Category Archives: Book of Days Calendar

Oct 01 2026
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Book of Days Calendar

Autumn Magic, or Your October Book of Days

It’s October and the weather here in Lake Worth has taken a shift. Subtle, for sure, but most definitely different than it’s been: Different in the quality of light, different in the quality of air, plus a few spectacular sunsets, like the one yesterday evening, that illuminated the tops of the trees and the upper floors of buildings downtown. Seth and I will be heading to Maine for a dose of proper autumn soon, but, for the time being, we are content with these subtle changes.

There are, so far, three pumpkins in the house: one Rouge Vif d’Etampes pumpkin, one Jarrahdale pumpkin, and one Long Island Cheese. Pumpkins, no matter the variety, always speak to me of such great possibility. I don’t even know of what, to be honest. Stories, to be sure. But perhaps more. I remember weeding the pumpkin patch one late summer day at the Sabbathday Lake Shaker Community during one of my book arts internships there––for there are times in a book arts internship when you need to step away from the research and away from the type and the press, and instead get your hands in the earth––and I remember an overwhelming feeling of some astonishment, there amongst the pumpkins as they grew. The scent of the vines, the feel of them. The flowers beckoning to bees. And the pumpkins, of course. I don’t know what that feeling was and I don’t know that I will ever be able to explain it, but I knew inside it had something to do with creativity and stories. One day, perhaps, it will all make sense. For now, though, I look at each pumpkin and wonder what potential it holds. There is some magic in this. I just don’t understand it. Which, perhaps, is how magic works.

And so your Convivio Book of Days Calendar for October focuses on pumpkins and gourds. I hope you love it as much as I do. It is, as usual, a printable PDF, so you may print it and post it where you please.

The month’s celebrations begin tomorrow, October 2nd, with the Feast of the Guardian Angels, one of the oldest celebrations in the Church calendar. It’s also my mom’s 100th birthday! We always celebrated her birthday on October 3rd, but documents we found in recent years suggest October 2nd may be more accurate. We’ll be celebrating her on the 2nd, and on the 3rd, and on the 4th, and each and every day. She’s the Millie of Millie’s Tea Towels fame. If you send her birthday greetings in the comments below (or by reply email), I’ll make sure she sees each one. Here’s a picture of Mom as a little girl:

COME SEE US!
At the shop, we are planning a Boo Bazaar or two, but we haven’t concrete dates yet. Count on them happening on weekday evenings, perhaps twice this month before Hallowe’en arrives. We’ll announce these open shop evenings on our website and on our social media pages (@conviviobookworks at Instagram and Facebook). Our main focus in October, though, is OKTOBERFEST MIAMI, where you will find our huge pop-up shop at the German American Social Club in Miami. It’s their 69th Oktoberfest: the oldest Oktoberfest in Florida. We’ll be there the second and third weekends of October (Friday through Sunday, October 9 through 11 and October 16 through 18), plus this Saturday, October 3, is a smaller Oktoberfest there at the German American Social Club for the German International Parents Association, and our Miami pop-up shop will be open for that, too. This Saturday’s event is noon to 7 PM and is free and open to all who’d like to come. (Oktoberfest Miami on the other weekends of October is a ticketed event.)

 

Image: Botanical illustrations of pumpkins and gourds by an anonymous artist in a Japanese book from 1804 that may be titled Seikei Zusetsu, Volume 27. The image is courtesy Leiden University Library, and used through Creative Commons.

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.”

*

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].

 

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