Mrs Finnegan’s Almanac: You’ll be Surprised What a Few Cloves Can Do

Onion skins, very thin. 
Mild winter coming in; 
Onion skin is thick and tough. 
Coming winter, cold and rough. 

An Old English rhyme.

Winning the Battle Against Bedbugs

A housekeeper of my acquaintance – I name no names – has a certain standard of cleanliness that is truly next to godliness. It passes all understanding and is seldom seen.

I doubt if I could interest her in these effective bed bugs remedies, but I TRUST you will find them useful as they are still SO energetic
They don’t like the smell of…
Lavender and mint. Use lavender soap when you WASH bed linen and have springs of fresh & dried lavender in all your drawers. CRUSH mint leaves and sprinkle them into all the crack and crevices you can find in the bedroom walls. Like us, they only go to bed at night time. Day time they hide away in those CRACKS, probably having a nice nap.
How to Recognise a BED bug from all other bugs

It is not enough to DETER, you must also kill.
Cloves will do them serious harm so strew wherever you can. Follow with a DEADLY liquid made from mixing one teaspoon each of cayenne pepper, ginger (ground as fine as you can) and oregano oil to two pints of water.
Use it to WASH the walls, floor and the furniture. Wring out a cloth and wipe the mattress cover down.
May I REMIND you that, although they may not irritate in the winter, they have not died. They are simply resting, ready to feast again as soon as the warm weather returns and you, dear reader, are the entrée.

Saint of the Week

St Francis Borgia Feast Day October 10th Patron of earthquakes and Portugal

You might not think it looking at the picture, but you’ll get a nice, comfortable GLOW from this saint – no stench of burning martyr here or hermit shack.
Francis was a nice man with a nice wife and eight nice children. He was also a Duke and a Spanish GRANDEE which I expect helped provide him with a nice life.
All that changed when his wife died though.
He gave up his dukedom to become a Jesuit priest and at the age of 41 he was SCRUBBING kitchen floors and serving food to his fellow priests on HIS knees because his superior didn’t want him putting oh airs and graces. (Sound man, that’s EXACTLY what I would have done.)
Not that St Francis was like that.
He hid from the Pope when he wanted to make him a cardinal.
Mind you, he COULDN’T hide from everything and became Superior General of the Jesuits later on so breeding (and connections) will out.
And yes, he is one of THOSE Borgias but I don’t think we should MENTION that. None of us can help our family.

A bargain to be had….

If you are in need of a new collar to set off an old dress this is the place to go. By the by, a habit shirt is worn under a riding habit. It comes down no lower than under a ladies chest and sometimes doesn’t even have sleeves, but only what can be observed peeking out from a well-cut riding jacket.
If you should venture to Hayward’s Establishment at East Cliff you might mention my name.

October – a mis-named month

You are an extraordinary erudite collection of followers – proof of the improving nature of Almanac reading – so I assume you are ALREADY aware that October means the 8th month. I also assume you find it as irritating as I do myself because, of course, it is in reality the 10th month. But HOW did such a mistake come about?
It was all because the Romans only had 10 months.

Martius, Aprilis, Maius, Iunius, Quintilis, Sextilis, September, October, November, and December

It had to change, they simply hadn’t allowed for enough days. but somehow the names of the last three months stuck.
The Saxons had a much BETTER name for October. Theirs was Wyn Monath, which translates into wine month and sounds very agreeable.

Improve your Vocabulary One Word at a Time

This useful word describes my habitual state with great CLARITY.
Foreswink (or foreswunk if you’re talking about the past) means to be totally exhausted by hard work

This could be me – falling sleep over my almanac research

Mrs Finnegan is NOT ONLY a consummate Author of Almanacs, but also the housekeeper
at The Regency Town House in HOVE. That fine establishment is holding a truly chilling
Halloween event this year on October 28

Far scarier than anything you will find in a book…

Proceedings start with a glass of wine (to steady the nerves) in the housekeeper’s room. It is POSSIBLE you will MEET Mrs Finnegan there…or someone who looks very like her…
Investigate further
at your OWN RISK by
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