Book of Days

Lots going on these days! It was Seth’s birthday on the last of September and then we segued right into my mom’s 90th birthday at the start of October, so it was, oh, nonstop celebration all weekend. Then at work on Monday I walked in to learn that there had been a water leak all weekend; by the time the water mitigation crew left for the day on Monday night, their amazing vacuum equipment had sucked over 300 gallons of water out from under the bamboo floorboards. The drying-out process will continue for at least another week. And still that same day we learnt that the forecast track for Hurricane Matthew was beginning to suggest that he had us squarely in his sight. And so Tuesday at work we prepared for the storm, and Wednesday we prepared the home of an old family friend. Thursday morning we will prepare ours, and then we will wait.

This is all to say I’m sorry, but I am just now getting around to letting you know that your Convivio Book of Days Calendar for October 2016 is posted to our website. It is a printable PDF, ready to print on standard US Letter size paper, and a great companion to the Convivio Book of Days Blog. Cover stars this month: pumpkins photographed just last week, before all the madness began, at our friends Leif and Jeffrey’s home––these green pumpkins are from last year’s harvest! They’re still looking beautiful. And any friend of pumpkins is a friend of mine.

Over at the Convivio Book of Days Catalog, we are trying something new: we’ve operated for years under a flat $8 shipping fee policy, but now if you spend $50 at the Convivio Book of Days catalog, you’ll get free shipping. Magic words, aren’t they? FREE SHIPPING. I love them, too. We’ve also figured out a way for folks outside the US to order (you’ll see a flat $30 shipping charge on your invoice, but we will contact you with the actual shipping rate before we ship or charge your card and will adjust the charge accordingly… most likely your actual shipping charge will be less), so that, too, is something new.

Also new are lots of new items added to the catalog––mostly handcrafts from San Miguel de Allende for your Day of the Dead and Halloween celebrations but also lovely screen printed tea towels for cider season. (Speaking of cider: don’t forget the Shaker mulling spices.) We’ve also added about a dozen new German advent calendars this week, too, and as long as we have power during the storm, I’ll work on adding some new Christmas and letterpress items, too. Right after I bake a batch of granola for Seth.

Pretty soon we will have reached the point where we have done all we can to prepare, and we will take shelter. There seems to be, at least here in Lake Worth, no need for evacuations, so we plan to stay put, Seth and me and Haden the Convivio Shopcat. We will watch the wind and rain from the shelter of this old house. The house is wood, cedar and old Dade pine, tough as nails, but it will creak and moan a lot, especially as we get into the thick of things, and there will be times when things will get a little scary. We know this; we’ve done it before. We’ll be okay, we all will be, you, too.

Now go on: get shopping. Spend 50 bucks, make us pay for that shipping. We promise to take good care and to not send anything out until the rain has passed. Happy October.