Category Archives: Summer

Jul 01 2024
2 Comments
Book of Days Calendar, Summer, Tanabata

Star Telegram, or Your July Book of Days

Now it is July, and summer enters its mature phase, which, for us here in Lake Worth, is summed up in a small vocabulary: hot, humid, languid, stormy. This is the time, for us, of daily afternoon thunderstorms: consistency. Nothing will change here very dramatically for several long weeks to come, and it will be October, most likely, before we feel any shift in the pattern.

In Japan, the Star Festival approaches: Tanabata comes on the Seventh Day of the Seventh Month. A day for writing wishes on strips of paper that are then tied to the bamboo and given to the wind, to the elements, to the universe, in hopes that those wishes will come true. And it is a lovely old woodcut about Tanabata that is the cover star of your Convivio Book of Days calendar for July. The calendar is our monthly gift to you: a printable PDF that you may pin to your bulletin board or keep handy at your desk, and a fine companion to this blog.

It is the month of Canada’s national day (July 1) and of ours (July 4), and of France’s, too (le quatorze juillet), and a month of many saints’ days (Swithin, James, Ann, and Martha, mainly). The Dog Days of Summer will begin on July 3 as Sirius, the Dog Star, begins rising with the sun. And by month’s end, we will find ourselves at the eve of the cross-quarter day known as Lammas, and with its arrival, we will have our first true inklings of summer’s waning. Ah, but that is a story for a time yet to come, as summer’s verdancy only deepens in these early weeks of July, a richer green comprised of leaves and fronds and stalks that have weathered a few storms in their time. Already the youthful green of Midsummer is maturing.

As for Tanabata: the written wishes come down to us from an old, old story; a story descended from the sky: the story of Orihime (Vega, the Weaver Star) and Hikoboshi (Altair, the Cowherd Star). Orihime was the beautiful daughter of the Sky King, Tentei, and Orihime spent her days weaving beautiful cloth on the banks of the Amanogawa, the Milky Way. Her father loved the cloth she wove, and so Orihime worked very hard to make enough for him so that he would always a good supply of it. But she worked so hard at her weaving that she never had time for anything else. As much as Tentei loved the cloth Orihime wove, he knew she needed some balance, some time away from her work, and so he arranged for her to meet Hikoboshi, the Cow Herder, who lived on the other side of the Amanogawa.

Well, I don’t know if you believe in love at first sight but it’s been known to happen, and for Orihime and Hikoboshi, this was the case. The two were just crazy about each other, and very soon, Hikoboshi asked Tentei, with the greatest respect, if he could marry Tentei’s daughter. Tentei gave his blessing; the two lovers were married, and that was wonderful, but Orihime pretty much gave up her work at the loom, and as for Hikoboshi’s cattle, well, they were soon roaming all over Heaven. This went on for some time and it proved upsetting for Tentei, who grew angrier and angrier, until finally, he decided enough was enough. He separated the two lovers on either side of the Amanogawa and forbade them to see each other. Naturally, Orihime despaired over the loss of her husband. Moved by his daughter’s tears, Tentei relented. But he allowed the two lovers to meet only once each year, on the Seventh Day of the Seventh Month. And so it goes each year.

There are variations of the story, and even variations of the day of celebration. In some parts of Japan, Tanabata is celebrated in August. Obon, another Japanese summer celebration, is also celebrated at different times in different parts of the country.

Here on Earth, below the heavens, we celebrate Tanabata by writing wishes on strips of paper and tying them to the trees. The trees at Tanabata are decorated not just with wishes on paper, but also with origami and other decorations made of paper. Bamboo is traditional, but any tree will do. And any wish will do. If the wish is yours, write it down, place it in the branches. Perhaps your wishes will be made known to the elements, and perhaps your wishes will come true.

VISIT OUR SHOP!
Our new shop is open on Saturdays from 11 AM to 4 PM, and by appointment, too (we’ll be happy to open for you). We’re located at 1110 North G Street, Suite D, Lake Worth Beach, FL 33460. From I-95, exit 10th Avenue North eastbound; make a left at the first traffic signal onto North A Street, then at the first stop sign, turn right onto 13th Avenue North. Cross the railroad tracks and turn right again onto North G Street. We’re a couple blocks down on your left side in a blue-roofed building. Plenty of street parking on G Street and there are a few spots in our little parking lot, too. If our OPEN TODAY sign is out, we are open.

NEW! IN-HOUSE WORKSHOPS!
One of our goals for our new Lake Worth shop is to create a space that is about community and a place where you can come learn new things. To that end, our first four workshops are now on the calendar. Over the course of this summer, you may come learn about linoleum block printing, paper quilling, non-adhesive bookbinding structures, and monoprints. CLICK HERE to learn more about these workshops and to register. We begin on Saturday July 13 with Monstera Leaf Linoleum Printing on a Canvas Tote with instructor Nicole Beatty, then on Saturday July 20 it’s An Introduction to Paper Quilling & Origami with instructor Allyson Daley. I’ll be teaching Pure Bookbinding on Saturday August 24, and instructor Kim Spivey will be teaching Exploring Monoprints on Saturday September 14.

SHOP OUR SUMMER SALE… both online and in-store!
At our online catalog right now, you may use discount code BLOSSOM to save $10 on your $85 purchase, plus get free domestic shipping, too. That’s a total savings of $19.50. Spend less than $85 and our flat rate shipping fee of $9.50 applies. CLICK HERE to shop; you know we appreciate your support immensely. And yes, you may use that $10 discount when you visit us in the store, too!

 

Image: “The City Flourishing, Tanabata Festival” by Hiroshige Ando. Ukiyo-e print on paper, 1857, [Public domain] via WikiMedia Commons.

Jun 04 2024
4 Comments
Book of Days Calendar, Midsummer, Summer

Summertime, or Your June Book of Days

It was in 1935 that Billie Holiday recorded a song with Teddy Wilson and his Orchestra; a song called “It’s too Hot for Words,” and though it is not the official State Song of my home state of Florida, I think perhaps it should be. And I think the sleeping woman in this iconic painting of summer understands this, too. The painting, called “Flaming June,” is by Frederic Lord Leighton.  The sun shimmering on the distant water, and its stillness, and the flush on the cheek of the sleeping woman in orange… all these things suggest that it was the very height of summer, perhaps Midsummer Day itself, when Frederic Lord Leighton painted this image in 1895. Whatever summer day it was obviously was too hot for words and, by the looks of things, too hot for pretty much anything.

And “Flaming June” is the cover star this month for your Convivio Book of Days calendar. The calendar for June is, as usual, a printable PDF. It is the month of St. Anthony of Padua’s Day on the 13th: a favorite saint of both my grandmothers and perhaps all Italian grandmothers, for that matter. And then comes Bloomsday, one of our favorite literary holidays, then Father’s Day and Juneteenth, the freedom celebration that is our newest national holiday. The solstice arrives this year on the 20th, and a few days later come the celebrations of Old Midsummer. Mostly ignored in this country, Midsummer will pass largely unnoticed. But these longest days of the year in the Northern Hemisphere are magical days, with daylight well into the evening hours. In Sweden and Germany and other places folks stay out well into those nights and there are songs to sing and dances to dance beneath a Midsommar pole and they will don flowers in their hair and laugh and love while here in the States we will just go to bed early and wake up early and go to work diligently and that is that.

Ah, but these lovely lengthy languid days are the polar opposite spoke in the Wheel of the Year to the celebrations of Midwinter, which we do celebrate most joyously. That is Christmas, when the days are short and the nights are long, and these summery days are the mirror to Christmas. Ages ago, the Church placed the birth of Christ at the Midwinter solstice and the birth of his cousin, St. John the Baptist, at the Midsummer solstice. This, for powerful symbolism: John is born at Midsummer, just as light begins to decrease. “He must increase, but I must decrease,” we read in John 3:30. Conversely, Christ is born at Midwinter, just as light begins to increase. Again, in John 8:12: “I am the light of the world.”

There are other traditional bits of magic in the air this time of year, too. While there is one school of thought that says William Shakespeare set his comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Eve of May, there is another that places it at St. John’s Eve. That’s the school of thought I subscribe to. St. John’s Eve, on the 23rd of June, mirrors Christmas Eve in that Wheel of the Year, and we all know about the particular magic of that long night. So on the short night, too.

Do with all this what you may. Go to work if you must… but honor these magical days as best you can. This is what we do, and this, I think, is a very good approach.

COME SEE OUR NEW SHOP!
We’ll be open this Saturday, June 8, and next Saturday, June 15, for Father’s Day shopping (and any kind of shopping) from 11 AM to 4 PM, and, in fact, these are the hours we’ve decided to keep all year long. Unless otherwise noted, we’ll be open every Saturday from 11 to 4. We both work full time, so Saturday hours are the best we can do for now. We’ll also gladly open for you by appointment, should Saturdays not work for you. Just write us. The new shop is at 1110 North G Street, Suite D, Lake Worth Beach, FL 33460. From I-95, exit 10th Avenue North eastbound; make a left at the first traffic signal onto North A Street, then at the first stop sign, turn right onto 13th Avenue North. Cross the railroad tracks and turn right again onto North G Street. We’re a couple blocks down on your left side in a blue-roofed building. Plenty of street parking on G Street and there are a few spots in our little parking lot, too.

COME TO OUR GRAND OPENING!
It’s a Midsummer celebration! Official ribbon cutting with City officials on Friday June 21 at 3:30 PM, and we’ll be open all that weekend (Friday June 21 from 3 to 8 PM, Saturday June 22 from 11 AM to 7 PM, and Sunday June 23 from 10 AM to 4 PM) with lots of Midsummer fun: We’ll teach you how to make a floral crown; You can print your own letterpress printed Glad Midsommar card; Enjoy a free tasting event featuring many of our Scandinavian specialty foods, and, of course, there will be great shopping and good company. The new shop is at 1110 North G Street, Suite D, Lake Worth Beach, FL 33460. From I-95, exit 10th Avenue North eastbound; make a left at the first traffic signal onto North A Street, then at the first stop sign, turn right onto 13th Avenue North. Cross the railroad tracks and turn right again onto North G Street. We’re a couple blocks down on your left side in a blue-roofed building. Plenty of street parking on G Street and there are a few spots in our little parking lot, too.

SHOP OUR SUMMER DAY SALE!
At our online catalog right now, you may use discount code BLOSSOM to save $10 on your $85 purchase, plus get free domestic shipping, too. That’s a total savings of $19.50. Spend less than $85 and our flat rate shipping fee of $9.50 applies. CLICK HERE to shop; you know we appreciate your support immensely. And yes, you may use that $10 discount when you visit us in the store, too!

Image: “Flaming June” by Frederic Lord Leighton. Oil on canvas, 1895 [Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons]. Click on each image to make them larger!

 

 

Aug 15 2023
2 Comments
Feast of the Assumption, Ferragosto, Summer

Feast of the Assumption

I’ve been reading A Poem for Every Night of the Year, edited by Allie Esiri, since the year began and doing just that: reading one poem, each night of the year, just before I shut the last illuminated lamp, before I say goodnight to all the people in the photographs on the bookcases and bureaus on my way to bed. My nightly ritual. It’s a big thick book, hardcover, lovely dust jacket, and as I sat there in my corner chair in the close and holy darkness late last night and read, it struck me that I am most definitely more than halfway through the book, and that the year is more than half done, and that even though summer here in this strange green land goes on and on, it will eventually be packing its bags, headed off to more southerly climes on the other side of the equator. We still have a lot more to get through, but the facts are plain: the Dog Days have passed (they ended on the 11th of August when Sirius, the Dog Star, ceased rising each morning with the sun), and in Italy, Ferragosto has begun. It is the height of the summer holidays, and most Italians will take off from work or close up shop and head someplace cool for a few days: to the sea, or to the mountains. It is annual pilgrimage that has its roots in Ancient Rome.

Most people in Catholic Europe will be off today, anyway: It is the Feast of the Assumption on this Fifteenth of August, so why not take a few extra summer days off, too? It’s the day my grandmother was born, in 1898, and so her parents called her Assunta. How lovely: to be named for a holiday, no? I think so, anyway. Most years, Grandma’s birthday meal would be the traditional Ferragosto supper of cuccuzza longa––an Italian edible gourd very much like zucchini––simmered with egg and parmesan and parsley with a hint of tomatoes. It can be made with zucchini, too. Perhaps you’d like to give it a try (especially at this annual time of zucchini abundance): Click here for the recipe. Have a nice summery wine on hand, like a crisp vinho verde from Portugal, and a crusty loaf, and you’ve got a summer meal that’s fit for a king (even if originated with the hearty peasantry).

I’m thinking of going to church at noon for Grandma’s birthday and for the Assumption. I’ve not been for a long while, and it’ll be time spent with Grandma and with everyone else who has come and gone in my life, and I’ll get to sing along with other folks in the congregation singing Schubert’s “Ave Maria“, and there are worse ways to pass an hour on an afternoon in late summer.

Images: Two photographs we took at the shore of Lake Maggiore in Arona, Italy, when we visited there in the summer of 2019 with my cousin Fabio, who lives in nearby Oleggio. Lake Maggiore would be an excellent Ferragosto destination!

 

COME SEE US!
We’ll be at the LIBRARY WAYZGOOSE FESTIVAL at Florida Atlantic University Libraries’ Jaffe Center for Book Arts on Sunday afternoon, August 27, from 12 to 6. Print activities, a paper moon photo booth, and live music all day. Free admission, free parking, and we’re supplying the doughnuts, which will also be free. I’ll tell you more about it soon, for the 24th of August (St. Bartholomew’s Day) is the traditional date for a Wayzgoose, but in the meantime, mark your calendars if you’re local and come have a good Wayzgoose time!

 

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