Jesus at the Home of Martha and Maryby Harold Copping (1927) July 29th is the feast day of St Martha. Martha was the sister of Mary of Bethany and Lazarus. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus visits the house of the two sisters. Mary sits and listens to the teachings of Jesus, but Martha 'was… Continue reading The Daily: 29 July 2023
The Daily: 25 July 2023
The Romans had concerns about drought at this time of year. Three very old festivals were grouped together at the end of July to honor deities who presided over watery things. The first was the Lucaria, the clearing of the groves. This was an ancient observance even in Varro's time (116-27 BCE), and little is… Continue reading The Daily: 25 July 2023
The Daily: 24 July 2023
I took large chunks of the weekend — in which I could not do much vigorous work outside for all the Canadian smoke and could not write much for all the bugs in this machine — to clean up my house. (I think it's actually not this machine but something iCloud-derived because it's affecting my… Continue reading The Daily: 24 July 2023
The Daily: 21 July 2023
The Daily: 20 July 2023
This is a short, but irate, outburst. Apologies for the language... For a very long time I have been irritated at the word sacrifice used to describe what we have to stop doing in order to survive. It is an utterly appalling misuse of language and ideas. What is a sacrifice? What does that mean?… Continue reading The Daily: 20 July 2023
The Daily: 19 July 2023
Tuesday morning there was brown fog. Is is still smog when the smoke is from wildfires that are burning hundreds of miles away? Do we need a new term for foreign smoke and local fog blanketing a largely rural region? I looked out over the valley and couldn't see more than a couple blocks. It… Continue reading The Daily: 19 July 2023
The Daily: 18 July 2023
Yesterday, the Strawberry Moon went dark at 2:32 in the afternoon. So today begins the Hay Moon. I'm not sure how much hay-making we'll be doing in New England. Apart from the storms of the past week, it's been wet since early June, and before that it was very dry and very cold. In the… Continue reading The Daily: 18 July 2023
The Daily: 17 July 2023
Well, it was a disastrous week in the garden. No, not the weather. The rain harried the daisies and left the potatoes prostrate, but that happens every year to no effect except dishevelment. The rain hasn't even bothered the herb bed too much, though none of those plants like humidity and wet feet. No, the… Continue reading The Daily: 17 July 2023
The Daily: 15 July 2023
St Swithin's Day St Swithin's day, if thou dost rain, For forty days it will remain; St Swithin's day, if thou be fair, For forty days 'twill rain na mair. I've heard it said that great strawberries hardly ever happen in Vermont. I even know a guy who used to drive to the north border… Continue reading The Daily: 15 July 2023
The Daily: 14 July 2023
Having water destroy much of the state you live in —taking not the biblical 40 days to wreak havoc, but something like 8 hours — makes one rather conscious of adaptions that might be made to one's living arrangements. It's not good enough to clean up the mess and put it all back how it… Continue reading The Daily: 14 July 2023
