Salty Sam’s Fun Blog for Children
Number 574
St Valentine
Hello Everyone
Well, we all know that it is St Valentine’s Day tomorrow.
And we know that it is a time when people think of romance and celebrate it.
They send cards – sometimes anonymously (that means they don’t sign them) and the person getting the card has to guess who sent it.
lf you want to send a card or even more than one, you had better get it/them in the post quickly, or, to be on the same side, deliver it/them yourself tomorrow.
People give romantic presents like flowers and chocolates.
They have romantic, candlelight dinners with their sweetheart.
Why pick the 14th February to do this?
Well, apparently it is said in folklore dating back hundreds of years that it is this time of year that birds choose a mate. Then they will bring up a family with them over the following summer. Some birds mate for life, and some for only a season.
Also it was the date St Valentine died, right back in the 3rd century.
People have been celebrating St Valentine’s Day from as far back as the Middle Ages – up until the present day.
But who is – or was St Valentine?
He is the patron saint of lovers and also beekeepers – as declared by the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church has lots of Saint Days and St Valentine’s Day is on 14th February in Christianity in the West (and 6th July in Eastern Orthodoxy).
There doesn’t seem to be much hard, reliable, historical information about him; his story comes from accounts that have been retold down through the centuries and have maybe become a little confused in all of that time.
There are two stories about who he was.
So we could be talking about two people who have merged into one fable about one person with the name Valentine – or two versions of what happened to one person.
One legend tells us that St Valentine was a priest who was killed for his faith in Rome during the persecution of Christians by the Roman emperor Claudius ll Gothicus in about 270.
Pope Julius l then built a large and important church called a basilica over Valentine’s grave as recognition for his martyrdom. He was then known as St Valentine of Rome.
The second legend says he was the bishop of Terni, a town in ltaly, and he became a martyr for his faith; he was also killed in Rome. He is now held as the saint of Terni.
But where does the romance come into all of this? l hear you ask.
Well, there is another part of the story to tell.
According to one legend, St Valentine signed a letter ‘from your Valentine’ to the daughter of his gaoler. He had healed her from blindness and become her friend.
And according to another legend, in his capacity as a churchman he secretly married couples in defiance of the emperor’s orders in order to spare the husband from going to war.
ln 1969, the Roman Catholic Church removed his name from the General Roman Calendar because of lack of historical details available. This calendar lists celebrations of the saints.
But the Catholic Church still recognizes him as a saint, and so do other Christian churches that recognize saints as part of their belief system.
But Valentine’s Day for everyone else can be exactly what they want it to be.
l hear Captain Jack is going to give Auntie Alice a box of chocolates tomorrow.
She does like chocolate.
Bye bye everyone – don’t forget to subscribe to my blog!
Love and kisses
Salty Sam
www.christina-sinclair.com
Bill and Bob’s Joke of the Week
Bob: l ordered a book online called Post Office Efficiency.
Bill: Where is it?
Bob: l don’t know, it got lost in the post.
Salty Sam © Christina Sinclair 2015
Unauthorized use and/or duplication of material from this blog without express and written permission from this blog’s author and owner is strictly prohibited.
Links may be used to www.christina-sinclair.com
Picture Gallery
Claudius II Gothicus
THE SALTY SAM NEWS DESK
This week, Bill and Bob’s dad started working on a new project.
As you will remember, he is now working in Rocky Bay as an accountant.
He is working with a new client (that is like a customer) who has bought a cottage in Rocky Bay and wants to turn it into a holiday cottage to rent out.
The owner lives a long way off, so Bill and Bob’s dad is keeping an eye on the builders who are doing it up, and the budget (an allocated amount of money) being used to do it up.
No small town or village ever wants to have a lot of the properties in it to be holiday homes because that means the heart of the community can seem quite hollow.
But Rocky Bay is a holiday destination, so it is no surprise that there are a few holiday cottages around in addition to the campsite and guesthouses.
Bill and Bob’s dad thought that he should start learning a bit more about investing money in property so that he would be in a better position to give advice to any people he helps.
In order to be successful at his job, and have other people have faith in his abilities, he needed to study the subject some more.
Whenever you want to get good at something,
the first thing to do is to learn about it
before you get started.
There has never been a better time to learn.
There is so much opportunity to learn from the Internet as well as books and courses.
*********************
*********************
Quick Quiz
Do you know what these words and phrases mean?
- to hold a trump card
- a house of cards
- the cards are stacked against you/in your favour
- the hand you have been dealt
- the way the cards fall
- game for anything
- to play your cards right
- to keep something up your sleeve
- not playing with a full deck
- a poker face
lt’s the Weekend!
HOW TO MAKE A LlTTLE MUSHROOM FARM
I taught you how to make a mini mushroom farm in Blog Post 142.
If you had some success growing button mushrooms, you may want to try growing some new varieties.
Here is how you do it.
You will need to buy some mycelium.
This is like seeds for mushrooms and it is sold in packs – actually it contained in short sticks called dowels.
You will need some freshly cut logs 2-3 weeks old. They probably need to be about as tall as you are.
Get an adult to drill holes in them.
Shiitaki mushrooms prefer their logs to be lain flat on the ground, whereas the oyster mushrooms like their logs to be standing up. So you have better find a secure corner where the logs can be left undisturbed by strong winds and won’t get in anyone’s way.
Push the dowels into the holes and seal the holes with wax. This is easy for little fingers to do.
Then you have to be very patient because you will not get a crop for another six months.
However, the good news is that you should get more crops over the next six years.
Please note that the material on this blog is for personal use and for use in classrooms only.
It is a copyright infringement and, therefore, illegal under international law to sell items made with these patterns.
Use of the toys and projects is at your own risk.
©Christina Sinclair Designs 2015
Quick Quiz Answers
- to hold a trump card – you hold an advantage over someone else somehow
- a house of cards – something with a weak and unstable structure
- the cards are stacked against you/in your favour – you seem to be in a bad position or a good position
- the hand you have been dealt – what fate has given you
- the way the cards fall – the way things turn out
- game for anything – someone who will take risks and have the courage to try new things
- to play your cards right – to make sensible decisions
- to keep something up your sleeve – know that you own something or know something that could help you out but you don’t tell anyone else about it
- not playing with a full deck – mentally deficient
- a poker face – keeping a straight face so that other people don’t know what you are thinking or feeling
