8th August
St Lide’s Day
Source: coolplaces.co.uk
Today is St Lide’s Day. Lide was an eleventh century hermit who lived on the Isles of Scilly and gave an expanded and cross-gender version of his name to the island known as St Helen’s. This rather strange transformation probably arose from the fact that Lide itself is likely to have been an abbreviation of the saint’s full name, Elidius - which is still a stretch but not as great a one as the Elid/Helen original. St Helen’s Chapel was a place of pilgrimage in the Middle Ages and pirates were warned off attacking the island by Lide’s threat of instant excommunication. The Scilly Isles are also said to be the remnants of the mountains of Lyonesse, the mythical realm once ruled by King Arthur and long since sunk under the waves of the English Channel.
Apparently A rainy August/ Makes hard bread crust, whereas Dry August and warm/ Doth harvest no harm. Also a thunderstorm in early August means they will be commonplace for the rest of the month.