February

Poems, Quotes, Folklore, Myths
Sayings, Links, References, Lore
Ideas, Garden Chores

Compiled by Michael P. Garofalo
Valley Spirit Center, Red Bluff, California

Quotes     Links     References     Garden Chores

Quotes
Poetry, Quotations, Sayings, Facts, Information, Quips, Aphorisms

"Loud are the thunder drums in the tents of the mountains.
Oh, long, long
Have we eaten chia seeds
and dried deer's flesh of the summer killing.
We are tired of our huts
and the smoky smell of our clothing.

We are sick with the desire for the sun
And the grass on the mountain."
-   Paiute Late Winter Song

"Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire:  it is the time for home." 
-   Edith Sitwell

"February is a suitable month for dying.  Everything around is dead, the trees black and frozen so that the appearance of green shoots two months hence seems preposterous, the ground hard and cold, the snow dirty, the winter hateful, hanging on too long."
-   Anna Quindlen, One True Thing

"Keep your faith in beautiful things;
in the sun when it is hidden,
in the Spring when it is gone."
-   Roy R. Gibson  

"Rich meanings of the prophet-Spring adorn,
Unseen, this colourless sky of folded showers,
And folded winds; no blossom in the bowers;
A poet's face asleep in this grey morn.
Now in the midst of the old world forlorn
A mystic child is set in these still hours.
I keep this time, even before the flowers,
Sacred to all the young and the unborn."
-   Alice Meynell, In February

"The word February is believed to have derived from the name 'Februa' taken from the Roman 'Festival of Purification'.  The root 'februo' meaning to 'I purify by sacrifice'.  As part of the seasonal calendar February is the 
time of the 'Ice Moon' according to Pagan beliefs, and the period described as the 'Moon of the Dark Red Calf' by Black Elk.  February has also been known as 'Sprout-kale' by the Anglo-Saxons in relation to the time the kale and cabbage was edible."
-   Mystical WWW

Winter - Quotes for Gardeners

"Late February, and the air's so balmy
snowdrops and crocuses might be fooled
into early blooming. Then, the inevitable blizzard
will come, blighting our harbingers of spring,
and the numbed yards will go back undercover.
In Florida, it's strawberry season—
shortcake, waffles, berries and cream
will be penciled on the coffeeshop menus."
-   Gail Mazur, The Idea of Florida During a Winter Thaw

"Away in a meadow all covered with snow
The little old groundhog looks for his shadow
The clouds in the sky determine our fate
If winter will leave us all early or late."
-  Don Halley

"The flowers of late winter and early spring occupy places in our hearts well out of proportion to their size."
-   Gertrude S. Wister

"Still lie the sheltering snows, undimmed and white;
And reigns the winter's pregnant silence still;
No sign of spring, save that the catkins fill,
And willow stems grow daily red and bright.
These are days when ancients held a rite
Of expiation for the old year's ill,
And prayer to purify the new year's will."
-  Helen Hunt Jackson, A Calendar of Sonnet's: February

Cuttings - February - Haiku and Short Poems by Mike Garofalo

 "If apples were pears
And peaches were plums
And the rose had a different name.
If tigers were bears
And fingers were thumbs
I'd love you just the same."
-   Valentine's Day Songs and Poems

"Wishing and wanting
to see you,
I step on thin ice."
-   Madoka Mayuzumi

"February is merely as long as is needed to pass the time until March."
-   Dr. J. R. Stockton

"Awakening,
I hear the truth--
grey rain on clay."
-  Michael P. Garofalo, Cuttings

"Every gardener knows that under the cloak of winter lies a miracle ... a seed waiting to sprout, a bulb opening to the light, a bud straining to unfurl.  And the anticipation nurtures our dream."
-   Barbara Winkler

Cloud Hands: Taijiquan and Qigong - Mind-Body Movement Arts by Mike Garofalo

"The birds are gone, The ground is white,
The winds are wild, They chill and bite;  
The ground is thick with slush and sleet,  
And I barely feel my feet."
-  Winter Poems

I Welcome Your Comments, Ideas, Contributions, and Suggestions  

"Standing in a valley,
With the mist coming in,
Berries grow on the holly bushes.
Robins hide in snow-ridden woods.
If I could stay here, I would."
-   Bethan Williams

"In winter's cold and sparkling snow,
The garden in my mind does grow.
I look outside to blinding white,
And see my tulips blooming bright.
And over there a sweet carnation,
Softly scents my imagination.

On this cold and freezing day,
The Russian sage does gently sway,
And miniature roses perfume the air,
I can see them blooming there.
Though days are short, my vision's clear.
And through the snow, the buds appear.

In my mind, clematis climbs,
And morning glories do entwine.
Woodland phlox and scarlet pinks,
Replace the frost, if I just blink.
My inner eye sees past the snow.
And in my mind, my garden grows."
-   Cheryl Magic-Lady, Winter Garden

"O thou,
Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed
The winged seeds, where they lie cold and low,
Each like a corpse within its grave, until
Thine azure sister of the spring shall blow
Her clarion o'er the dreaming earth."
-   John Davies, 1570-1626,  Ode to the West Wind.

"Go to the winter woods: listen there, look, watch, and “the dead months” will give you a subtler secret than any you have yet found in the forest." 
-   Fiona Macleod, Where the Forest Murmurs

"Winter, a lingering season, is a time to gather golden moments, embark upon a sentimental journey,
and enjoy every idle hour." 
-   John Boswell

"From December to March, there are for many of 
us three gardens:
the garden outdoors,
the garden of pots and bowls in the house,
and the garden of the mind's eye."
-   Katherine S. White

"He knows no winter, he who loves the soil,
For, stormy days, when he is free from toil,
He plans his summer crops, selects his seeds
From bright-paged catalogues for garden needs.
When looking out upon frost-silvered fields,
He visualizes autumn's golden yields;
He sees in snow and sleet and icy rain
Precious moisture for his early grain;
He hears spring-heralds in the storm's ' turmoil­
He knows no winter, he who loves the soil."
-   Sudie Stuart Hager, He Knows No Winter  

"Winter is nature's way of saying, "Up yours."" 
-   Robert Byrne

"Let us love winter, for it is the spring of genius." 
-   Pietro Aretino

"Dreaming time has reversed, I watch drowned snow
Appear to lift up from the lake;
Reshaping magnified, each risen flake
Looms in the air, deliberate and slow,
Allowing me to let your picture form and wake
Astonished that you have returned to go
To watch me watch drowned snow lift from the lake.
Dreaming time has reversed—and you,
Your red cheeks radiant against the wind,
Are gliding toward me on the ice into
A frame of glided twilight—I
Again awaken from your being gone to find
Your gloved hands covering your lips' good-bye
So you can watch me watch uplifted snow
As if your absence now concluded long ago."
-   Robert Pack, Snow Rise

The hills step off into whiteness.
People or stars
Regard me sadly, I disappoint them.

The train leaves a line of breath.
O slow
Horse the colour of rust,

Hooves, dolorous bells ----
All morning the
Morning has been blackening,

A flower left out.
My bones hold a stillness, the far
Fields melt my heart.

They threaten
To let me through to a heaven
Starless and fatherless, a dark water.
-   Sylvia Plath, Sheep in Fog

"Every mile is two in winter."
-   George Herbert

Seasons and Time

"The day is ending,
The night is descending;
The marsh is frozen,
The river dead.

Through clouds like ashes
The red sun flashes
On village windows
That glimmer red."
-   Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Afternoon in February 

"Gung Hay Fat Choy!"
In China, every girl and boy
Celebrates the New Year
in a very special way -
With fireworks and dragons,
colored red and gold -
They welcome in the new year
and chase away the old!
-   Helen H. Moore

"I stood beside a hill
Smooth with new-laid snow,
A single star looked out
From the cold evening glow.

There was no other creature
That saw what I could see--
I stood and watched the evening star
As long as it watched me."
-  Sara Teasdale, February Twilight  

"Nature has undoubtedly mastered the art of winter gardening and even the most experienced gardener can learn from the unrestrained beauty around them."
-   Vincent A. Simeone

"Freezing
cold winds,
biting chills, and
white snow fluffed hills
Valentines day, oh how gay!
presidents' day is coming our way.
February, sweet and small, greatest month of all."
-  Eric Lies, 28 Word Poem for February

"Winter dies into the spring, to be born again in the autumn." 
-   Marche Blumenberg

"Wan February with weeping cheer,
Whose cold hand guides the youngling year
Down misty roads of mire and rime,
Before thy pale and fitful face
The shrill wind shifts the clouds apace
Through skies the morning scarce may climb.
Thine eyes are thick with heavy tears,
But lit with hopes that light the year's."
-  Algernon Charles Swinburne, A Year's Carols: February

"Blessings are the things we take for granted.
Each holiday we notice what we see.
Most know the Earth is utterly enchanted
Yet walk through life and love mechanically.
Valuing one's gifts takes resolution
After days and nights of fantasy.
Love brings the sweet relief of absolution,
Enveloping our hesitance in need.
No touch inspires so swift a revolution,
Transforming all the hieroglyphs we read.
In your love is the charity of spring,
Nor self-obsessed nor blinded by some creed,
Embracing the grey dawns that blessings bring."
-  By Cornelius Lyons

"There is nothing here
except the constant, looping clicks and caws
of birds, lost in trees erased by white.
My sight condensed
by each fresh, foggy breath,
a hanging depth
my head sinks through.
Nothing here
but mulching steps,
the soft snap of twigs long soaking,
the sticky sound
of car tire on wet road.

I am drenched
by a sudden gang-up of water,
a brief yawn of thunder far away.
There is nothing here
and I am all wet."
-  John Goss, Fog

"For all practical purposes nature is at a standstill... there is a wonderful joy in leaving behind the noisy city streets and starting out along the white road that leads across the hills.  With each breath of the sharp, reviving air one seems to inhale new life.  A peace as evident as the sunshine on the fields takes possession of one's inner being.  The trivial cares which fretted like a swarm of mosquitoes are driven away by the first sweep of wind that comes straight from the mountains. ... The intense silence that broods over the snow-bound land is a conscious blessing. The deep blue of the sky and the purple shadows cast by the trees and plants are a feast to the eye. The crunch of the snow-rind beneath our feet and the varied hum of the telegraph wires overhead are music to our ears." 
-   Frances Theodora Parsons  

March: Quotes, Poems, Sayings, Links, Garden Chores.

"Was it the smile of early spring
That made my bosom glow?
'Twas sweet, but neither sun nor wind
Could raise my spirit so.

Was it some feeling of delight,
All vague and undefined?
No, 'twas a rapture deep and strong,
Expanding in the mind!"
-   Anne Bronte, In Memory of A Happy Day in February

"Grave stone
Wearing a rosary
Christmas!

Colour purple
Dream burning,
February's sea."
-   Sadayo Takizawa, Winter

"Winter is the time of promise because there is so little to do - or because you can now and then permit yourself the luxury of thinking so." 
-   Stanley Crawford

"See the falling snowflakes
drifting by the pane,
Winging glasslike angels
falling just like rain.
The air is crisp and stirring,
the freshly fallen snow.
And the warmth I'm feeling inside,
sets my eyes aglow.
This winter's day has come before
and will come again.
It finds it's way to Earth
every now and then."
-   Linda A. Copp, A Winter's Day

"Be off!" say Winter's snows;
"Now it's my turn to sing!"
So, startled, quivering,
Not daring to oppose

(Our fortitude grows dim in
The face of a Quos ego),
Away, my songs, must we go
Before those virile women!

Rain. We are forced to fly,
Everywhere, utterly.
End of the comedy.
Come, swallows, it's good-bye.

Wind, sleet. The branches sway,
Writhing their stunted limbs,
And off the white smoke swims
Across the heavens' gray.

A pallid yellow lingers
Over the chilly dale.
My keyhole blows a gale
Onto my frozen fingers."
-  Victor Hugo, Be Off Winter Snow

"Falling and rising - spheres of blackbirds.
Coming and going - lines of geese."
-  Michael P. Garofalo, Cuttings 

"Winter came down to our home one night
Quietly pirouetting in on silvery-toed slippers of snow,
And we, we were children once again."
-   Bill Morgan, Jr.

"February, when the days of winter seem endless and no amount of wistful recollecting can bring back any air of summer."
-   Shirley Jackson,  Raising Demons

"In tangled wreath, in clustered gleaming stars,
In floating, curling sprays,
The golden flower comes shining though the woods
These February days;
Forth go all hearts, all hands, from out the town,
To bring her gayly in,
This wild, sweet Princess of far Florida -
The yellow jessamine."
-  Constance Fenimore Woolson, Yellow Jessamine  

"Winter teaches us about detachment, numbness.  But it’s a way to get through.  From winter we learn silence and 
acceptance and the stillness thickens."
-   Gail Barison, The Winter Solstice of my Soul  

"February makes a bridge and March breaks it."
-  George Hebert

"There is a privacy about winter which no other season gives you … Only in winter…can you have longer, quite stretches when you can savor belonging to yourself." 
-   Ruth Stout,  How to Have a Green Thumb without an Aching Back

"There’s a certain slant of light,
On winter afternoons,
That oppresses, like the weight
Of cathedral tunes.

Heavenly hurt it gives us;
We can find no scar,
But internal difference
Where the meanings are.

None may teach it anything,
’T is the seal, despair,—
An imperial affliction
Sent us of the air.

When it comes, the landscape listens,
Shadows hold their breath;
When it goes, ’t is like the distance
On the look of death."
-  Emily Dickenson, #82

"There's a grassy slope not far away
Where thousands of Narcissus bloom,
And I catch my breath, as I watch them sway
Tossing their sweet perfume.

Gaily they nod their dear little heads
And smilingly welcome me,
As they spring up fresh from their winter beds,
Eager for company.

Their round white faces fair and clean
Are purer than frost or snow,
And I thank the hands, tho' now unseen;
That planted them, long ago."
-   Nora McFarlane, Hillside Narcissus

"From Heaven I fall, though from earth I begin.
No lady alive can show such a skin.
I'm bright as an angel, and light as a feather,
But heavy and dark, when you squeeze me together.

Though candor and truth in my aspect I bear,
Yet many poor creatures I help to insnare.
Though so much of Heaven appears in my make,
The foulest impressions I easily take.

My parent and I produce one another,
The mother the daughter, the daughter the mother."
-   James Parton, A Riddle - On Snow

"Reeds, snake-like, coiled in the mist
Where the low fog drives:
The muddy cough of the stream that strives
To free its throat from the clot of reed,
As they fight it out the water and the weed--
While the fog, above, takes turn and twist:
Men, these are your lives!

Wild geese across the moon:
As some hand that unrolls
And scratches black names upon blood-red scrolls;
So seem these shadows, dipping, dying,
Black shapes on the red moon, screaming, flying,
Till the fog blots out, or late or soon:
Men, these are your souls! "
-   Muriel Stuart, Wild Geese Across the Moon 

Cuttings - February - Haiku and Short Poems by Mike Garofalo

"Dead of winter.
Cold hands warm heart.
As pure as snow.
Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness.
Now is the winter of our discontent.
Left out in the cold."
-  Clichés for Gardeners  

"Candlemas' is the Christianized name for the holiday, of course.  The older Pagan names were Imbolc and Oimelc. 'Imbolc' means, literally, 'in the belly' (of the Mother).  For in the womb of Mother Earth, hidden from our mundane sight but sensed by a keener vision, there are stirrings.  The seed that was planted in her womb at the solstice is quickening and the new year grows.  'Oimelc' means 'milk of ewes', for it is also lambing season.  The holiday is also called 'Brigit's Day', in honor of the great Irish Goddess Brigit.  At her shrine, the ancient Irish capitol of Kildare, a group of 19 priestesses (no men allowed) kept a perpetual flame burning in her honor.  She was considered a goddess of fire, patroness of smithcraft, poetry and healing (especially the healing touch of midwifery)."
-  Daven's Journal - Imbolic 

"Why, what's the matter,
That you have such a February face,
So full of frost, of storm and cloudiness?"
-   William Shakespeare,  Much Ado About Nothing

"Come when the rains
Have glazed the snow and clothed the trees with ice,
While the slant sun of February pours
Into the bowers a flood of light. Approach!
The incrusted surface shall upbear thy steps
And the broad arching portals of the grove
Welcome thy entering."
-   William Cullen Bryant, A Winter Piece

"The February sunshine steeps your boughs and tints the buds and swells the leaves within."
-   William C. Bryant

"February, fill the dyke with what thou dost like."
-  Thomas Tusser

"Out of the bosom of the Air, 
Out of the cloud-folds of her garments shaken, 
Over the woodlands brown and bare, 
Over the harvest-fields forsaken, 
Silent, and soft, and slow 
Descends the snow."
-   Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Snowflakes

"Valentine's Day is most closely associated with the mutual exchange of love notes in the form of "valentines." Modern Valentine symbols include the heart-shaped outline and the figure of the winged Cupid. Since the 19th century, handwritten notes have largely given way to mass-produced greeting cards. The mid-nineteenth century Valentine's Day trade was a harbinger of further commercialized holidays in the United States to follow.  The U.S. Greeting Card Association estimates that approximately one billion valentines are sent each year worldwide, making the day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year behind Christmas. The association estimates that women purchase approximately 85 percent of all valentines."
-   Valentine's Day - Wikipedia

"Tinsel in February, tinsel in August.
There are things in a man besides his reason."
-   Wallace Stevens

"There is a privacy about it which no other season gives you ..... In spring, summer and fall people sort of have an open season on each other; only in the winter, in the country, can you have longer, quiet stretches when you can savor belonging to yourself."
-  Ruth Stout

"The most serious charge which can be brought against New England is not Puritanism but February."
-  Joseph Wood Krutch

"I stood beside a hill
Smooth with new-laid snow,
A single star looked out
From the cold evening glow.
There was not other creature
That saw what I could see,
I stood and watched the evening star
As long as it watched me." 
-   Sara Teasdale, February Twilight

"January cold and desolate;
February dripping wet;
March wind ranges;
April changes;
Birds sing in tune
To flowers of May,
And sunny June
Brings longest day;
In scorched July
The storm-clouds fly,
Lightning-torn;
August bears corn,
September fruit;
In rough October
Earth must disrobe her;
Stars fall and shoot
In keen November;
And night is long
And cold is strong
In bleak December."
-   Christina Giorgina Rossetti, The Months

"January gray is here,
Like a sexton by her grave;
February bears the bier,
March with grief doth howl and rave,
And April weeps—but, O ye hours!
Follow with May’s fairest flowers."
-  Percy Bysshe Shelley, Dirge for the Year

"Thirty days hath September,
April, June, and November,
February has twenty-eight alone,
All the rest have thirty-one;
Excepting leap year, that 's the time
When February's days are twenty-nine."

"In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy." 
-   William Blake

"There is nothing in the world more beautiful than the forest clothed to its very hollows in snow.  It is the still ecstasy of nature, wherein every spray, every blade of grass, every spire of reed, every intricacy of twig, is clad with radiance."
-   William Sharp

"The cold was our pride, the snow was our beauty.   It fell and fell, lacing day and night together in a milky haze, making everything quieter as it fell, so that winter seemed to partake of religion in a way no other season did, hushed, solemn."
-   Patricia Hampl

"Dead of winter.
Cold hands warm heart.
As pure as snow.
Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness.
Now is the winter of our discontent.
Left out in the cold."
-  Clichés for Gardeners  

"One must have a mind of winter
To regard the frost and boughs
Of the pine-trees crusted with snow;

And have been cold a long time
To behold the junipers shagged with ice,
The spruces rough in the distant glitter

Of the January sun; and not to think
Of any misery in the sound of the wind,
In the sound of a few leaves

Which is the sound of the land
Full of the same wind
That is blowing in the same bare place

For the listener, who listens in the snow,
An, nothing himslef, beholds
Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is."
-   Wallace Stevens, The Snow Man, 1923

"Late February days; and now, at last,
Might you have thought that Winter's woe was past;
So fair the sky was and so soft the air."
-  William Morris

January: Quotes, Poems, Sayings, Links, Garden Chores.

"I listen to you explain the difference
between a right brain thought and a left.
I am distracted by the smell
of cold on your face.
I lick it away like a child
with an ice cream cone
sticky fingers and sweet tongue.

Aware that I have been here before
I pause in your words.
I have slept in this flesh,
dreamed these winter bones.

Waking in the darkness between us
I hear frost sweeping the porch,
edging toward the morning.
I reach for your hand.

What, you whisper, voice hoarse with dream.
My lips, swollen with you, cold,
are silent."
-   Joyce Wakefield, Winter Conversation

"We may owe our observance of Valentine's Day to the Roman celebration of Lupercalia, a festival of eroticism that honored Juno Februata, the goddess of "feverish" (febris) love. Annually, on the ides of February, love notes or "billets" would be drawn to partner men and women for feasting and sexual game playing."
-  Saint Valentine's Day

"The February born will find
Sincerity and peace of mind;
Freedom from passion and from care,
If they the Pearl (also green Amethyst) will wear."

"I'm a little groundhog, it's my day.
Wake and stretch, go out and play.
Down in my burrow, down so deep,
Time to wake, from my long winter's sleep.

Grumble, grumble, scratch, scratch,
Grunt, grunt, yawn.
I'll eat my breakfast in your front lawn.
I'm a little groundhog, it's my day. 
Wake up and stretch, go out and play.'
-   Author Unknown

The tangled bine-stems scored the sky
    Like strings of broken lyres,
And all mankind that haunted nigh
    Had sought their household fires.

The land's sharp features seemed to be
    The Century's corpse outleant,
His crypt the cloudy canopy,
    The wind his death-lament.

The ancient pulse of germ and birth
    Was shrunken hard and dry,
And every spirit upon earth
    Seemed fervourless as I.

At once a voice arose among
    The bleak twigs overhead
In a full-hearted evensong
    Of joy illimited;
An aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small,
    In blast-beruffled plume,
Had chosen thus to fling his soul
    Upon the growing gloom.

So little cause for carolings
    Of such ecstatic sound
Was written on terrestrial things
    Afar or nigh around,
That I could think there trembled through
    His happy good-night air
Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew
    And I was unaware."
- Thomas Hardy, A Darkling Thrush

"Winter garden,
the moon thinned to a thread,
    insects singing."
-  Matsuo Basho

"Valentine's Day is thought to have evolved from a spring holiday celebrated in the days of ancient Rome. The feast of Lupercalia was actually celebrated on February 15 and honored the god Lupercus, who protected the people and their herds from wolves. On this day, dances were held for all the single young men and women. A man would draw his partner's name from a piece of papyrus placed in a bowl. The man not only danced with his partner but was also obligated to protect her throughout the new year, which began in March. In many cases, the partners became sweethearts and were soon married. When the tradition of these dances was later revived in the Middle Ages, a man would wear his sweetheart's name on his sleeve. Even today we refer to someone quick to show feeling as "wearing his heart on his sleeve.""
-  Valentine's Day Legends

"A melancholy mantle rests
Upon the land; the sea.
The wind in tristful cadence moans
A mournful threnody.
There flits no gleeful insect,
No blithesome bee nor bird;
0'er all the vast of Nature
No joyful sound is heard.
In garments sere and somber
Each, vine and tree is clad:
It's dreary-hearted winter,
And all the earth is sad."
-  Hazel Dell Crandall, The Lilt o' the Year

"The season's anguish, crashing whirlwind, ice,
Have passed, and cleansed the trodden paths,
That silent gardeners have strewn with ash. 

The iron circles of the sky,
Are worn away by tempest;
Yet in this garden there is no more strife:
The Winter's knife is buried in the earth.
Pure music is the cry that tears
The birdless branches in the wind.
No blossom is reborn.  The blue
Stare of the pond is blind. 

And no one sees
A restless stranger through the morning stray
Across the sodden lawn, whose eyes
Are tired of weeping, in whose breast
A savage sun consumes its hidden day." 
-   David Gascoyne, Winter Garden  

February
Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry
French Medieval Book of Hours, 1412
 

February

Links and References

Above the Fog.   Taoist and Zen Poems.  By Michael P. Garofalo.    

An Annotated & Illustrated Collection of Worldwide Links to Mythologies,Fairy Tales & Folklore, Sacred Arts & Sacred Traditions.  
By Kathleen Jenks, Ph.D.

Ancient Origins of the Holidays  

Artemis  

Bartleby Quotations

February - Links from Yahoo  

February Lore

February - Mystical World Wide Web  

February - Pagan Pathways

February - Poems, Quotes, Folklore, Ideas, Chores

Celebrating the Seasons

Chinese New Year   

Cloud Hands: Taijiquan and Qigong - Mind-Body Movement Arts by Mike Garofalo

Cold Mountain Buddhas

Cupid, Luperci, and the Valentine's Day Saints

Cuttings - February.   Haiku and short poems by Michael P. Garofalo.  

Epiphany Links and Resources

February Holiday Themes: Links and Ideas for Teachers   

February Poetry  

Elaine's Winter Poems

German and German-American Customs, Traditions, and Origins of Holidays

Groundhog Day - February 2nd

Ground Hog Day Information Site

Groundhog Day Links - Open Directory  

Herbal Rituals - February

Holiday Insights  

Imbolic - Daven's Journal

Imbolic (2/2) Lore

Imbolic (Swelling Belly)

Lettuce in Winter.   Poems by Richard Bear.

Lupercalia - Roman Festival

Months - Quotes, Poems, Folklore, Links, Chores

Poems for a Long Winter's Night  

Quote Garden

Quotes for Gardeners.   Over 3,200 quotes arranged by over 135 topics.

Setsubun Kai Festival in Japan     Tendai Calendar

Spring  -  Quotes, Poems, Sayings and Quips for Gardeners

Traditional English Customs and Folktales of February

Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, French Medieval Book of Hours, 1412

Valentine's Day Links - Open Directory

Valentine's Day Lore

Valentine's Day Poems

Valentine's Day - Wikipedia

Winter and Snow Theme Page for Teachers

Winter - Books for Children

Winter Customs and Folklore in Austria

Winter Customs and Folklore in Germany 

Winter Garden Poems

Winter - Quotes for Gardeners

Winter Poems for Children  

Winter Poetry

February
By Wharton Esherick, 1930
 

February Weather Lore

A wet February, a wet Spring.

Winter either bites with its teeth or lashes with its tail. 

Clichés for Gardeners

Weather Lore

If Candlemas be fair and clear,  there'll be two winters in the year.

If a hedgehog casts a shadow at noon, Winter will return.

“Février l’pu court éd chés moés, ch’est l’pire chint foés”.
February is the shortest month and by far the worst.

February
By Robert Furber

February Folklore

Astrological Signs:  Aquarius, January 20 - February 18

Astrological Signs:  Pisces,  February 19 - March 20

February  Birthstones:  Amethyst

February Forest with Sheep
By Diana Harrison

February Garden Chores

Red Bluff, North Sacramento Valley, California, USA

USDA Zone 9

Typical Seasonal Weather for Our Area  
Normally, in February, we have high daytime temperatures of 59ºF, low nighttime temperatures of 40ºF, and get 3.4 inches of rain.

February Garden Activities and Chores in Red Bluff
USDA Zone 9

Browsing and ordering from seed and garden catalogs.  
Pruning leafless trees and shrubs.  
Weeding and tending the winter vegetable garden.  
Relax and read books from the library.  
The soil is usually too wet and cold for much digging.
Keeping cold sensitive potted plants in protected areas or indoors.
Make sure that the cuttings in protected areas do not dry out.
Repair fences.  
Put straw mulch over fertilized vegetable garden areas not planted. 
Distribute fertilizer and minerals. 
Prune and mulch dormant perennials. 
Remove dead trees, shrubs, branches, and twigs.  
Enjoy the bulbs and rosemary in bloom.  
Repair and sharpen tools.  
Construct gardening boxes and flats.  
Keep hardwood cuttings moist.
Write a poem.   Keep a gardening journal.  
Fertilize with 20-9-9 or 15-15-15. 
Trees without leaves need little or no watering.
Take a walk in your garden.
Sit and observe.   

February Gardening Chores and Tips for U.S.A. Zones

Oak Hill February Tips - Georgia

Oregon State University February Tips

Earth Wise Creations February Tips - Zone 9

Seasonal Garden Chores - Links

Top Garden Projects for February in the Pacific Northwest by Ed Hume

52 Weeks in the California Garden by Richard Smaus

February Gardening Tips from Ortho 

Monthly Garden Tasks in an English County Garden

Winter Rose Care

February Gardening Chores - Links

The Gay Gardener - Monthly Chores

The Garden Helper Tips for February - Northern U.S.

Fruits and Nuts - February Tips - Virginia

Gardening Tips - February - New York Botanical Garden

Master Gardeners Tips

Photographs from Red Bluff, California
Karen and Mike Garofalo