year it’s gone on for almost two weeks. But it ends today. Still mild this morning, by tomorrow we are predicted to have several inches of snow and it’s back to the arctic. Oddly, the January Thaw is not welcomed with glad cries. It makes us uncomfortable, it’s unnatural (though it happens every year), and we frown at the sky and almost welcome the inevitable plunge in the thermometer.
Self Promotion Time: Here are two links to two other web sites run by Joan Verba, small press publisher:
My muse is down again, so I’ve been working on my coin collection, writing thumbnail sketches of the English monarchs whose coins are not yet in my hands. A couple of observations: There are some severe meanders in the line – not every king or queen was the son or daughter, or even sibling or grandson or daughter of the previous monarch. On the other hand, they were all related; even William the Conqueror and his predecessor, Edward the Confessor, were cousins. And I was surprised at how long it took for the Church of England to settle into the bones of England. A hundred – two hundred – years after Henry VIII first broke with Rome, there were still Catholics slipping into the royal line. And there was George V, Victoria’s grandson, who was “Europe’s Uncle,” because the monarchs of every country involved in World War I were cousins or nephews/nieces – because Victoria had nine children and forty (!) grandchildren and found royal or noble spouses for all of them. See this, if you’re interested: http://womenshistory.about.com/od/victoriaqueen/a/victoria_childr.htm
Monica Ferris 