I've been dropping the ball on posting from the Illuminated Book of Days lately. Need to get on track!


March 10: After having been engaged by seven other princesses, Charles V of Spain marries Isabella of Portugal, 1526.

March 11: Shad is a fish native to American waters; the Dutch settlers called it elft, which means "eleventh", because the first day for catching shad was March 11th. It was one of George Washington's favorite dishes.

To clean raw silks and ribbons, an old housekeeping book recemmends paring four or five good-sized potatoes, slicing them very thin, and laying them on a quart of cold water for a few hours. The silk should be sponged with the potato water and ironed dry; the starch from the potatoes is said to cleanse the silk and give it a little stiffness.



An old superstition says that it is best to sow and transplant when the moon is waxing, never when it is waning. This has recently been proved true scientifically.