Holidays

Lughnasadh —
 Celtic Cross-Quarter Holiday

As we tend to do in early August, we celebrated an Irish tradition of feasting on the Cross-Quarter Holiday of Lughnasadh. For today’s feast, we enjoyed Irish Turkey Stew, a blend of turkey meat, broth, Keto-friendly veggies and a Guinness Beer.

About the feast:

Background

Lughnasadh (also spelled Lughnasa, Lugnasad, or in modern Irish Lúnasa) is a traditional Gaelic festival marking the beginning of the harvest season. It is one of the four major seasonal festivals of the Gaelic year, along with Samhain, Imbolc, and Beltane, falling around 1 August—roughly midway between the summer solstice and autumn equinox.

Origins and Name

The name comes from Old Irish Lugnasad, combining Lug (the god Lugh) with násad (“assembly”). An alternative theory links it to nás (“death”). In modern Irish it is Lúnasa (also the name of the month of August); Scottish Gaelic uses Lùnastal and Manx Luanistyn. It corresponds to the Welsh Calan Awst / Gwyl Awst and the English Lammas (“loaf-mass”).

The dinner was very good. And, No, we’re not fans of their pagan religion, but only of the traditions that were celebrated by our ancestors. We thank our Heavenly Father for the bounty of His hand in providing us with feasts most every weekend.

Happy Semiquincentennial!

The Founding of the United States of America
On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, formally declaring the 13 American colonies free from British rule. Drafted primarily by Thomas Jefferson, the document proclaimed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and listed grievances against King George III. This bold act of separation led to the Revolutionary War, which ended with victory at Yorktown in 1781 and formal recognition in the 1783 Treaty of Paris. The foundation was solidified in 1787 with the drafting of the U.S. Constitution, creating a federal republic with a system of checks and balances. These events marked the birth of a new nation dedicated to freedom and limited government ideals that continues to shape the world today.

Happy 250th Anniversary, America!

Cinco de Mayo

We enjoyed mini tacos after our trip today in honor of the Cinco de Mayo day. Click here.

We are having a comparatively light duty week as compared to the first quarter of the year. We did have an appointment with the Nephrologist down in Surprise today, which is the first of two such visits to the valley suburbs this week. The next one will be on Friday with the radiation therapy team. More about those later.

The trip today was without incident and we were back home before 1 pm even though we shopped at Safeway in town before home. Lots of puffy clouds today. Verna kept the camera going, but nothing worthy of note to post here.

I did get a nice photo of a Black Chinned Hummingbird during my morning walk. Click to enlarge.

An Astrophytum Flower

As the weather continues to warm as it is wont to do in late spring, more flowers are opening. This astrophytum (star cactus) flower opened in all its glory this afternoon in our cactus garden by the courtyard. Click on the image to enlarge.


Beltane

Today, we celebrated Beltane, a traditional Celtic holiday but with a definite US twist by having what amounts to a New England Corned Beef and Cabbage dinner. Everyone enjoyed the meal and the ancestral atmosphere.

Happy Easter!

We wish everyone a Blessed and Happy Easter Sunday! Christ is Risen! Hallelujah!

If we were to have gone to church this morning, we may have looked like this. However, we celebrated the resurrection at home with our own communion and worship services.

We also had a wonderful Easter Ham Steak Dinner thanks to Verna.

Thanks to the AI for this simulated dress-up photo. Click to enlarge.

Friday the 13th Sunset

While taking the dogs out on their “dusk walk,” I noticed that we were having a colorful sunset after a cloudy and sometimes rainy day. I happened to have my little Kodak PixPro FZ152 camera in my pocket, so I took this and a couple of other photos with this nice, but seldom used camera. The Samsung S23 with its built-in camera are usually my choice when not carrying my Canon EOS Rebel SL3. Click on the image above to enlarge.

This is a photo of the little pocket-sixed Kodak that I used:

It is a pretty good little camera with a myriad of functions and capabilities to include panorama mode, webcam mode, sport mode and various others. I only used the basic “Auto” mode with the zoom lens to capture the image at the top.

P.S. Happy Valentine’s Day tomorrow.