Well, I ran in the rain this morning. I almost turned over and went back to sleep but I needed to pick up a couple of items from the co-op in the village. So I put a waterproof on and sallied forth. It was surprisingly warm despite the rain. Towards the end of the morning the weather tried to improve. The sun almost broke through, the rain stopped and it was generally brighter. It didn’t last long though! It “unimproved”.
According to people who know these things, such as the European climate service Copernicus, summer 2024 “sweltered to Earth’s hottest on record, making it even more likely that this year will end up as the warmest humanity has measured”.
Apparently the northern meteorological summer – June, July and August – averaged 16.8C (62.24F), which is 0.03C (0.05F) warmer than the old record in 2023. As much of the rest of Europe has really been sweltering, I reckon it’s our rather stop-start summer in the UK that has brought the average down to 16.8.
I found this tale in something that calls itself Weird, Strange and Interesting Things :
“Just a twist-
Davy Crockett's older sister, Effie Crockett was invited to help some mothers in the Muskogee Tribe. Once she arrived in camp, Effie laughed at what she saw. The Muskogee Tribe had a custom of cradlng their pappooses among the swaying branches of birch trees. This protected their babies from ground insects, the sun, and wild animals.
After first finding it funny, she soon learned all the great reasons for this practice and marveled at the beauty of it.
Effie watched the swaying and soothing motion of the topmost branches of the trees. She loved how each baby enjoyed nature, how they listened to the songbirds, observed every ladybug, and smiled at the colors of a butterfly, every little breeze was felt and enjoyed by these young ones; each babe seemd perfectly content.
One of the Tribal mothers began to sing a song to the children in her native tongue. As the Muskogee mother sang, Miss Effie observed a small tear running down the mother’s cheek.
Lulu se pepe i le pito i luga o le laau,
A agi le matagi e luluina le moega pepe,
A gau le lala e paʻu ai le moega pepe,
Ma o le a sau i lalo pepe, moega pepe ma mea uma.
Effie translated the words and kept the tune. She shared it with everyone and it soon became a wildly popular nursery rhyme among the Colonies.
The English translation:
Rock-a-bye baby on the tree top,
When the wind blows the cradle will rock,
When the bough breaks the cradle will fall,
And down will come baby, cradle and all.
Why did the Muskogee mother cry?
A “bough” is simply a tree branch, and its breaking was used by the Muskogee mothers as an analogy of their little baby growing up.
Their little baby would soon outgrow his cradle. With each gently rocking wind, time was passing. One day, little baby would no longer need the protection of his mother. One day, the “branch” would break because her little baby had become too heavy. The “cradle” would fall to the earth – the child, no longer a baby, would dust himself off and grow into a man.
The now famous lullaby was first printed in Mother Goose’s Melody in London in 1765.
The actual origin and meaning of the rhyme has been subjects of various theories and folklore, but none of them have been conclusively proven.”
That makes sense.
For some reason this got me thinking about another old nursery rhyme: Dan, Dan, the Dirty Old Man, which goes like this:
“Dan, Dan, the dirty old man,
Washed his face in the frying pan,
Combed his hair with the donkey’s tail
And scratched his back with his big toe nail.”
I have no back story for that one but there is apparently an Irish version which goes:
“Dan, Dan, the fine old man,
Washed his face in the frying pan,
Combed his hair with the leg of the chair,
Dan, Dan, the fine old man.”
I have talked about libraries recently. Here’s a relevant cartoon:
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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