The images of May and the labors of May in books of hours were why I first became interested in books of hours. May images are still a consuming interest. I’m particularly interested in images that show bringing in the green, or Maying, where participants carry and adorn their surroundings with leafy branches. These fall…
Twenty-Two Years
Although I started this Website in June of 1997, I started blogging on January 21, 2002. My very first post is here. It’s been interesting to see the Web evolving from lots of interlinked personal sites, to siloed social media gulags, and sloowwly, revolve again, moving back towards smaller, inter-linked independent and federated archipelagos.
Turkey
Wild turkey; Meleagris gallopavo silvestris Photo credit: © 2014 Scott Spangenberg. Used with permission It’s the time of year that, in America, many of us are thinking about turkey, even those of us who lack any desire to actually ingest the bird. I suspect that many of you were told as children, much as I was, that…
November
The month of November, the 11th month of the year in the modern Gregorian calendar, was formerly the 9th month. The Modern English November derives from Middle English Novembre, which in turn derives from Latin November via Old French. The Latin root of November novem means nine, because before the Roman senate altered the calendar…
Teind
The Queen o Fairies she caught me, In yon green hill to dwell. And pleasant is the fairy land, But, an eerie tale to tell, Ay at the end of seven years We pay a teind to hell; I am sae fair and fu o flesh, I’m feard it be mysel (Tam Lin Child Ballad…
October
October 1. The tenth month of the year in the Gregorian calendar. Middle English Octobre, from Old French Octobre and Old English October, both from Latin Octōber, eighth month, from octō, eight; see oktō(u) in the Appendix of Indo-European roots (AHD). The root of the word October, octo, means “eight,” an odd ancestry of the tenth month of the calendar. That’s because back in the…
Cranberries
One year while working as volunteer staff for the Viable Paradise writer’s workshop on Martha’s Vineyard we discovered a local farm, Morning Glory farm, with locally grown produce, including fresh cranberries from nearby Cape Cod Massachusetts, and Carver (in Eastern Massachusetts), both places where commercial cranberry bogs are carefully cultivated, and the wild native cranberry…
Mistletoe
Mistletoe, while celebrated at Christmas for reasons that are, historically speaking, distant enough to be unattributable to a specific cause, is unfairly held in disdain the rest of the year. The green small-leaved white-berried plant, dismissed as a parasite most of the year, is, at Christmas, gathered in small bunches, woven with ribbons, and suspended…
December from Walters W 425
Today’s image is the calendar image for December from Walters W 425. December calendar images typically feature a pig slaughter, a common labor for December. In the case of the fragmentary prayer book from The Walters museum, Walters W 425, a pig being butchered was the image for November. December calendar images, when…
November from Walters W. 425
The November calendar page from The Walters Walters W. 425 features gold scrolling leaves in the margin, with a small Sagittarius astrological sign in a medallion in the margin. The November calendar has a very conventional scene depicting the labor of the month; Walters W. 425 f. 11r shows a man and a woman slaughtering a…