June 2016

No matter how balmy early May can be, the wise wait until three Saints days have passed before planting out the balcony flowers. Saint Pancreas, beheaded for his faith at the age of fourteen and honoured with sainthood and a London railway terminus, Saint Servatius, Dutch saint thought to be a cousin of John the Baptist who baptised Attila the Hun, and Saint Mamertus, who introduced prayers to ward off earthquakes and other natural disasters, are collectively known as the Ice Saints or Eismänner, and their days bring cold weather and the last frost of the year. Those days are done and dusted and Maria Alm's balconies are blooming once again.