Category Archives: Book of Days Calendar

Sep 01 2026
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Autumn, Book of Days Calendar

Angels & Michaelmas, or Your Book of Days for September

With August’s passing we enter into the first of the months named for numerals: September. Sept, for seven, for it once was the seventh month of the year. What follows is October, named for eight, November, named for nine, and December, named for ten. Which was all well and good for a long time, but we have twelve months in our year now. Things don’t mean what they once did, but that can be said about a lot of things, no?

These months are also known as Ember Months, which I like. One etymological theory is they are called Ember Months for they end mostly with “-ember,” though October is a bit of a stretch… but still, you can sense the “emberness” about it. And that, perhaps, dips into the other etymological theory of the Ember Months: Much like the embers that glow as a fire is going out, so the relationship to the closing months of the year, which are fast approaching.

All of this is difficult to fathom when the daily high temperatures are still in the 90s, but here in Lake Worth, at least, it’s lately no longer mid-90s, but low-90s, and sometimes it’s even in the 80s. Summer is not long for this world, and we get pretty happy here about that around this time of year. We are all a bit punch drunk on summer by now, those of us who live in this strange green land.

And so it is September and here is your Convivio Book of Days Calendar for the month. It is, as usual, a printable PDF, so you needn’t look at it just on a screen. You can print it out on paper and tack it to your bulletin board, to your refrigerator, to the cellar door. Our cover star this month is an 1895 painting by Benjamin Haughton. It’s called Michaelmas, which is the old celebration that comes near the end of the month: St. Michael’s Day, the Feast of St. Michael the Archangel. It opens a time of angelic pondering, for it’s not just Michael the Archangel we remember, but all angels. And angels exist in cultures around the globe. I always think of this day, too, as the start of a bridge that ends with October 2 and the Feast of the Guardian Angels. This transition from September to October is a good time, I think, to read books about angels (like this one, or perhaps this one), and to watch films about angels (like Wim Wender’s Wings of Desire), and to listen to music about angels (like Jane Siberry’s Calling All Angels––which, though it be her most famous song, hasn’t an official video). A good time, too, to meditate and ask who is your guardian angel. I did once, and the name Pedro was revealed to me. I think of Pedro whenever someone pulls in front of me as I’m driving, forcing me to slow down. The initial thought of course is to shake my fist and shout an expletive or two, but then I think, “No. Perhaps this is Pedro, keeping me from some unknown danger ahead.” A danger only my guardian angel knows. And if I think of it further, I nod an acknowledgment ahead. “Thank you for that grace. Thank you for keeping me well. Thank you for watching over me.”

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OPEN SHOP DAYS
Thank you to all who came to our Third Annual Bartlemas Wayzgoose two weekends ago and on Monday night, the 24th of August. It was a really wonderful time. Our first time opening the shop on a Monday and I was truly amazed at how many of you showed up. Thank you. It means a lot.

We’ve no set dates yet for our next open days at the shop, but certainly we need to hold an early Boo Bazaar for Hallowe’en shopping in September, and perhaps one in October, though you know things get crazy for us come October, as we set up our annual Convivio Bookworks pop-up shop at the German American Social Club in Miami for Oktoberfest Miami. We always have a grand time with our friends there! It’s the oldest Oktoberfest in the State of Florida: the 69th annual this year.

SEPTEMBER WRITERS’ WORKSHOP
There are just two seats left in our next workshop: True Stories Cleverly Told: Exploring Creative Nonfiction for Narrative, Essay, & Memoir with writer and literary agent Cricket Freeman, on Saturday September 19. Cricket is one of our favorite people in the literary world. She and I met several years ago at a weeklong writers’ workshop in Gainesville and Cross Creek, Florida, at the home of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, called “Writing the Region.” The experience of both the workshop and meeting Cricket transformed my writing. You will learn a lot! Cricket’s workshop is a full-day class that includes a delicious box lunch from one of our favorite local spots, Aioli in West Palm Beach. Class limit is 8 people; just 2 seats remain. If you love writing, I encourage you to do this.

 

Image: Michaelmas by Benjamin Haughton. Oil on canvas, 1895 [Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons].

 

 

Aug 01 2026
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Book of Days Calendar, Lammas

Sail Across the Water, or Your August Book of Days

Lammas greetings! It’s the First of August and Lammas, today, brings the first of the traditional harvest festival days to our late summer calendar. I’ve got news, too, which folks who love cooler days and nights will enjoy, and which folks who love summer will not: Lammas is our first indicator, too, that summer is waning. Lammas is a cross quarter day, a time of marked transition: we find ourselves about halfway now, in the Northern Hemisphere, between the Midsummer Solstice and the Autumnal Equinox. The days will continue to pass and the shift toward fall will be more and more obvious.

It is still very much summer here in Lake Worth, though, as it is on your Convivio Book of Days calendar for August, our gift to you this first day of the month. On this month’s calendar, three women are sailing across the water in a row boat in an 1883 oil painting by Finnish artist Albert Edelfelt. The calendar is, as usual, a printable PDF, so you may print it and tack it to your bulletin board or your refrigerator or the wooden door that leads to the staircase. CLICK HERE for the calendar.

Lammas each summer marks the first grain harvest of the year, and tradition from our agrarian past would have us bake a fresh loaf of bread today with the newly harvested grain. The name is, in fact, derived from “Loaf Mass.” The Celts call it Lughnasadh. And whether you bake it yourself or fetch it from a bakery, Lammas is, I think, a fine day for a crusty loaf. You might also consider a wee bit of warming whisky, another product of grain, and you might raise your glass to John Barleycorn, the Spirit of the Grain.

 

LATE SUMMER WORKSHOPS
I’m very excited about our two late summer workshops at the Bookworks! The first one coming up is a new Convivio Cookery workshop: Ricotta Gnocchi, set for Saturday August 15, 2026. (That’s my Grandma Assunta’s birthday and she would love that we are teaching you how to make homemade pasta that day!) This is not gnocchi served with ricotta, mind you: No, this is a recipe from Grandma’s friend, Adeline, that replaces the traditional potato dough with a dough that incorporates fresh ricotta. The result? A much lighter gnocchi. If you’ve ever eaten gnocchi and thought they felt like so many fishing weights in your belly, you’ll be pleased to know this is not the case with ricotta gnocchi. You’ll serve the gnocchi you make that evening with a quick marinara sauce (and we provide you with the recipe for that, too).

The second workshop, in September, is a writing workshop that I, for one, have already signed up for: True Stories Cleverly Told: Exploring Creative Nonfiction for Narrative, Essay, & Memoir with writer and literary agent Cricket Freeman, on Saturday September 19. Cricket is one of our favorite people in the literary world. You will learn a lot! The writing workshop is a full-day class that includes a delicious box lunch from one of our favorite local spots, Aioli in West Palm Beach. Class limit in each workshop is 8 people.

 

 

BARTLEMAS WAYZGOOSE 2026
Finally, I’ll ask you to mark your calendars for our 2026 Bartlemas Wayzgoose event. We’re planning on celebrating this year’s Goose on Saturday & Sunday, August 22 & 23, during the day from 11 to 4, and then on St. Bartholomew’s Day (Bartlemas), Monday, August 24, in the evening, from 5 to 9 PM. I know a Monday event is odd for us, but Bartlemas is the traditional Wayzgoose day, so I’d like to honor it… but I do have to work during the day. So, we’ll open up the shop for you that evening for Wayzgoose treats and a free print project (and the full weekend before Monday, too). You know how much we love a good obscure holiday!

 

 

Top Image: Kesä Saaristossa, or Summer in the Archipelago, by Albert Edelfelt. Oil on canvas, 1883 [Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons].

 

Jul 01 2026
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Book of Days Calendar, Summer

The Dog Days, or Your Convivio Book of Days for July

In case you’ve not noticed: It’s hot out there. Here in Lake Worth, we were doing pretty well up until about three weeks ago, and suddenly it was full-on summer, and this is it: we know it’s here and it’s going nowhere for quite some time. And so we accept our lot. It is the price we pay each year for mild winters.

As July begins, so soon will the Dog Days of Summer. Sirius, the Dog Star, in the constellation Canis Major, is about to begin rising with the sun each day. This happens each year around the Third of July 3rd, and the sun occupies the same part of the sky as Sirius through the middle of August. This annual astronomical event happens to coincide with the hottest time of the year for many places in the Northern Hemisphere. Hence: the Dog Days of Summer, ruled by Sirius.

And for your Convivio Book of Days calendar for July this year, we’ve found a penny postcard from Germany, circa 1904, that celebrates Hundstage, which is German for “Dog Days.” This is not the only one we found! It seems to have been a thing, this fascination, in Germany, with Hundstage. Here’s another one, printed a year earlier, in 1903 (click all the images in this post to make them larger):

I’ve only been to Germany once, and it was during Hundstage, the Dog Days, and well… it was pretty warm. Warmer than Lake Worth? No. But where we have the modern convenience of climate control, in Germany (and Austria, and Switzerland, and Northern Italy), at least six years ago during our visit, we did not. Perhaps it is that total immersion in the weather that made Hundstage so fascinating to penny postcard producers at the turn of the 20th century.

Enjoy this month’s calendar! It is, as usual, our gift to you; a PDF that you may print and post to your bulletin board. You may also share it online; we’d love that.

This First of July brings not just the calendar but Canada Day, the national holiday of our neighbors above the 49th Parallel, and we will soon be celebrating, in three days’ time, our semiquincentennial here in the States. 250 years of the American experiment and the times are interesting, are they not? We get stars and stripes that day, plus fireworks that night (stars, perhaps, of a different sort). And on the Seventh of July comes Tanabata, the Star Festival of Japan, celebrating not the dog star Sirius but two other stars: Altair and Vega, two lovers separated forever by the Milky Way, save for one night each year: the seventh night of the seventh month. It is traditional, on Tanabata, to write wishes on strips of paper and then take them outdoors, and tie the wishes to the trees, where they may speak to the wind, and perhaps find their way to the universe to be granted.

 

NEW SUMMER WORKSHOPS
We have two new workshops posted to our website at the WORKSHOPS page! The first is a new Convivio Cookery workshop: Ricotta Gnocchi, set for Saturday August 15, 2026. (That’s my Grandma Assunta’s birthday and she would love that we are teaching you how to make homemade pasta that day!) We’ll teach you how to make a lighter gnocchi; our recipe skips the heavy potatoes and instead uses fresh ricotta: a delicious and much lighter alternative.

The second workshop, in September, is a writing workshop that I am definitely taking: True Stories Cleverly Told: Exploring Creative Nonfiction for Narrative, Essay, & Memoir with writer and literary agent Cricket Freeman, on Saturday September 19. Cricket is one of our favorite people in the literary world. You will learn a lot! The writing workshop is a full-day class that includes a delicious box lunch from one of our favorite local spots, Aioli in West Palm Beach. Class limit in each workshop is 8 people.

 

 

NOISE BRUNCH
Finally, we invite you to join us for something completely different: The 2nd Noise Brunch, on Sunday July 12, from 1 to 4 PM. The Noise Brunch is, in fact, not brunch, but it is an afternoon of experimental music and sound moving between silence and noise. I’m not sure exactly what that means, either. But I will be there to find out. We’re all for trying new things! The Noise Brunch is a free event at Convivio Bookworks. Come and go as you please during the event; you know we have limited seating. The shop will be open that Sunday, too, for eclectic (and most likely noisy) shopping.

 

 

Postcard images are public domain, courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

 

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