Living In the World, Not on It

On 1 December I posted the Old Farmer's Almanac information and other fun tidbits for this month. If you read it, you may recall that I described the Ember Days that come up four times a year, predicated on specific Roman Catholic holy days. Today is the first Ember Day in December, and by folklore, determines the overall weather in January. Here is a reminder of the Ember Days and how they work: Ember Days: The four periods formerly observed by the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches for prayer, fasting, and the ordination of clergy are called Ember Days. Specifically, these are the Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays the follow in succession following (1) the First Sunday in Lent; (2) Whitsunday - Pentecost; (3) the Feast of the Holy Cross, September 14; and (4) the Feast of St. Lucia, December 13. The word ember is perhaps a corruption of the Latin quatuor tempora , "four times." Folklore has it that the weather on each of the three days foretells th...

The Blue Memory Meme, Part Two Welcome back to Sunday Stealing which originated on WTIT: The Blog authored by Bud Weiser. Here we will steal all types of memes from every corner of the blogosphere. Our promise to you is that we will work hard to find the most interesting and intelligent memes. You may have heard of the expression, “honor amongst thieves”. In that age-old tradition, we also have our rules. First, we always credit the blog that we stole it from and we will “fess up” to the blog owner where we stole the meme. We also provide a link to the victim's post. (It's our way of saying "Thanks!") We do sometimes edit the original meme, usually to make it more relevant to our global players, to challenge our players, sometimes to select that meme's best questions, or simply to make it less repetitive from either this new meme or recently asked questions from a prior featured meme. Let's go!!! Today we ripped off a blogger and...

...the 2012 Old Farmer's Almanac! YAY! I always love getting the newest Old Farmer's Almanac, to get the astronomical outlook for the new year and read the articles. I love it. I rely heavily on the almanac for Moon times, astronomy, seasonal changes and other tidbits. I also collect them and have them going back to the early 1800s. This one did not disappoint. The main article this year for astronomy is The Sky is Falling (and this is a good year to catch it) . It covers a few things, not the least of which is the Mayan New Year, which occurs on the winter Solstice and is above all a positive thing. I just don't know where everyone gets this doom and gloom prediction of the world, but it is amusing, none-the-less. However, the Mayan calendar hasn't anything to do with the end of the world or Armageddon. I find people who believe in this crap rather stupid (and if you'd seen the number of posts that mentioned that following yesterday's earthquake, we...

It started just like all my days do. Get up in pain, get a bagel, take meds, take nap, feel much better. Not terribly exciting, is it? Especially the initial waking. But it got much more interesting in rather short order. I was wide awake and doing various things online, when suddenly both cats jumped up, gave a weird undulating sound - I've never heard a living thing make such a strange sound - and disappeared downstairs like bats outta Hell! It was bizarre. I didn't have a lot of time to really contemplate what that was all about, because moment later the couch was suddenly gently shaking from side to side. I was struck silent, listening for any outside sounds - a truck rolling by, a low-flying plane, but it was still - that eerie stillness that could only mean an earthquake. I looked over to see the hanging chair swaying and in a clear container Luis left out with red soda in it, there were constant ripples - and I began timing the quake. I knew I'd go on line to ...

I thought it would be fun and interesting to see what the Old Farmer's Almanac of 1911 had to say for the month of July. I regret that I haven't a copy of the 1811 Old Farmer's Almanac - the earliest I have is 1814. But this is still a work in progress... (I really, really, REALLY want to find them from the 1700s but not only have I not seen any - not even a replica - I suspect that for the worst-condition copy it will still be prohibitively expensive. That is just how this works!) OK, so here it is: Farmer's Calendar "Remember to continue the succession plantings in the garden. Carry out your plans to sow a cover crop as soon as possible after any field is cleared. Cover crops conserve or accumulate nitrogen, keep down weeds, prevent erosion and the humus supplied will help the lighter soils to retain moisture. Go about through your fields and commune with your crops. What makes the corn in this part of the field yellow? Why has it been found so difficult to keep ...

This week’s set of questions is all about what you wear, or in some cases, what you’re not wearing. How’s that for an opening line? I hope you enjoy this week’s set of questions. One other important note: if you didn’t join in last week, you might have missed the fact that commenting is a little different this month. Check out this post for details about Livefyre. Be sure to check back this week and click on the links of bloggers who play along in the comments below! It’s a great way to find blogs you may not have visited and to keep the conversation going! Here are this week’s “Saturday Six” questions. Either answer the questions in a comment here, or put the answers in an entry on your blog… But don’t forget to leave a link to your blog so that everyone else can visit! Permission is not granted to copy the questions to message boards for the purpose of having members answer and play along there. Enjoy! 1. What are you most often wearing when you’re at home in front ...

This was supposed to be posted 1 June, as it is from June's Farmer's Almanac calendar pages. Yes, the right-hand most column. Here it is: 'In 1627, John Donne, one of the great poets of our language, reflected on the miraculous in the everyday. We experience the world around us, Donne observed, as made up of mundane occurrences that we hardly notice but which, if they were rare, would be accounted prodigies. "Nay, the ordinary things in Nature would be greater miracles than the extraordinary, which we admire most, if they were done but once." 'How many events of a June afternoon bear him out? The sky darkens, thunder sounds, rain arrives, passes. A rainbow appears in the east, a vast shimmering arch of light above the valley. We pause to enjoy it, we don't fail to notice it; but then we go on about our business. We've seen rainbows before. If that rainbow were the only rainbow, if it "were done but once," we would be astonished. 'As the s...

We were supposed to get 10" - 14" of snow. Then we were supposed to get 8" - 12" of snow. Then it became 6" - 10". When I woke up at 0300, there was not a stitch of snow anywhere. When I woke up again at 0730, there was still not a stitch of snow. Not even a dusting. The forecast reads under a half inch of snow. I guess nothing counts as "under a half inch of snow". I hate weathermen. All that excitement, all those forecasts of snow, and NOTHING happened. Not that it is that wonderful to have snow, but despite the work and inconvenience of snow removal, it is so much prettier than the dull, monochromatic landscape that is the winter look. Snow would have hidden all the ugly browns and tan, dormant grass. Now we still have the same boring look. I'm crushed.

I know that the Perseids are an annual event and I can live with that. This means that should I live to be 98 and I am hale and hearty most of it, I have 75 shots to see it as an "adult" and several more as a child old enough to recall the magic and wonder of it. And if you live in the right place, you'll likely see it every year. Unless you are stymied by, of all things, the weather. This season has been exceptional in its ability to occlude more often than not a perfectly wonderful, clear sky. I've missed more full Moon views than not thanks to this delightfully cool, wet, overcast garbage and that I get 29 different times a year to see this! The crescent Moon has only been visible to me a couple of times since the spring. This month I managed one set of the Full Moon, and the days following - maybe three days - and since then, nothing. The Moon right now is just a blob of white light, not even defined enough to be round, through the thick haze. Once again, crushed...

Early dawn. Late sunset. Long day. Short night. For us in the northern hemisphere, the June solstice marks the longest day of the year. It’s your signal to celebrate the first day of summer in this hemisphere. South of the equator, winter begins. When is the solstice where I live? The solstice happens at the same instant for all of us, everywhere on Earth. But our clocks say different times. This solstice takes place on Sunday, June 21, 2009 at 5:46 Universal Time . To find the time of the solstice in your location, you have to translate to your time zone. Here’s an example of how to do that. In the central United States, for those of us using Central Daylight Time, we subtract 5 hours from Universal Time. That how we get 0:46 (12:46 a.m.) Central Daylight Time as the time of the 2009 June solstice. Want to know the time in your location? Check out EarthSky’s article How do I translate Universal Time into my time? . And just remember: you’re translating from 5:46 Universal Time, Sunday...

Hi everybody! Some of you were wondering what happened to me last year when the trail reports stopped suddenly. Of course, everything was ultimately fine, but after hiking another 100 miles or so and coming to within 180 miles of my finish point, I started to have a physical problem and felt it was the better part of wisdom to exit the trail for the season. Good timing, because the next week it dumped the first load of snow for the season in Northern California! So here I am, back on the trail this spring, hoping to make it from the Mexican border to Kennedy Meadows (my starting point last year). That's 709 miles. Up in Northern California, I still have the last 180 miles left to hike, then I'll have finished the whole Pacific Crest Trail. I'm still deciding how I'm going to celebrate. Oh, and there WILL be celebrating. Much celebrating. Miles hiked so far: 120 Days hiked: 10 On May 11, my sister-in-law Kim and I made our way to Campo, CA. San Diego trail angels drove u...

April 02, 2009 3x Thursday: 04/02/y2k+9: Stress & Anxiety 1. Everyone has *some* stress, but do you ever get overly anxious about things? Is it enough to be a problem? If it is, have you done something about it? Oddly enough, I seem to work best doing things at the last moment. Isn't that weird? I don't try to figure it out any longer. I just recognise it for what it is and go for the ride. 2. What is your biggest stressor? How come? Oh, my. Too many factors contribute to this. I can't honestly answer that. 3. What kinds of things do you do to destress? Read. Lay in the hammock. Listen to music. Lots of things. March 26, 2009 3x Thursday: 03/26/y2k+9: How Are Ya? 1. How are you doing today? Is it a Good Day, A Bad Day, or an Indifferent Day? Why? I'm okay; the work day was great and very satisfying but my back has been awful today and the torturous visit to the dentist which has left my head and mouth aching (not his fault) hasn't made it a banner day physically...