Galwegians April 2023
The Galway Hall was the venue for the Victoria Pony Club fundraiser on Saturday, March 4th.It was a very successful event. Catering was provided by “Linda J’s”. There were many awesome auction prizes that were donated for this fundraiser. It was refreshing to see so many young people in attendance at the Galway Hall. The Pony Club has 34 members participating in it this year.
The next fundraising event at the Galway Hall is at the end of April on Saturday, the 29th. It is the Kinmount Community Volunteer Management Committee’s major event. The doors open at 5 pm. The roast beef dinner, prepared by the Hall’s capable team of volunteers, will be served at 6:30 pm.
Easter weekend 2023 begins with Good Friday on April 7th and ends on Easter Monday, April 10th. Folklore from Ireland states that if you collect eggs laid on Good Friday, they will never rot! Another one says that if you eat an egg on Easter Sunday that was laid on Good Friday, you’ll reap health benefits all year long.
Here are a three weather lore sayings centred on Easter.
- “The weather on the first Sunday after Easter settles the weather for the whole summer”.
2. “If there is enough rain on Easter Sunday to wet a pocket-handkerchief, there will be a good crop this year”.
3. “If it rains on Easter Sunday, it will rain every Sunday for seven weeks”.
Continuing with weather thoughts, did you think this winter, albeit it mild was rather gloomy? If so, you were very observant. A recent study showed that Ontario endured its darkest winter in 73 years, based on one of the best datasets in the world. This darkness was based on the solar energy recorded from last December to this February. Factors impacting the amount of solar energy include ground reflectivity, snowpack, fine particulates, and cloud cover. Cloud cover is the most influential of these factors.
Our area has experienced several windy days in the past month or so. The Dutch have a word for a big wind day. It is ‘Uitwaaien’, pronounced ‘OUT-vwy-ehn’. It means out blowing or to walk in the wind. As local Dutch wisdom goes, wind refreshes and recalibrates an individual’s body and mind. In conversation with a Dutch friend about this word, the friend agreed that the wind does refresh and recalibrate, just so long as your roof stays on your house. Excellent point well taken!
In 1984, the province of Ontario sent River Otters to Missouri, Ruffed Grouse to New York, and Moose to Michigan. In return, each of these three states sent Ontario wild turkeys- 274 of them in total. Wild turkeys had disappeared from Ontario for more than 100 years. Habitat loss and unregulated hunting were the two main reasons for this disappearance. The reintroduction has been a huge success thanks to the wide genetic spectrum of the turkeys acquired in 1984. Today, there are more than 100 000 wild turkeys in Ontario with their range expanding as far north as Algonquin Park and Sudbury.
For most of last fall and this winter, we have had a wild turkey (that is not so wild) frequent the seeds on the ground that has fallen from our feeders. This turkey tours the north shore of Clear Bay in search of the various sources of scattered birdseed. It has a fascination with its reflection as it checks itself out in the glass of the doors around our place and our neighbours.
Four rough grouse were spotted along the Galway Road recently. Usually a solitary bird, these birds in winter tend to form flocks. Also during winter, they often eat the buds of deciduous trees.
Speaking of birds, it reminds me of another rhyme from school days past.
“There once was a bird who sat in a tree,
The more it saw, the less it spoke,
The less it spoke, the more it heard,
Why can’t we be like that wise old bird?”
On April 6th, there will be a full moon called the Pink Moon. It is also known as the Sprouting Grass Moon, the Egg Moon, the Fish Moon, and the Growing Moon. Mercury will appear low in the western sky just after sunset on April 11th. The Lyrids Meteor Shower is produced by dust particles left behind by comet C/1861 G1 Thatcher. It peaks on April 22nd and 23rd. Looking ahead and looking up, the full moon will occur on May 5th. The Eta Meteor Shower occurs the following evening (May 6th) and into the early hours of May 7th. On May 29th, Mercury will be quite visible