Thule's 16th August

Greetings to our friends and community,

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Ah, summer! For me this summer has been deliciously calm and simple. Our beloved white, fluffy four-legged, Thule, begins his 16th solar return August 1; the feast day of Saint Roch, the patron saint of dogs, is August 16 so I have dubbed this month “The Dog Days of August”. No pushing energy here, we are on 16 year old dog time. I think we could be willing to sit for hours gazing at the garden relishing in amazement at photosynthesis, waiting for the tomatoes to turn red. If we feel like we “need to be doing something”, we pretend we are supervising the maturation of the avocado tree.

We often hear the expression, "the dog days of summer" and we generally assume these to be the hottest days the summer season brings. So where does the expression the “dog days of summer” come from? The stars!

Sirius is the brightest star in the summer sky, and is found in the constellation Canis Major (Big Dog). The star appears a brilliant white with a tinge of blue, or when it is low to the horizon, it seems to flicker and splinter with all the colors of the rainbow. Its distance is just 8.7 light years away, and it is the fifth-nearest known star. Among the naked-eye stars, it is the nearest of all, with the sole exception of Alpha Centauri. Many ancients thought the combination of the two brightest stars, the sun by day, and Sirius by night was responsible for the heat of summer.

It has also been called “The Sparkling One” or “The Scorching One”. In ancient Egypt, the New Year began with the return of Sirius. It was the "Nile Star" or the "Star of Isis" of the early Egyptians. The star always returned just before the river rose, and so announced the coming of floodwaters, which would add to the fertility of their lands. People then opened the gates of canals that irrigated their fields. In this hemisphere, the Mayan New Year begins on July 26, with the rise of Sirius at dawn.

Our summer plans: by day we will continue “supervising” photosynthesis; and by night we will get serious about Sirius.

Whatever your August plans include, may they be filled with joy and peace…

Teresa, Thule, Tucker and all at Paradise Found