Book of Days

A cold front came through yesterday afternoon, just before the Hallowe’en festivities began, and today it is autumnal perfection outside, Florida style. It’s cool, clear, breezy: a wonderful way to welcome November. We are expecting record lows tonight in Lake Worth, down into the 40s. For the Celts, this time of year was known as Samhain and it marked the beginning of winter and of a new year. Our cold front, it would seem, knows a thing or two about good timing.

People love to hate November. British poet Thomas Hood had this much to say about November:

No sun – no moon!
No morn – no noon ––
No dawn – no dusk – no proper time of day.
No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease,
No comfortable feel in any member ––
No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,
No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds ––
November!

Of course it was 1844 and our poet was writing in a smoggy, cold London. Here in Lake Worth, November brings sunlight in a very particular slant that streams through the windows onto the oak floor and into the print shop and makes Haden, our shop cat, positively drunk on the stuff. She basks in that sunlight, sprawled out to soak in as much of it as she can, and if you go up to her and speak her name or snuzzle your nose into her ears, she looks back at you in a stupor. Haden will tell you: November here is pretty amazing.

To celebrate this wonderful month, we deliver to you today a gift: the November Book of Days calendar from Convivio Bookworks. It’s a printable PDF document so you can print it out and pin it to a bulletin board, should you wish.

You’ll find today is All Saints Day, All Hallows… the day that gives last night’s Halloween celebration its name, and tomorrow brings All Souls Day, or Dia de Muertos, Day of the Dead. What with all the traditional handmade Day of the Dead items we sell at our website, you know it’s a day we love. We’ll be celebrating with family tomorrow, eating pan de muertos and perhaps drinking bone punch, and I’ll include you in that festivity, too. So.. see you here at the Book of Days Blog tomorrow? Good.