Born March 02
March 2 is a great enthusiast. Magazines and newspapers litter this creature’s home. There are books on do-it-yourself, cookery, bird spotting, winemaking kits under the stairs and a half made rug tucked beneath the bed. Like water-boatmen, these darling bugs of March skim enthusiastically across the liquid surface of the night in search of new ideas, only to be put off by other more rapacious and frightening stars. The busy waterboatman or woman, (Notonectidae) with its ever-flailing, oarlike hindlegs, sometimes feels it’s putting in a huge amount of effort for nothing. And it’s true. March 2 does tend to go about things the slow way, fixing everything by hand when it could use the machine. Theirs is an unsullied belief that the woven thread fresh from a sheep’s back makes a nicer sweater than any shop bought, chemically dyed wool. Worldlier stars, without March 2’s quaint rose-tinted spectacles, understand this is not the case and somehow manage to do everything faster and more prettily. And make March 2 look foolish. At least that’s what this sensitive creature thinks. Faithful to all the old ways, March 2 frequently attaches him or herself to a boss or even admired friend and follows everything they do like a faithful shadow. Even as far as adopting their tastes and mimicking their speech. To some this is flattering, but this creature doesn’t understand what a fantastically embarrassing burden it can be for others. Naturally they do brilliantly as aides-de-camp, the man or woman in the shadow behind the great one, but only if the great one has a sense of self-discernment, because March 2 lacks the critical faculty and can’t warn when a personal idiosyncrasy has become risible. What saves them is their quiet and private wit. But they are happiest living a peaceable life, without undue competition, raising a family, or living perfectly serenely alone with time to attend to whichever hobby is taking their fancy that particular year.
Body
Practical March 2 prefers plants in the garden which have two functions: good to eat and attractive, effective hedging and aromatic, alluring to butterflies and easy to cut. Violas, pansies and nasturtiums, whose flowers are all edible can be decorative in the front of a border. As can marjoram’s golden leaves and dusty pink flowers, chives, with their edible pink purple flowers, borage -for summer drinks – with its stamened, blue flowers and winter savoury with its mauve blooms and leaves for stews, salads and fish. Not forgetting, of course, solid orange marigold whose petals spice up salads and which conveniently self-sows each year.
Mind
Superstitious March rarely walks under a ladder, but should also beware of other harbingers of ill luck. These include the unlucky giving of gloves to a friend and the fastening of a button into the wrong buttonhole, a bad omen.
