Born of the Ides of March

In Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar the title protagonist is warned by a soothsayer to ‘beware the ides of march’ on his way to the senate, prior to his assassination by his conspirators including Brutus. (Julius Caesar Act 1, scene 2, 15–19)
The Ides of March is really not a ‘bad luck’ day save for perhaps Caesar. Based on the Roman calendar, months were organized around three days. Each of these days served as a reference point for counting the other days. Kalends was the first day of the month. Nones was either the seventh or fifth day; Ides either the 15th or the 13th, depending whether it was March, May, July and October or another month.
So conversations would go something like: Do you have any plans two days after the Ides of March? We are traveling the day before Kalends of May.

The Ides of March falls on my father-in-laws birthday. As an activity to involve his grandchildren we made handprint art. My ten months old niece was the first to add her red hand print. This took two adults and was not captured on film. After her print dried we did Gman’s print. He was able to artistically add his prints conscious of his little cousin’s prints. Finally a few days later Sir S. made his final mark. I asked him to pay attention to the overall look of the art work and to overlap, or not, as he saw fit.

I think the overall effect is wonderful. A bit of my own exquisite corpse! Now if only I could beam these to Florida instantaneously. Happy Birthday Zadie!