In case you have not encountered this resource before:

Juno Covella was written By Lawrence Durdin-Robertson in honor of the Goddesses of all nationalities and traditions.

Today, for example: The Matralia. (Seyffert, Dict.) "Matuta (usually Mater Matuta). An old Italian goddess of dawn and of birth, also goddess of harbours and of the sea, and hence identified with the Greek Leucothea. In her temple at Rome in the Forum Boarium, on the 11th of June, the Matralia, or festival of mothers, was celebrated in her honour by the women of Rome. . a matron who had not been married before was allowed to place a wreath on the statue of the goddess. The women first prayed for the well-being of their nephews and nieces, and then for that of their own children.

I'm enjoying this AMC show so far - and would say it is the best SF airing currently - that I am aware of.

I have not read the books but my SO has read the first of them and is also enjoying it. She can't recall a great many details from the book though - her memory doesn't work that way.

One tiny point that I am curious about - a detail that my SO doesn't remember - is whether the characters who have seen the Pez dispenser actually recognise duck as a duck? Do they know what ducks - or birds in general - are?

From episode 1, IIRC, it seems to be suggested that they did not understand what the things flying in the sky in the outside world were.

Anyway - what are your thoughts on Silo?

With the aim of stimulating discussion if there is anyone here...

With the solstice approaching, does anyone have any plans to celebrate?

I have very recently moved and although we now have a sizable garden surrounded by woodland and eminently suited to outdoor celebrations etc, anything that we are going to do this time will be pretty low-key - since we are still unpacking and generally recovering. We will have a fire of some kind - either outdoors or in the hearth that we now have indoors - I'm going to watch the sunrise and maybe we will plant the first thing in our garden: there is a pot of meadowsweet waiting.

Recently, I had The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher (the adult fiction pen-name of Ursula Vernon) recommended to me. It is inspired by, and is a approximate sequel to, Algernon Blackwood's The Willows.

The Willows - as with several other Blackwood tales - is clearly playing around with the original concept of 'panic' - the oppressive terror that you can experience in truly wild places, which was, according to the ancient Greeks, inspired by Pan. As such these tales are only a step or so distant from Lovecraft's cosmic horror - which embody the utter indifference of the universe.

Kingfisher's tales (I am now half-way through my second: The Twisted Ones) feature very engaging, very human protagonists and typically intersperse the horrific with cosy, mundane interludes and so have a very different tone to Blackwood (or Lovecraft), but do make for easy and enjoyable reading: still with some memorable imagery and concepts, but never really soul-raking stuff.

Has anyone else read any of her works? What do you think of them?

In my case it was very nearly a year ago. A contemporary opera, which I had my doubts about - having only seen one about 30 years back and finding it immensely dull (I should have twigged since they were handing out free tickets: the only reason I went. However this one was actually pretty good: Violet by Tom Could and Alice Birch - a metaphor on climate change with a great concept and some memorable performances.

It was part of a festival, and I also saw a couple of comedy shows in the fringe, both needing a deal of work before they would be going much further.

I was surprised to realise how long back these were. There was a time when I would expect to get to some type of stage performance at least every few months or so. However, I live in a fairly rural situation now, and it doesn't happen so often.

How about you?