The Daily: 27 April 2026

Central Vermont has been experiencing spring weather whiplash. This is what my garden looked like last Sunday (the 21st). We got over three-quarters of an inch of precipitation, nearly all snow, though it melted within the day. The Thursday before this Sunday snowstorm, it was 74°F and very humid. Thursday night into Friday morning, a… Continue reading The Daily: 27 April 2026

The Daily: 26 April 2026

Floralia Cosiddetta Flora from the Villa di Arianna in Stabiae near Pompeii, 1st century Roman fresco The festival of Floralia is a very old holiday. It honors Flora, the Roman idea of fertility that is embodied in spring flowers. Flora is one of the oldest deities in the Roman pantheon. She is older than Rome,… Continue reading The Daily: 26 April 2026

The Daily: 25 April 2026

Don't plant on this day or your horse will die... so says the Old Farmer's Almanac... I don't have a horse, so maybe it's safe to plant my carrots today. A Red-Letter Day April 25th is a complicated date. It is St Mark’s Day, which is honored with a wide variety of celebrations; and it… Continue reading The Daily: 25 April 2026

The Daily: 23 April 2026

April 23rd is St George's Feast Day, though in the Church of England it is moved until Monday when the 23rd falls between Palm Sunday and the Sunday after Easter. I find that all too complicated to track, so I just stick to the 23rd. I don't celebrate Easter, so there's no reason for me… Continue reading The Daily: 23 April 2026

The Daily: 22 April 2026

Earth Day Today is Earth Day. Would that that actually meant something... Earth Day was created in 1970 as a direct political challenge. Wisconsin’s Senator Gaylord Nelson wanted the US government to do what government is supposed to do — protect its people and lands from rapacious business. He created Earth Day and organized the first demonstrations… Continue reading The Daily: 22 April 2026

The Daily: 18 April 2026

The Sap Moon went dark yesterday at 7:52am. Today begins the Greening Moon. I have not written much about this lunation. Usually I am very busy in April because of Poetry Month with its various poetry readings and, to a lesser extent, because the garden is becoming demanding during this moon of leafing out. I'm… Continue reading The Daily: 18 April 2026

The Daily: 15 April 2026

In light of Trump's Good Friday lunch speech in which he declared that the federal government "can't do child care" and all these "individual things" like Medicare and health care, in which he explicitly said that the only thing the feds should be funding is the military, I decided to take him up on that...… Continue reading The Daily: 15 April 2026

The Daily: 13 April 2026

Winter has somewhat relented. The snow is gone. We've had showers of just plain rain, not snow or sleet, and several days with the sun shining. At least for a few hours. But it is not warm. Sunday morning the weather forecast was for 60s (°F) and rain; we woke to 27°F and weak sunlight… Continue reading The Daily: 13 April 2026