February brings the rain

February brings the rain,
Thaws the frozen lake again.

From 'The Months' by Sara Coleridge (1802 - 1852)

February derives its name from the word  februare, to purify, or from Februa, the Roman festival of expiation, which was celebrated through the latter part of this month.

February has but twenty-eight days clear
And twenty-nine in each leap year.

If February bring no rain
Tis neither good for grass nor grain.

If Candlemas Day be fair and bright
Winter will have another flight
But if Candlemas Day be clouds of rain
Winter is gone and will not come again.

Candlemas Day is on 2nd of February.

The most exciting date in February is Valentine's Day, February 14th.

My poem for the day to welcome the month of February is by Hartley Coleridge (1796 -1849), the eldest son of the poet Samuel Coleridge and brother of Sara who wrote 'The Months.'

One month is past, another is begun,
Since merry bells rang out the dying year,
And buds of rarest green began to peer,
As if impatient for a warmer sun;
And though the distant Hills are bleak and dun,
The virgin snowdrop, like a lambent fire,
Pierces the cold earth with its' green-streaked spire
And in dark Woods, the wandering little one
May find a Primrose.


Samuel Coleridge so wanted to give his children a childhood filled with the joys of nature, he wnted his son Hartley to become a true child of nature. This is evident particularly in his lovely poem 'Frost at Midnight' considered to be one of the finest of the Conversational poems.
It would seem from the verse above that his son did see the beauty in the world around him.

The Cumbrian hills

The lovely Lake District, home to the Coleridge family

The Cumbrian Hills look bare but you might find snowdrops nestled there