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All About Thyme
A Weekly Calendar of Times & Seasonings
Celebrating the Mysteries, Magic, and Myths of Herbs
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Susan Wittig Albert
July 9-15, 2007
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All About Thyme is a weekly celebration of herbs, spices, and the changing seasons. It's all about the plants that have given us pleasure, seasoned our food, healed our bodies, and fed our souls. It's about growing, cooking, using, crafting, and enjoying the herbs in our gardens. It's about our calendar, too, and the many ways that herbs have connected our human lives to the changing times and passing seasons.
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This Week's Special Days:
A Potpourri of Celebrations
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July is National Ice Cream Month.
My advice to you is not to inquire why or whither,
but just enjoy your ice cream while it's on your plate.
That's my philosophy.
—Thornton Wilder
- July 9: National Sugar Cookie Day.
- July 11: Let's declare today Love Your Basil Day. My garden is full of it—is yours?
- July 12: National Blueberry Muffin Day. Go for it.
- July 15: Get your umbrella. Today is St. Swithin's Day.
St. Swithin's Day if thou doth rain
For forty days it will remain;
St. Swithin's Day if thou be fair
For forty days ‘twill rain na mair.
—Traditional weather lore
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The Weather in Your Garden
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Saint Swithin was a Saxon bishop of Winchester in the ninth century. According to legend, he asked to be buried outdoors, so that "the sweet rain from heaven" could fall on his grave. For nine years, that's where he stayed—until the Winchester monks decided to move him to a splendid shrine inside the cathedral. The ceremony, planned for July 15, 971, was rained out, or so the story goes, and the rain continued for 40 days. Hence the prediction: foul weather on St. Swithin's Day will bring 40 days of rain—but not often enough to make it a reliable prognosticator, according to British meteorologists.
But there are other weather proverbs that might help:
- If the leaves show their undersides, beware of foul weather.
- When the dew is on the grass, rain will never come to pass.
- When you hear the rain crow call, the rain will fall.
- When the wind's in the south, the rain's in its mouth.
If these don't work, try looking at your garden. Clover, chickweed, dandelions, morning glories, anemone, and tulips are said to fold their petals prior to a rain. If the marigold opens before seven, you'll soon hear thunder; if they stay open all day, you're in for sunshine. And for predicting the temperature, try your local rhododendron, which furls its leaves as the temperature rises and falls: completely closed at 20°F, completely open at 60°F.
Who needs the weather man?
Excerpted from The China Bayles Book of Days, July 15.
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Things to Do This Week
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Celebrate Ice Cream Month and use some of that luscious lavender in your garden by making a batch of Happy Valley's Fresh Lavender Ice Cream. Or if you'd like something lighter, calorie-wise, pick one of Jim Long's bouquet of Fabulous Herb and Flower Sorbets. And check out his book, How to Eat a Rose. You'll find a great rose ice cream recipe on p. 28. Yum!
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Moon Gardeners, you have a good week ahead. The waning Moon is in Taurus on Monday and Tuesday (July 9-10), and in Cancer on Friday and Saturday (July 13-14). Earthy, feminine Taurus is said to be good for planting, especially potato and root crops. (In some USDA zones, now might be the right time to plant for a fall crop.) Also good for lettuce, cabbage, and leafy vegetables. Good things happen in the garden under a watery, feminine Cancer Moon: planting biennials, planting and transplanting perennials, and watering the whole garden are favored.
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Charmed by moonlight? If you'd like to walk in the garden and watch the moon, you'll want a garden that's as lovely by night as by day. Peter Loewer's The Evening Garden: Flowers and Fragrance from Dusk Till Dawn will show you how. You'll be enchanted from the very first sentence: "Let me tell you about the night..."
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Correction. Thanks to Sandra Menders, a native West Virginian, for being the first to point out the state flower of West Virginia (admitted to the Union on June 20, 1863) is the rhododendron. The lilac is the state flower of New Hampshire, which was also admitted to the Union in June (June 21, 1788).
Summer Schedule
All About Thyme is taking some time off this summer. Please look for us on the following dates: June 18, July 9, July 23, August 13, and August 27. We'll be back on our weekly schedule on September 10.
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Who's China Bayles?
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She's the beloved fictional herbalist in Susan Wittig Albert's popular mystery series, set in Pecan Springs TX. For more about her books, visit Abouthyme.com.
For more about herbs and the passing seasons, read China Bayles' Book of Days.
For more news and notes from Pecan Springs, read China's blog.
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Please forward this newsletter to anyone interested in mysteries, herbs, and gardening.
If a friend has forwarded this to you, click below to get your own subscription.
Subscribe to China Bayles' Weekly Herbal e-letter: "All About Thyme"
To unsubscribe: see link at the very bottom of this email.
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To read this e-letter on our website, click here: abouthyme.com/dayletters/070709.html
This newsletter is a publication of Susan Wittig Albert and it is provided free, via e-mail, to anyone, worldwide. ©2007 Susan Wittig Albert. Do not quote without specific permission.
Feel free to forward this newsletter to friends and colleagues with appropriate credit to Susan Albert.
This newsletter is designed, written, and edited by Susan Wittig Albert & Peggy Moody.
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email: salbert@tstar.net, webmistress@abouthyme.com
web: abouthyme.com
Susan's blog: susanalbert.typepad.com/lifescapes
China Bayles' blog: susanalbert.typepad.com/pecanspringsjournal
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