Liturgical Year : Activities : Lammas or Loaf Mass Day, Thanksgiving for Grain Harvest | Catholic Culture Alphonsus Liguori Seasons (0) The feast of St. Peter in Chains, formerly on August 1st, has now been removed from the General Roman Calendar. This feast day was also called "Lammas Day" or "Loaf Mass Day" because this day was offered as thanksgiving for the wheat harvest, used for the bread that becomes the Eucharist. Florence Berger discusses close link of the liturgical year and agrarian life. She also discusses the Christianization of some pagan customs, using the example of Scotch Highland Quarter Cakes. DIRECTIONS As the hot, dry corn weather of July settles down on our countryside, there is a stop in our feasting. These are the days when dawn is not too early to get out a-berrying, and moonlight is not too late to tie tomatoes. Even the birds do most of their talking in the dew of the morning or the cool of the night.

And in between the rickety-rackety tractor snorts on the hills and whinnies on the down grade, each one of the family is preoccupied with the plans of the day and more than occupied with the raw material of our life. I think the Church as well as tradition herself knew we were all busy in July. The Church lets us all be Marthas for the month, to work like the bees in the hive gathering food for our families. Tradition lets us all be Jacks for the month, to be as dull as dross while we fill the barns. There is no doubt but that Christian worship and its visible counterpart, the liturgical year, have been adapted to an agrarian life. In fact we can almost admit that "the whole texture of industrial life — to which we gave birth — is against that of the Christian life." There is, however, great need for compromise and Christian charity. We cannot all be farmers just because it is a freer, easier way to live in the spirit of the Church year. But we who are farmers can appreciate our graces and let our neighbors know that Christ governs our daily economics as well as our Sunday worship.

We cannot all be industrialists just because it is a more exciting and dangerous way to live without the spirit of the Church year. But we who are industrialists can wrest from the world the justice which Christ will demand for His workers. Without this none of us bring Christ to our homes, nor dare to ask a share in His home for eternity. It is not long before the summer work comes to a turning point. There is a change from the hope of the seeding to the accomplishment of the harvest. August 1 has been held as harvest day in many lands for centuries. The new grain is to be tried. The first fruits are to be tested. Work is forgotten, and we recreate our strength with dances, songs and food. This day was once called Lammas or Loaf Mass Day because the new grain was ground and baked into a special thank offering. The bread of the harvest was brought to God who blessed both the bread and His children. There is no doubt, as J. A.

McCulloch writes on "Cakes and Loaves," that "some of the cakes which have a prominent place in folk usage at certain periods of the year, e.g., Christian festivals and holy days, as well as on other occasions, are probably lineally descended from cakes used sacrificially or sacramental in pagan times. This is suggested by the customs observed in the making of these cakes, or the eating of them; by their division among the members of the family, or by their being marked with sacred symbols." This fact seems to disturb some timid Christians who fail to recognize the wise philosophy and policy of the Catholic Church in missionary countries. An Italian missionary is not sent to make his new people Italians nor is the American to convert his catechumens to Americanism. They are sent to make Christians, world citizens. So long as the native customs and habits were not in opposition to the law of nature or the law of God, they were not to be taken from the people. This rule held at the time of the apostles when they entered a country and spoke the vernacular. This procedure was followed when the Celts were allowed to bake their Highland Quarter Cakes.

In these days as well, in India for example, a missionary does not take away the feast days of the newly instructed, but the pagan is accepted, reinterpreted and sanctified in Christ. The perfect example of this transfer from pagan to Christian is found in a study of the Scotch Highland Quarter Cakes. These were special cakes baked in a prescribed manner and used in pagan rites to celebrate the beginnings of the four seasons. They were all called bannocks, which is an oatcake cut as round as a dinner plate and baked on a hot griddle. The Bonnach Bride was baked on February 1, the first day of spring. Later it was dedicated to St. Bridget of Ireland who died on that date in the year 523. The Bonnach Bealtain, or Beltane Bannock, was prepared for May 1, the opening day of summer. Originally this cake was made with nine knobs on it. These knobs were gift offerings to the fox or the eagle or the "hooded crow" who might harm field and flock. The cake was washed over with a thin batter of "whipped egg, milk, cream and a little oatmeal." In time the knobs disappeared.

A cross and a circle marked the opposite sides of the cake, and both were symbols of Christ's death and resurrection. Beltane meant new fire so new flame was struck from flint to bake this cake. At first, trees, then wooden poles decorated like trees, were sacrificed in this fire. People in leafy headgear danced around the blaze in honor of the summer solstice. Those of you who have ever seen the beautiful Spanish solstice dance in honor of the Virgin Mary will understand how the riotous maypole dance was turned into a deep religious expression. On August 1 the Bonnach Lunastain ushered in the harvest season. This day, as we said, was known as Lammas Day or Loaf Mass Day. The heathen cake was baked, it is true, but baked of the newly-harvested grain in thanksgiving for God's generosity and care. As the pagans sacrificed the fruits of the soil to the sun god, the newly baptized brought their bread to be blessed at the Loaf Mass.

Holy Lord, almighty Father, eternal God, graciously deign, to bless this bread with Thy spiritual benediction that all who eat it may have health of body and soul and that they may be protected against all sickness and against all the snares of the enemy. Part of this bread, which they made of the grain they had raised, was consecrated and changed into the Body and Blood of Christ. The greater part was blessed and taken home for the Lammas Day feast. And, if the loaf lasted more than a meal, the crumbs and leftovers were toasted and crumbled into a pot with butter and milk. The whole was cooked up like porridge, and the shepherds of Scotland gave thanks for their Butter Brughtins. At last the days of winter came to close the sun's journey and give promise of a new year. Again the fires were relighted and Bannock Samthain was baked. The idea of sacrifice was inherent in the pagan rites. Willingly they gave up part of their harvest and their Bannocks in the fire, for they believed that by dying the divine life was strengthened within them. If they could but sacrifice enough, they might become better than they were.

It was left for the Church to show them the Mass, the perfect sacrifice. The Church taught them that they had the right and duty to offer Christ, the spotless Victim, to God, their Father. It called down the divine life to them through the power of the sacrifice and, by the means of eating of the Eucharist, made them saints. Thus All-Saints Day supplants Samthain. If you are curious, as we were, to see how a Quarter Bannock tastes, it is easy enough to make one. The only difficulty is buying the oat flour. We solved this problem by grinding in a hand mill the coarse oatmeal we could obtain at the store. This was easy going for Freddie who once ground up scratch feed and gave it to us for our bran muffins. Yes, we ate them and didn't mind the difference. We always knew that August 1 was a wonderful day for a wedding, but it wasn't until last year that I found out why. We had chosen August 1 as our wedding day against the advice of everyone. My mother claimed it would be too hot. My sister claimed the gowns in a fall wedding were more becoming.

My brother swore he wouldn't get all dressed-up in the dead of summer. But August 1 it was. Now, after fifteen years, I hear that August 1 was always an uncommonly good day for weddings. It was on that day the farmer could look things over. The planting and cultivating and worrying were over. He had no more to do — except to harvest. If the profits looked good, he would take a wife. If they looked slim, papa would make him wait another year. It is a hard blow for a woman like me to find all her rosy dreams hanging on the peg of a harvest yield, to find that we were unconsciously following a very ordinary, plebeian tradition. Moral: don't delve too deep in history. It may blight your motives and intentions. Activity Source: Cooking for Christ by Florence Berger, National Catholic Rural Life Conference, 4625 Beaver Avenue, Des Moines, IA 50310, 1949, 1999 Stay in Touch! 2016 Pagan/Wiccan Event & Holiday Calendar By Patti Wigington Updated August 31, 2016.

Pagans love to celebrate, and as the Wheel of the Year turns, a number of milestones are reached. Each is a time for gathering together with friends and family, working on our spiritual development, and feasting and merrymaking! The following is a list of dates for 2016, as well as resources for celebration in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Be sure to read about Celebrating the Sabbats Seasonally , to get a good idea as to how you can celebrate based upon agricultural markers rather than just dates on a calendar. If you're one of our readers below the Equator, you'll also want to check out Moon Phase Names in the Southern Hemisphere . Please note that the full moon dates and times are based upon the Farmer's Almanac schedules, which is listed in Eastern Standard Time. You may need to adjust the time for these depending on where you live. Also, before you go to an event, make sure you read about proper Pagan and Wiccan Festival Etiquette . It'll make your experience even more enjoyable. Image by Light of Peace/Moment/Getty Images 1. January 2016 Celebrating Lammas - School of the Seasons The year is 1100.

The date is August 1. The monks in the abbey at Gloucester are celebrating the holy-day of St. Peter in Chains. One of the monks wakes from a strange dream in which God promises to strike down the wicked King who has abused the Holy Church. His superior, Abbot Serlo, on hearing of the dreams sends a warning to the King, William the Red, who has oppressed all of England with taxes and disgusted many with his licentiousness and blasphemy. Red, as he is called, receives the message the following day while preparing to indulge in one of his favorite sports, hunting, in the New Forest. Although there are no longer any people dwelling in the New Forest  they were all cleared out by Red's father, William the Conqueror  there are rumors that it's a hotbed of pagan activity. And August 2 is an important pagan holy-day. The Saxons call it Lammas, the Loaf-Mass. William the Red laughs at the warning from the monks and goes out hunting. A short time later, he is dead, struck in the chest by a stray arrow, and his brother, Henry, who was in the hunting party is riding hot-foot for Winchester and the crown.

Now some people say that William the Red was a Lammas sacrifice, that having made a wasteland of his kingdom, he was killed by the people (or the Gods) as a sacrifice to bring new life to the land. And some people say his brother Henry has him assassinated. And some people say that both versions are true. This story comes to my mind when I think of Lammas because I spent ten years researching a medieval novel set in the time of William the Red and Henry. But this tale of sacrifice and hunting, a dying King and a wasted land, embodies many of the dominant themes of Lammas, one of the four seasonal quarter-days, and perhaps the least well-known. The Celts celebrate this festival from sunset August 1 until sunset August 2 and call it Lughnasad after the God Lugh. It is the wake of Lugh, the Sun-King, whose light begins to dwindle after the summer solstice. The Saxon holiday of Lammas celebrates the harvesting of the grain. The first sheaf of wheat is ceremonially reaped, threshed, milled and baked into a loaf. The grain dies so that the people might live.

Eating this bread, the bread of the Gods, gives us life. If all this sounds vaguely Christian, it is. In the sacrament of Communion, bread is blessed, becomes the body of God and is eaten to nourish the faithful. This Christian Mystery echoes the pagan Mystery of the Grain God. Grain has always been associated with Gods who are killed and dismembered and then resurrected from the Underworld by the Goddess-Gods like Tammuz, Osiris and Adonis. The story of Demeter and Persephone is a story about the cycle of death and rebirth associated with grain. Demeter, the fertility Goddess, will not allow anything to grow until she finds her daughter who has been carried off to the Underworld. The Eleusinian Mysteries, celebrated around the Autumn Equinox, culminated in the revelation of a single ear of corn, a symbol to the initiate of the cyclical nature of life, for the corn is both seed and fruit, promise and fulfillment. You can adapt the themes of Lughnasad and Lammas to create your own ceremony for honoring the passing of the light and the reaping of the grain. Honoring the Grain God or Goddess Bake a loaf of bread on Lammas.

If you've never made bread before, this is a good time to start. Honor the source of the flour as you work with it: remember it was once a plant growing on the mother Earth. If you have a garden, add something you've harvested--herbs or onion or corn--to your bread. If you don't feel up to making wheat bread, make corn bread. Or gingerbread people. Or popcorn. What's most important is intention. All that is necessary to enter sacred time is an awareness of the meaning of your actions. Shape the dough in the figure of a man or a woman and give your grain-person a name. If he's a man, you could call him Lugh, the Sun-King, or John Barleycorn, or the Pillsbury Dough Boy, or Adonis or Osiris or Tammuz.

Pauline Campanelli in The Wheel of the Year suggests names for female figures: She of the Corn, She of the Threshing Floor, She of the Seed, She of the Great Loaf (these come from the Cyclades where they are the names of fertility figures), Freya (the Anglo-Saxon and Norse fertility Goddess who is, also called the Lady and the Giver of the Loaf), the Bride (Celtic) and Ziva or Siva (the Grain Goddess of, the Ukraine, Hungary, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia). Feast Like all holidays, Lammas calls for a feast. When your dough figure is baked and ready to eat, tear him or her apart with your fingers. You might want to start the feast with the Lord's Prayer, emphasizing the words "Give us this day our daily bread." The next part of the ceremony is best done with others. Feed each other hunks of bread (or gingerbread people or popcorn), putting the food in the other person's mouth with words like "May you never go hungry," "May you always be nourished," "Eat of the bread of life" or "May you live forever." Offer each other drinks of water or wine with similar words.

As if you were at a wake, make toasts to the passing summer, recalling the best moments of the year so far. Corn Dolly Another way to honor the Grain Goddess is to make a corn doll. This is a fun project to do with kids. Take dried-out corn husks and tie them together in the shape of a woman. She's your visual representation of the harvest. As you work on her, think about what you harvested this year. Give your corn dolly a name, perhaps one of the names of the Grain Goddess or one that symbolizes your personal harvest. Dress her in a skirt, apron and bonnet and give her a special place in your house. She is all yours till the spring when you will plant her with the new corn, returning to the Earth that which She has given to you. Food for Thought Lammas is a festival of regrets and farewells, of harvest and preserves. Reflect on these topics alone in the privacy of your journal or share them with others around a fire. Lughnasad is one of the great Celtic fire-festivals, so if at all possible, have your feast around a bonfire. While you're sitting around the fire, you might want to tell stories.

Look up the myths of any of the grain Gods and Goddesses mentioned above and try re-telling them in your own words. Regrets: Think of the things you meant to do this summer or this year that are not coming to fruition. You can project your regrets onto natural objects like pine cones and throw them into the fire, releasing them. Or you can write them on dried corn husks (as suggested by Nancy Brady Cunningham in Feeding the Spirit) or on a piece of paper and burn them. Farewells: What is passing from your life? What is over? Say good-bye to it. As with regrets, you can find visual symbols and throw them into the fire, the lake or the ocean. You can also bury them in the ground, perhaps in the form of bulbs which will manifest in a new form in spring. Harvest: What have you harvested this year? What seeds have your planted that are sprouting? Find a visual way to represent these, perhaps creating a decoration in your house or altar which represents the harvest to you. Or you could make a corn dolly or learn to weave wheat.

Look for classes in your area which can teach you how to weave wheat into wall pieces, which were made by early grain farmers as a resting place for the harvest spirits. Preserves: This is also a good time for making preserves, either literally or symbolically. As you turn the summer's fruit into jams, jellies and chutneys for winter, think about the fruits that you have gathered this year and how you can hold onto them. How can you keep them sweet in the store of your memory? August, Summer, Month, Midsummer: Poems, Quotes, Folklore, Sayings, Celebrations, Lore, Ideas, Gardening Chores, Resources "What wondrous life is this I lead!

Ripe apples drop about my head; The luscious clusters of the vine Upon my mouth do crush their wine; The nectarine and curious peach Into my hands themselves do reach; Stumbling on melons, as I pass, Ensnared with flowers, I fall on grass." - Andrew Marvell, Thoughts in a Garden "My life is like the summer rose That opens to the morning sky, But ere the shades of evening close Is scattered on the ground - to die." - Richard Henry Wilde "And hate the bright stillness of the noon without wind, without motion. the only other living thing a hawk, hungry for prey, suspended in the blinding, sunlit blue. And yet how gentle it seems to someone raised in a landscape short of rain� the skyline of a hill broken by no more trees than one can count, the grass, the empty sky, the wish for water." - Dana Gioia, California Hills in August "Open the window, and let the air Freshly blow upon face and hair, And fill the room, as it fills the night, With the breath of the rain's sweet might. Hark! the burthen, swift and prone! And how the odorous limes are blown!

Stormy Love's abroad, and keeps Hopeful coil for gentle sleeps. Not a blink shall burn to-night In my chamber, of sordid light; Nought will I have, not a window-pane, 'Twixt me and the air and the great good rain, Which ever shall sing me sharp lullabies; And God's own darkness shall close mine eyes; And I will sleep, with all things blest, In the pure earth-shadow of natural rest." - James Henry Leigh Hunt, A Night Rain in Summer "In summer, the song sings itself." - William Carlos Williams "August rushes by like desert rainfall, A flood of frenzied upheaval, Expected, But still catching me unprepared. Like a matchflame Heat and haze of crimson sunsets. Like a dream Of moon and dark barely recalled, A moment, Shadows caught in a blink.

Like a quick kiss; But it suddenly turns to leave, Dragging summer away." - Elizabeth Maua Taylor "In August, the large masses of berries, which, when in flower, had attracted many wild bees, gradually assumed their bright velvety crimson hue, and by their weight again bent down and broke their tender limbs." - Henry David Thoreau "Summer is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces up, snow is exhilarating; there is no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather." - John Ruskin "The moon is at her full, and riding high, Floods the calm fields with light.

The airs that hover in the summer sky Are all asleep to-night." - Lyrics by Ron Shields, In the Good Old Summertime "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" - William Shakespeare �The streets lie, the sidewalks lie, everything lies You can try and read it but you're gonna get it wrong...all wrong The summer evenings burn and melt and the nights glitter but you're gonna get it wrong And it's gonna sink its teeth into your flesh and pull you to the bottom.� - Henry Rollins "Once upon a Lammas Night When corn rigs are bonny, Beneath the Moon's unclouded light, I held awhile to Annie... The time went by with careless heed Between the late and early, With small persuasion she agreed To see me through the barley... Corn rigs and barley rigs, Corn rigs are bonny! I'll not forget that happy night Among the rigs with Annie!" - Robert Burns "I celebrate myself, and what I assume you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you. I loafe and invite my soul, I lean and loafe at my ease ...

observing a spear of summer grass." - Walt Whitman "'Lughnassad' means 'the funeral games of Lugh', referring to Lugh, the Irish sun god. However, the funeral is not his own, but the funeral games he hosts in honor of his foster-mother Tailte. For that reason, the traditional Tailtean craft fairs and Tailtean marriages (which last for a year and a day) are celebrated at this time. As autumn begins, the Sun God enters his old age, but is not yet dead. It is also a celebration of the first harvest. The Christian religion adopted this theme and called it 'Lammas', meaning 'loaf-mass', a time when newly baked loaves of bread are placed on the altar. An alternative date around August 5 (Old Lammas), when the sun reaches 15 degrees Leo, is sometimes employed by Covens." - Wiccan Holidays , Lughnassad (July 31 - August Eve) "Let your children be as so many flowers, borrowed from God. If the flowers die or wither, thank God for a summer loan of them." - Samuel Rutherford "O Spirit of the Summertime!

Bring back the roses to the dells; The swallow from her distant clime, The honey-bee from drowsy cells. Bring back the friendship of the sun; The gilded evenings, calm and late, When merry children homeward run, And peeping stars bid lovers wait. Bring back the singing; and the scent Of meadowlands at dewy prime;� Oh, bring again my heart's content, Thou Spirit of the Summertime!" - William Allingham "As for me, I know nothing else but miracles, Whether I walk the streets of Manhattan, Or dart my sight over the roofs of houses toward the sky, Or wade with naked feet along the beach just in the edge of the water, Or stand under the trees in the woods, Or talk by day with any one I love, Or sleep in bed at night with any one I love, Or watch honey bees busy around the hive of a summer forenoon... Or the wonderfulness of the sundown, Or of stars shining so quiet and bright, Or the exquisite delicate thin curve of the new moon in spring...

What stranger miracles are there?" - Walt Whitman "Whilst August yet wears her golden crown, Ripening fields lush- bright with promise; Summer waxes long, then wanes, quietly passing Her fading green glory on to riotous Autumn." - Michelle L. Thieme, August's Crown "How sociable the garden was. We ate and talked in given light. The children put their toys to grass All the warm wakeful August night." - Thomas Gunn, Last Days at Teddington Ah, Sun-flower, weary of time, Who countest the steps of the Sun, Seeking after that sweet golden clime Where the traveller's journey is done: Where the Youth pined away with desire, And the pale Virgin shrouded in snow Arise from their graves, and aspire Where my Sun-flower wishes to go. - William Blake "And now the cordial clouds have shut all in, And gently swells the wind to say all's well; The scattered drops are falling fast and thin, Some in the pool, some in the flower-bell.

I am well drenched upon my bed of oats; But see that globe come rolling down its stem, Now like a lonely planet there it floats, And now it sinks into my garment's hem. Drip drip the trees for all the country round, And richness rare distills from every bough; The wind alone it is makes every sound, Shaking down crystals on the leaves below. For shame the sun will never show himself, Who could not with his beams e'er melt me so; My dripping locks--they would become an elf, Who in a beaded coat does gayly go." - Henry David Thoreau, The Summer Rain "What dreadful hot weather we have! It keeps me in a continual state of inelegance." - Jane Austen Tree leaves sway from side to side; Clouds gather in small huddles, discussing the weather; Grass shoots shoot up once more, their roots replenished; A Phoenix nearby hums his Ode; Tranquility is in place, after the long bitter wait; Alive, now, is the world." - J. I.

Stuart, August "This bud of love, by summer's ripening breath, May prove a beauteous flower when next we meet." - William Shakespeare "Heat, ma'am! it was so dreadful here, that I found there was nothing left for it but to take off my flesh and sit in my bones." - Sydney Smith, Lady Holland's Memoir "Not wholly in the busy world, nor quite Beyond it, blooms the garden that I love.

News from the humming city comes to it It sound of funeral or of marriage bells." - Alfred Lord Tennyson "Nobody ever drowned in his own sweat." - Ann Landers "There is a harmony in autumn, and a luster in its sky, which through the summer is not heard or seen, as if it could not be, as if it had not been!" - Percy Bysshe Shelley "Summer's lease hath all too short a date." - William Shakespeare "The way to ensure summer in England is to have it framed and glazed in a comfortable room." - Horace Walpole "August creates as she slumbers, replete and satisfied." - Joseph Wood Krutch "It is God in the house when the curtains lift gently at the windows, and a young child sucks his itching gums. We do not understand the mysteries of God. God the winter. Summer, Septembers. Moody dark tones of fathers dying. The splash and laughter. "Oh that I could see to the Other Realm � that I could learn the magic of the Ancients.

Oh that the secrets of the Druids could be whispered in my ears that I might know their beauty and their power � that I might love again this land and hear the voices of the Goddess and the God in the trees and in the rivers." - Damh the Bard "When on a summer's morn I wake, And open my two eyes, Out to the clear, born-singing rills My bird-like spirit flies. To hear the Blackbird, Cuckoo, Thrush, Or any bird in song; And common leaves that hum all day Without a throat or tongue.

And when Time strikes the hour for sleep, Back in my room alone, My heart has many a sweet bird's song -- And one that's all my own." - William Henry Davies, When on a Summer's Morn "From the great trees the locusts cry In quavering ecstatic duo--a boy Shouts a wild call--a mourning dove In the blue distance sobs--the wind Wanders by, heavy with odors Of corn and wheat and melon vines; The trees tremble with delirious joy as the breeze Greets them, one by one--now the oak Now the great sycamore, now the elm." - Hamlin Garland "People don't notice whether it's winter or summer when they're happy." - Anton Chekhov A Note to Readers: On May 1, 2011, this webpage was moved to a new webserver at The Month of August . It is now being maintained, updated, expanded, and improved at its new location on a another webserver . "If there were no tribulation, there would be no rest; if there were no winter, there would be no summer." - St.

John Chrysostom "August, the eighth month of the current Gregorian calendar and the third month of Summer�s rule, derives its name from Augustus (Augustus Caesar). The traditional birthstone amulets of August are the peridot and the sardonyx; and the gladiolus and the poppy are the month�s traditional flowers. August is shared by the astrological signs of Leo the Lion and Virgo the Virgin, and is sacred to the following Pagan deities: Ceres, the Corn Mother, Demeter, John Barleycorn, Lugh, and all goddesses who preside over agriculture. During the month of August, the Great Solar Wheel of the Year is turned to Lammas, one of the four Grand Sabbats celebrated each year by Wiccans and modern Witches throughout the world." - Secrets of a Witch "I know I am but summer to your heart, and not the full four seasons of the year." - Edna St. Vincent Millay "Good weather all the week, but come the weekend the weather stinks. Springtime for birth, Summertime for growth; and all Seasons for dying. Ripening grapes in the summer sun - reason enough to plod ahead.

Springtime flows in our veins. Beauty is the Mistress, the gardener Her salve. A soul is colored Spring green. Complexity is closer to the truth. All metaphors aside - only living beings rise up in the Springtime; dead beings stay quite lie down dead. Winter does not turn into Summer; ash does not turn into firewood - on the chopping block of time. Fresh fruit from the tree - sweet summertime! Gardens are demanding pets. Shade was the first shelter. When the Divine knocks, don't send a prophet to the door. One spring and one summer to know life's hope; one autumn and one winter to know life's fate. Somehow, someway, everything gets eaten up, someday. Relax and be still around the bees. Paradise and shade are close relatives on a summer day. Absolutes squirm beneath realities. The spiders, grasshoppers, mantis, and moth larva are all back: the summer crowd has returned! To garden is to open your heart to the sky. Dirty fingernails and a calloused palm precede a Green Thumb." - Michael P. Garofalo, Pulling Onions "The Chinese also have a day devoted to love.

Qi Qiao Jie, or the seventh eve, is often referred to as Chinese Valentine's Day. While the annual gift giving commonly associated with St. Valentine's Day doesn't take place, there are several charming customs associated with this romantic day for lovers. There are two legends surrounding the origins of Chinese Valentine's Day. Both involve the position of the stars on the seventh day of the seventh month in the Chinese lunar calendar (August 11th in the year 2005). According to the first version (my favorite), the seven daughters of the Goddess of Heaven caught the eye of a Cowherd during one of their visits to earth. The daughters were bathing in a river and the Cowherd, Niu Lang, decided to have a bit of fun by running off with their clothing. It fell upon the prettiest daughter (who happened to be the seventh born), to ask him to return their clothes. Of course, since Niu Lang had seen the daughter, Zhi Nu, naked, they had to be married. The couple lived happily for several years. Eventually however, the Goddess of Heaven became fed up with her daughter's absence, and ordered her to return to heaven.

However, the mother took pity on the couple and allowed them to be reunited once a year. Legend has it that on the seventh night of the seventh moon, magpies form a bridge with their wings for Zhi Nu to cross to meet her husband." - Rhonda Parkinson and Night of Sevens (Qi Xi, Qi Qian Jie) Who made the swan, and the black bear? Who made the grasshopper? the one who has flung herself out of the grass, the one who is eating sugar out of my hand, who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-- who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes. Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face. Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away. I don't know exactly what a prayer is. I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down into the grass, how to kneel in the grass, how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields, which is what I have been doing all day. Tell me, what else should I have done? Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?

Tell me, what is it you plan to do With your one wild and precious life?" - Mary Oliver, The Summer Day "Knowing trees, I understand the meaning of patience. Knowing grass, I can appreciate persistence." - Hal Borland "The summer night is like a perfection of thought." - Wallace Stevens "Pray but one prayer for me 'twixt thy closed lips, Think but one thought of me up in the stars. The summer night waneth, the morning light slips, Faint and grey 'twixt the leaves of the aspen, betwixt the cloud-bars That are patiently waiting there for the dawn: Patient and colourless, though Heaven's gold Waits to float through them along with the sun.

Far out in the meadows, above the young corn, The heavy elms wait, and restless and cold The uneasy wind rises; the roses are dun; Through the long twilight they pray for the dawn, Round the lone house in the midst of the corn, Speak but one word to me over the corn, Over the tender, bow'd locks of the corn." - William Morris, Summer Dawn "A life without love is like a year without summer." - Swedish Proverb "The English winter, ending in July To recommence in August." "Give me the joys of summer, Of Summer Queen so fair, With wealth of lovely flowers And fruits and sun-kissed air! Talk not to me of winter With ice and frost and snow, Nor changing spring and autumn When howling winds will blow. No, I will take the joys Of Summer every time, So to this Queen of Seasons I dedicate my rhyme." - Winifred Sackville Stoner, Midsummer Joys "If you saw a heat wave, would you wave back?" - Steven Wright "Last summer I was staying at a house in Hampshire which was famous for the brilliance and the originality of its gardens.

There were many of them, but the most beautiful of all was a walled garden in which every flower was blue. There were all the obvious things like delphiniums and acronitums and larkspurs, but the most beautiful blue of all came from the groups of cabbages - the ordinary blue pickling cabbage. Set against the blazing blue of the other flowers, it had a bloom and elegance which made it a thing of the greatest delight." - Beverly Nichols "When gardeners garden, it is not just plants that grow, but the gardeners themselves." - Ken Druse "He had been eight years upon a project for extracting sunbeams out of cucumbers, which were to be put into vials hermetically sealed, and let out to warm the air in raw, inclement summers." - Jonathan Swift "A languid atmosphere, a lazy breeze, With labored respiration, moves the wheat From distant reaches, till the golden seas Break in crisp whispers at my feet. My book, neglected of an idle mind, Hides for a moment from the eyes of men; Or lightly opened by a critic wind, Affrightedly reviews itself again.

Off through the haze that dances in the shine The warm sun showers in the open glade, The forest lies, a silhouette design Dimmed through and through with shade. A dreamy day; and tranquilly I lie At anchor from all storms of mental strain; With absent vision, gazing at the sky, "Like one that hears it rain."" - James Whitcomb Riley, A Summer Afternoon "This was one of those perfect New England days in late summer where the spirit of autumn takes a first stealing flight, like a spy, through the ripening country-side, and, with feigned sympathy for those who droop with August heat, puts her cool cloak of bracing air about leaf and flower and human shoulders." - Sarah Orne Jewett, The Courting of Sister Wisby, 1887 - Kobayashi Issa "Let me enjoy this late-summer day of my heart while the leaves are still green and I won't look so close as to see that first tint of pale yellow slowly creep in. I will cease endless running and then look to the sky ask the sun to embrace me and then hope she won't tell of tomorrows less long than today.

Let me spend just this time in the slow-cooling glow of warm afternoon light and I'd think I will still have the strength for just one more last fling of my heart." - John Bohrn, Late August "Someone's sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago." - Warren Buffett "The coldest winter I ever spent was summer in San Francisco." - Mark Twain Remit as yet no Grace No Furrow on the Glow Yet a Druidic Difference - Emily Dickinson, Further in Summer Than the Birds "Gently I stir a white feather fan, With open shirt sitting in a green wood. I take off my cap and hang it on a jutting stone; A wind from the pine-tree trickles on my bare head." - Li Po, Summer in the Mountains " Yes, long shadows go out from the bales; and yes, the soul must part from the body: what else could it do? The men sprawl near the baler, too tired to leave the field. They talk and smoke, and the tips of their cigarettes blaze like small roses in the night air. (It arrived and settled among them --sings from the dusty stubble. These things happen. .

.the soul's bliss and suffering are bound together The last, sweet exhalations go out with the song of the bird; the ravaged field - Jane Kenyon, Twilight: After Haying "Hot town summer in the city Back of my neck getting dirty and gritty Been down, isn't it a pity Doesn't seem to be a shadow in the city." "And where have you been, my Mary, And where you been from me?" "I've been to the top of the Caldon Low, The midsummer night to see!" "And what did you see, my Mary, All up on the Caldon Low?" "I saw the glad sunshine come down, And I saw the merry winds blow." "And what did you hear, my Mary, All up on the Caldon Hill?" "I heard the drops of the water made, And the ears of the green corn fill." "Oh!

tell me all, my Mary - All, all that ever you know; For you must have seen the fairies Last night on the Caldon Low." - Mary Howitt, The Fairies of Caldon Low "Great is the sun, and wide he goes Through empty heaven with repose; And in the blue and glowing days More thick than rain he showers his rays. Though closer still the blinds we pull To keep the shady parlour cool, Yet he will find a chink or two To slip his golden fingers through. The dusty attic spider-clad He, through the keyhole, maketh glad; And through the broken edge of tiles Into the laddered hay-loft smiles. Meantime his golden face around He bares to all the garden ground, And sheds a warm and glittering look Among the ivy's inmost nook.

Above the hills, along the blue, Round the bright air with footing true, To please the child, to paint the rose, The gardener of the World, he goes." - Robert Louis Stevenson, Summer Sun "The frog half fearful jumps across the path, And little mouse that leaves its hole at eve Nimbles with timid dread beneath the swath; My rustling steps awhile their joys deceive, Till past,--and then the cricket sings more strong, And grasshoppers in merry moods still wear The short night weary with their fretting song. Up from behind the molehill jumps the hare, Cheat of his chosen bed, and from the bank The yellowhammer flutters in short fears From off its nest hid in the grasses rank, And drops again when no more noise it hears. Thus nature's human link and endless thrall, Proud man, still seems the enemy of all." - John Clare, Summer Evening, 1848 All soft and still and fair; The solemn hour of midnight Breathes sweet thoughts everywhere, But most where trees are sending Their breezy boughs on high, Or stooping low are lending A shelter from the sky.

And there in those wild bowers A lovely form is laid; Green grass and dew-steeped flowers Wave gently round her head." - Emily Bronte, Moonlight, Summer Moonlight "I see the boys of summer in their ruin Lay the gold tithings barren, Setting no store by harvest, freeze the soils; There in their heat the winter floods Of frozen loves they fetch their girls, And drown the cargoed apples in their tides. These boys of light are curdlers in their folly, Sour the boiling honey; The jacks of frost they finger in the hives; There in the sun the frigid threads Of doubt and dark they feed their nerves; The signal moon is zero in their voids. I see the summer children in their mothers Split up the brawned womb's weathers, Divide the night and day with fairy thumbs; There in the deep with quartered shades Of sun and moon they paint their dams As sunlight paints the shelling of their heads. I see that from these boys shall men of nothing Stature by seedy shifting, Or lame the air with leaping from its hearts; There from their hearts the dogdayed pulse Of love and light bursts in their throats.

O see the pulse of summer in the ice." - Dylan Thomas, I See the Boys of Summer If the first week in August is unusually warm, the coming Winter will be snowy and long. For every fog in August, There will be a snowfall in Winter. If a cold August follows a hot July, It foretells a Winter hard and dry. Dry August and war, Doth harvest no harm. - Thomas Tusser Typical Weather for Our Area Normally, in August, we have daytime high temperatures of 96�F (36C), nighttime low temperatures of 64�F (18C), and we get .2 inches of rain. Our Path in the Valley Blog Follow the seasons in the Northern California garden of Karen and Mike with their notes, links, resources, quotes, poems, and photos. August Gardening Chores for Us Water plants: take advantage of cool morning hours, use daytime shade, use mulch, water plants deeply and less frequently. Water in the early morning. Use any ditch water carefully and wisely. Move potted plants to areas that get some shade in the afternoon, e.g, along the east side of a fence that runs north/south. Water potted plants carefully on very hot days.

Mow lawns. Mulch and compost: cuttings, leaves, twigs, chips, shredded paper, garbage. Water compost pile areas. Manage cutworms, larva, grasshoppers and other garden pests. Weed around vegetables. Use mulch to help control weeds and cool soil. Maintain the lawn mowing equipment and power tools. Work on carpentry projects. Pick and save or eat fresh vegetables and fruits. Thin out excess fruit on trees. Mulch with straw, chips, compost. Train vines on support structures. Read, listen to music, practice your musical instrument, relax and sleep in the shade. Tend to and enjoy annuals in bloom. Maintain lawn: water, fertilize, mow, clean, plant, spray, etc.. Mulch, mulch, mulch, mulch.... Harvest and preserve fruits and vegetables. Paint outdoor art objects. Cut and stack wood so it can dry thoroughly.

Question: In which month of the year does Lammas Day fall?
Answer: August