Ruminations of an Amateur Monastic
My beautiful bride Francine and I spent two or three hours this morning working on the garden. Honestly, we’ve been neglecting it this year, so there’s still a lot to do. The plan was to get as much done as we could before the rain came today. I focused my energies on the raised bed behind the chapel. Because we […]
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It’s a little hard to believe, but Ash Wednesday is just over a week away. Here at Pistachio House, we just took down the last of our Christmas decorations on Candlemas, and here we are practically in Lent already! The modern Roman Missal has a set of rubrics that cover the whole of Lent, before it digs into each day […]
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Tomorrow is the Solemnity of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist, so today is Saint John’s Eve. Throughout much of Europe, the tradition on this day is to light bonfires. Here’s ours from back in 2015. Saint John’s Eve, 2015 Not much of a bonfire, strictly speaking. This year’s figures to be much larger – I’ve got some old […]
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I came late to the hobby of woodworking, and I’m terrible at it. Like many people, I suppose, I took up a new pastime during the COVID-19 lockdowns. In my case, it was working wood. I use both power tools and hand tools: power tools for the big cuts and rough shaping, and handtools for the fiddly details. It’s fun, […]
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Tomorrow is the Solemnity of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist, so today is Saint John’s Eve. Throughout much of Europe, the tradition on this day is to light bonfires. Here’s ours from back in 2015. Saint John’s Eve, 2015 Not much of a bonfire, strictly speaking. This year’s figures to be much larger – I’ve got some old […]
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Earlier today as I was taking out the trash, I heard a symphony of panicked squawks from our hens in Paradise Towers. I’d heard that sound before. It could only mean one thing. One of the hens had died. And indeed, the three surviving hens were huddled near the body of Amelia, who we usually called “Big Red”. She was […]
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Today has been a busy, exciting, and exhausting day. This morning, after a series of interviews this week, I accepted an offer from GitHub, where I have been contracting much of the year. I also contracted with them for a year or so before the Plague. There are still some formalities – a contract to sign on Monday, a background […]
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Tomorrow being the Solemnity of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist, today is Saint John’s Eve. Throughout much of Europe, the tradition on this day is to light bonfires. Here’s ours from back in 2015. Saint John’s Eve, 2015 Not much of a bonfire, strictly speaking, but we do live in the city after all! Probably not going to […]
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This past Saturday – the Feast of Saint James – just after Prime, Francine and I walked out into the backyard. The hens over in our henhouse “Paradise Towers” were acting strange. Squawking and circling around. This was not the “I laid an egg” sound, or the “hey, hooman, where’s my feed and/or water” sound, or even the “danger” sound. […]
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Tomorrow being the Solemnity of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist, today is Saint John’s Eve. Throughout much of Europe, the tradition on this day is to light bonfires. Here’s ours from a couple of years ago. Saint John’s Eve, 2015 Not much of a bonfire, strictly speaking, but we do live in the city after all! Probably not […]
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Today is both the Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul and the twelfth anniversary of the day I wed my beautiful bride. It is, as I have said before, a “moment when everything changed, celebrated on a day when everything changed”. It’s important to mark those changes. Francine and I have a funny tradition. When I proposed to her, […]
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Today is both the Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul and the eleventh anniversary of the day I wed my beautiful bride. It is, as I have said before, a “moment when everything changed, celebrated on a day when everything changed”. It’s important to mark those changes. Francine and I have a funny tradition. When I proposed to her, […]
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This has been a crazy year. Here at Pistachio House, we had designated 2018 as the “Year of Hygge“. This was going to be the year that we concentrated on coziness. Pistachio House would be finally made into the cozy home we imagined. There would be coffee cake, walks, and new furnishings. It started out strongly enough, and it certainly […]
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Tomorrow being the Solemnity of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist, today is Saint John’s Eve. Throughout much of Europe, the tradition on this day is to light bonfires. Here’s ours from a couple of years ago. Not much of a bonfire, strictly speaking, but we do live in the city after all! So what’s the deal with John […]
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Although we live in a city, we keep hens. Our very first egg was laid and eaten on Ash Wednesday 2012. The hen that laid that first egg died today. Violet de Pistachio was preceded in death by her sister, Vera, who died on Thanksgiving day, 2012. She is survived by five members of her flock at Paradise Towers. She […]
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Happy twelfth day of Christmas! I hope you’re enjoying your twelve drummers drumming. This evening is called Twelfth Night, traditionally the vigil of the Epiphany. In my Monastic Diurnal, Epiphany begins with tonight’s Vespers. This was traditionally a time of feasting and festivity (all of which seem to include various varieties of enormous pastries) marking the end of Christmastide and […]
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Today in both the Extraordinary Form and the Benedictine Ordo is the Memorial of the Seven Holy Maccabees. Their story may be found in the Bible – provided you’ve got a Catholic or an Orthodox one. Martin Luther removed these books from his Bible – so if you don’t know their story, go read it! I happened to mention this […]
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