The Druid’s Diary

The Calendar

The Druid's Diary & Calendar began when I read how in ancient times people most probably used a calendar of Lunar Months, and with the beginning of the Month being marked by the Full Moon, as this was a very obvious sign to take notice of.

So I thought I would make a Calendar that would help me define these Lunar Months. And so the Druid's Calendar was born. While I was building it, I thought I might as well allow the user decide how they want to define the Months, so I made it a choice between Gregorian, Ogham, Zodiac, & Lunar. And as we now define the start of a Lunar cycle at the New Moon, I made it so the user could decide how they wanted a Lunar Month to start, either on the Full Moon or the New Moon.

As the Calendar developed I knew I had to show something of interest on each day, so I added the Phase of the Moon, as well as the Rise and Set times of the Sun and the Moon. I also show the Solstices and Equinoxes by colouring the day. And I added other events like Eclipses, clicking on these events will reveal more information about them.

The Diary

In Australia it can be difficult to define the passing of the Seasons by events in Nature. Events seem to happen erratically, and lots of plants and animals change their behaviour based on the weather. For example, plants that used to flower once a season can be seen flowerinf 4 or 5 times during a hot year. So for me, it has always been hard to develop my own set of seasonal triggers to mark the passing of time.

So once I had the Calendar developed, I thought I could add a Diary, a place I could record each day in a way that would show me in a visual way what is happening around me over time.

Each day I go out for a walk, and I just make some short notes on what I see, I give Cloud a number value between 1 and 100. If the sky is covered with Cloud, it is 100, if there is none, it is 0. I do the same for Rain & Wind. I don't use any specific data for this, just my own perception. For temperature I record a High and a Low. And then I write down what Animals stand out to me, what Trees and Plants stand out, and what Trees and Plants are Flowering.

And then I enter them into my Diary. I have create Categories that the user can set up themselves. These can be a number value, a number range, a text entry, or a page entry. The page entry Category allows you to keep a journal in the Diary.

The best part of the Diary comes when you click the "Details" link above the Category name or icon. If the Category is a number type, you will be shown a page with a graph of the values over the selected period. You will also be shown the average for that period. The more entries you have, the more valuable this data becomes, and you will begin to see any patterns that may emerge.

In a text Category you will be presented an overview showing how often any words were used, from most to least. So for example, you will see which Animal was the most common over a period, or which plants were flowering. (this part is still a work in progress and will be updated as more data is added.)

In a page Category, clicking the Details link will show you a page with your journal entry. Previous and Next links allow you to flip through the pages. You can easily edit the entries as you go.

To find out how to set up your Calendar and Diary, please click through the instruction pictures here