by marionroach on November 1, 2009
NOVEMBER SECOND WELCOMES the full moon of November, called the Full Beaver Moon. We get our names for our full moons from the Native American tradition, this one because it signals the time before the swamps froze in which set out sufficient beaver traps to ensure having enough pelts to keep warm all winter. It’s also possible that this moon was so-named to mark that time of year when beavers are very active, as in “busy as a beaver,” preparing as they are—as we all are—for winter. How do I know this? I write and record the daily almanac piece entitled The Naturalist’s Datebook, heard exclusively on Martha Stewart Living Radio, Sirius 112/XM 157. Listen up. And see my other TSP almanac pieces here, including a recent piece on how I change my diet at the full moon, as well as at the new moon each month.
by marionroach on October 19, 2009
THE NEW MOON IS UPON US, and as I do every new moon, I change what I eat. Crazy? Better to call me a lunatic, since that relates to the moon, and so do I, when twice a month I get in sync with that the moon is doing and in doing so, lessen those stubborn, persistent womanly symptoms that kick up or kick in or just plain drag you down. [click to continue…]
by marionroach on October 7, 2009
OCTOBER SEVENTH IS THE BIRTHDAY of one of my favorite writers, Diane Ackerman, whose observations of nature have delighted millions of readers for many years. A recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, Orion Book Award, John Burroughs Nature Award, and the Lavan Poetry Prize, as well as being honored as a Literary Lion by the New York Public Library, she even has the rare distinction of having a molecule named after her, called dianeackerone. Ackerman’s essays about nature and human nature have appeared in The New York Times, Smithsonian, Parade, The New Yorker, National Geographic. I love A Natural History of the Senses, although who can resist her An Alchemy of Mind, Cultivating Delight: A Natural History of My Garden; The Rarest of the Rare and The Moon by Whale Light? My kind of woman, she once put a bat on top of her head to see if it would really get tangled in her hair. It didn’t. How do I know this? I write and record the daily almanac piece entitled The Naturalist’s Datebook, heard exclusively on Martha Stewart Living Radio, Sirius 112/XM 157. Listen up.
by marionroach on September 22, 2009
IT’S THE EQUINOX. Today marks what is known as the Autumnal Equinox, that time of year when the wonderful sun crosses the celestial equator and moves southward. This officially marks the beginning of Autumn in the Northern Hemisphere. [click to continue…]
by marionroach on August 31, 2009
I’LL FOLLOW THE SUN, is the popular Beatles’ lyric, and while I love the song, as well as its distinctly male point of view, it’s not mine. Or yours, probably, since women are oh-so-very-lunar.
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by marionroach on August 17, 2009
Margaret's cat, Jack, sticks his tongue out if you laugh at his weasel-tail collection.
CAT NIGHTS COMMENCE. August 17 brings us what are known as the Cat Nights, a brief period when cats are said to be particularly yowly. Is that so? We’ll have to ask Margaret, since she’s the cat-woman. Me, I’ve got the dog. “Cat Nights” is a term that comes to us from a time when many people believed in witches, and when it was thought that while a witch could turn into a cat and regain herself eight times, on the ninth time, August 17, she couldn’t change back. The result of this tradition is our saying, “A cat has nine lives.” How do I know this? I write and record the daily almanac piece entitled The Naturalists’s Datebook, heard exclusively on Martha Stewart Living Radio, Sirius 112/XM 157. Listen up.
by marionroach on August 11, 2009
OUT OF THE DOG DAYS. August 11 is the official last day of what is known as the “Dog Days,” those 40 days that began July 3 and coincide with the ancient rising of the Dog Star, Sirius. We call them the dog days for that reason, though these are also the days in which there is the year’s least rainfall. The term “Dog Days” was used by the Greeks as well as the ancient Romans, who called these days caniculares dies (translated as days of the dogs), again after the rise of Sirius, the brightest star in the heavens besides the Sun. How do I know? I’m the writer of The Naturalist’s Datebook on Martha Stewart Living Radio, Sirius 112 and XM 157. Listen up. (And that’s my best friend, Otter, above, shot by his best friend, my daughter.)
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