July 15 - Day 95 - St Swithin’s day, if thou dost rain, For forty days it will remain. St Swithin’s day, if thou be fair For forty days ‘twill rain no more’.

Given it is St Swithin’s Day today, when I saw the black clouds this morning most of the way to work, I was very glad that there are no scientific or historic evidence to suggest the saying has ever been right. Now that it has been sunny all day, I sort of hope this will be the exception and we will now have 40 days of sunny weather.

Anyway, back to St Swithin, as the story linked to the saying is at least an interesting one. He requested that he be buried in the grounds of Winchester Cathedral, ‘where the sweet rain of heaven may fall upon my grave’ instead of inside, as was the custom for Bishops. When he died c862, he was, therefore, buried in the cathedral’s garden. The story goes on to explain that over a century later, Aetholwold decided that Swithin should have a shrine inside the cathedral. When the ceremony was held on July 15th to mark this, it was said that violent rainstorms broke out lasting 40 days. There is a memorial to St Swithin in Winchester cathedral but his shrine was destroyed during the Reformation, which might just indicate Swithin had the last laugh about his request - so to speak.

40 days from today (if they happen to be Monday to Friday) would mean I only have 15 days or three weeks of the challenge remaining. But then again, if I’d listened to advice about only doing 3 weeks, I’d have finished 80 days ago. For now, I’ll just keep cycling - whether rain or fair.