Fourth installment of notes supplied by Patrick Duffy in 1994:

‘Sow your oats [Avena sativa] before the cuckoo sings or it will grow stunted, and thereby known as ”cuckoo oats”.

Sow your potato [Solanum tuberosum] seed on Good Friday, and this measure will ensure a good return.

Don’t cut your meadows before 9 July.

The four-leaf clover [Trifolium sp.?] is a tiny plant that is said to have a date with destiny.  To find it and pluck it from the ground is said to be a lucky omen,  Place it under your pillow and sleep on it and the future will be revealed to you in a dream.

The cowslip [Primula veris] in ancient times was used in an omen to extract butter from your neighbour’s churn.  The procedure adopted here was  to set out on May Morning en route to a point where three townlands meet.  You must take along a pail, and on reaching that spot drop three cowslips on to its bottom, and, while doing so, utter a plea to some unknown spirit, for to have the butter from your neighbour’s churns transferred to your own.  There were people around in the not so distant past who would swear that this feat was possible.’

Image: cowslip, Corfe Castle, Dorset, May 2016.

7 December 2025