The Ides of February

The fifteenth of February was my maternal grandmother’s birthday in 1887.  She’d be a hundred and twenty five years old today if she was still alive.  How’s that for a random fact.  Here’s some more. 

Today is Singles Awareness Day,  especially for all those unattached people who hate Valentine’s Day to give them a chance to get over being depressed about it.  Or something like that.  And, today is Gumdrop Day.  A day on which candy stores that are all sold out of chocolates from yesterday can now sell out of all things gummy as well. 

It’s Candlemas on the Julian Calendar and Susan B. Anthony Day on the modern (American) one.  And it’s the last day of the three day Lupercalia festival, so time to put that goat skin away.

Does that cover everything?  I sure hope so.

The last couple of days I’ve been watching Canadian movies on Netflix.  That category comes up under genres and I’ve never clicked on it before.  So I could have been observing Try Something New Without Getting Off Your Ass Day if such a holiday existed.

So far, I’ve liked five out of five!  Love That Boy, Margaret’s Museum, Away From Her, Cole, and Marion Bridge.  They’re all weird, which is no doubt why I liked them.  The song at the end of Marion Bridge is perhaps the best part of the whole movie.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqxBjDYg3Sg

Song For The Mira

Out on the Mira one warm afternoon Old men go fishing with black line and spoon And if they catch nothing they never complain I wish I was with them again
As boys in their boats call to girls on the shore Teasing the one that they really adore And into the evening the courting begins I wish I was with them again
Can you imagine a piece of the universe More fit for princes and kings? I’ll give you ten of your cities For Marion Bridge and the pleasure it brings
Out on the Mira on soft summer nights Bonfires blaze to the children’s delight They dance round the flames singing songs with their friends I wish I was with them again
And over the ashes the stories are told Of witches and werewolves and Oak Island gold The stars on the river they sparkle and spin I wish I was with them again
Out on the Mira the people are kind They’ll treat you to home-brew and help you unwind And if you come broken they’ll see that you mend I wish I was with them again
And thus I conclude with a wish you go well Sweet be your dreams, may your happiness swell I’ll leave you here, for my journey begins I’m going to be with them, going to be with them I’m going to be with them again

There’s the lyrics, just in case you’d like to sing along.  Very celtic.  Makes me want to go back to Nova Scotia.

Margaret’s Museum was filmed in Nova Scotia as well, and Cole was somewhere in B.C.  If you watch them and nothing else appeals to you, enjoy the scenery.