Our gift to you each month is a printable calendar to accompany this blog; here now is your Convivio Book of Days Calendar for August. And lest you think a good deal of planning goes into these calendars, this month’s calendar will dispel any suggestion of that: the photos for the calendar were taken just last week while we were vacationing in Maine.
We miss Maine but we are back to our regular routines. The sun is strong and the humidity is high and we keep hoping it will rain but it doesn’t. My garden survived my absence, though the okra got woody and the sunflowers are looking bedraggled. It is that time of summer where a bit of delirium begins setting in. It was nice to have a break of cooler New England weather, but we realize now a bit of a tactical error: there is still so much of a Florida summer yet to be endured.
Be that as it may, Lammas, today, reminds us that summer is indeed waning. Even here in this land where summer is king. It is, as well, the month of Obon, the traditional Japanese festival honoring the dead, and it is the month of the Assumption, which gave my grandmother Assunta her name. It is the month of cakes 21 feet tall and of St. Augustine, patron saint of brewers, and of St. Bartholomew, patron saint of bookbinders and book artists, whose day brings the traditional Printers’ Wayzgoose. And we begin to realize that autumn is on its way.
As a petson born in the deep south, it is odd to see the word “okra” and “New England” in the same article. I love okra but I rarely encounter someone who likes it, living in New York State.
Hey David, fellow okra lover! There actually was one summer Seth and I spent in Maine where we grew okra there. Seth started it in cold frames early in the spring and we had a good okra harvest. Here at home, our okra is still thriving. I think we’ll be frying up some more this weekend, along with hush puppies and my Aunt Lil’s fried chicken.