Winter Weeds?

 

Despite the title, this is not another gardening post. There is an old English expression, "winter-gewēode" which I found in my Word Hord book. It means winter weeds and refers to the clothes worn in winter time. As a child, I remember people using the expression widow's weeds, when a woman wore black clothes following the death of her husband. 

It seemed strange- why were these clothes weedy? As I learned from Hana Videen's book, there are two very similar words in Old English...

wǣd [pronouned wadd] meaning clothing, and

wēod [pronounced way-dd] a useless plant or weed

The term winter-weeds  was around at the time of the Battle of Hastings [but widow's weeds are not recorded until around 500 years later, in the Middle English Old Testament, Genesis 38;14]
It is the first of October, and the nights are getting longer, the weather is getting cooler - so I shall sort out my wardrobe - lighter summer dresses will be put away, warm woollen skirts unpacked. This system has worked well for me for many years - and it is a good opportunity to cull the clothes.

There are some summer garments I have not worn since retiring, and they will be sent off to the CS if they are saleable, recycled if not. And the wonderful vacpac bags will compress the remainder. 

The downsizing/decluttering continues.

And I am not sure that I have really regretted getting rid of anything yet - although I did say to Bob that I might have used my Palm Tree in the Nativity Tableau. Then I realised I couldn't have put it in the stable, and it is not weatherproof or strong enough to stand outside! The October page on my calendar is definitely an encouragement in this respect.

So today will definitely be a day for weeding out my wardrobe.

Or as the Old English would put it
Time to wēod out the wǣds