The Ides of April.

I learned something new this morning (see it is possible, Jeff!). Today is the Ides of April. I thought it only applied to March. Apparently in the Roman calendar it meant the approximate middle of the month. It is the 15th day in March, May, July and October but the 13th day in the remaining eight months. In case you haven’t caught up yet, the Roman calendar was replaced by the Julian Calendar in 46 BC. The last day of the Julian calendar was Thursday 4 October 1582 and this was followed by the first day of the Gregorian calendar, Friday 15 October 1582 . Not wanting to appear Roman Catholic or taking orders from them, the British Empire (including the eastern part of what is now the US) did not adopt the Gregorian calendar until 1752.What does ides mean? It comes from the latin word for half division. I always think of the term as a metaphor for impending doom thanks to Shakespeare. According to Will, the Ides of March is the date that Julius Caesar was assassinated on in 44 BC.

Today, no sense of impending doom! Lynn is arriving in London and some of the Woo Hoo’s are about to begin a mosaic adventure in Venice!