The Daily: 14 May 2024

Last week I finally got my car's oil changed. This is not quite the imperative that it is for a full gasoline engine, but it's still necessary. I do have to use the gas engine now and again, and I assume the electric engine uses oil for... something, I'm sure, since full electric cars seem… Continue reading The Daily: 14 May 2024

The Daily: 12 May 2024

In my garden planner, I have ambitiously scribbled "plant summer squash, cukes, melons, and spinach". Now that the day is here, I am reluctant to follow my schedule. It is not freezing, and it is raining — both good for germination — but it's not warm enough for cucurbit seeds to break dormancy. This family… Continue reading The Daily: 12 May 2024

The Daily: 7 May 2024

The Greenleaf Moon Goes Dark Tomorrow begins the Flower Moon. There are actually flowers in my garden this year. In New Mexico, early May (and therefore Floralia and May Day) fell in a rather flowerless pause between the bulbs and the main bloom season. There were apple blossoms and sometimes roses, but not much else… Continue reading The Daily: 7 May 2024

The Daily: 6 May 2024

We have passed May Day. In traditional northern cultures this is summer. Tomorrow, the Greenleaf Moon goes dark. The Flower Moon will be a new crescent on Wednesday. The year is rolling on. But, though the days are over fourteen hours long, here in Vermont we are just now enjoying spring. We've had two solid… Continue reading The Daily: 6 May 2024

The Daily: 5 May 2024

Cinco de Mayo The problem? How do you mark this day? Most years, I don’t. I’m not Hispanic. My best friend growing up was from Chiapas, and there were complicated feelings about Mexico related to that. I never thought there was much to celebrate. We learned in grade school that it’s a commemoration of a… Continue reading The Daily: 5 May 2024

The Daily: 4 May 2024

Come, now a roundel by Arthur Rackham (1908) the thorn path she made her feathered nest in the tangled boughs of oak, ash, thorn and found mushroom echoes of moonbeams she delved for essence among the hawthorn roots and brought woven certainty to light she entered the ring where faeries are dancing and knew the… Continue reading The Daily: 4 May 2024

The Daily: 2 May 2024

Because of the emphasis luni-solar calendars place on the eve of the day, today, May 2nd, is sometimes named May Day. More properly it is named Bealtaine — the later holiday for organized (ie paid) labor, May Day, is fixed to the first of the month in keeping with labor time rules. But Bealtaine is… Continue reading The Daily: 2 May 2024

The Daily: 1 May 2024

the thorn queen she waxes full in fertile grace queen of quick and fay, she reigns in mantle green and seemly face quelling fear and mortal pains eternal mother, ever maid undying wisdom in her glance deathless weird is on her laid to spin th' unceasing wheel of chance again, she comes in crown of… Continue reading The Daily: 1 May 2024