As I have mentioned on more than one occasion I learned more about the periodical mood cycles from the nuns’s behavior than I did from any biology book. The phases of the moon were like the faces of the nuns. Some had more craters than others but they were all lunatics.
I never looked at a calendar but knew by the successive blooming of the crocuses, tulips and so on just how close I was to freedom. The sunflowers would be twice my height and I would jump up and punch them for they meant back to school. The sunsets and sunrises were endpoints as were sure indicators as the streetlights.