Eliza Daley ~ Wordcraft & Musing on Home & Hope
It is the 250th Independence Day... I did try to get into the spirit of this milestone anniversary. But the Trumpies are doing their level best to quash any patriotic fervor. Have you seen what they consider celebratory? I've lost count of the insults and affronts — from a cage fight on the White House… Continue reading The Daily: 4 July 2026
The Dog Days begin today. This is when Sol and Sirius shine together all day long, creating blast-furnace heat. Or maybe that's just carbon... Canada is on fire again. More than 130 active blazes are darkening the skies and sending smoke trailing southeast (so... here...), with the vast majority of the fires listed as "out… Continue reading The Daily: 3 July 2026
The eighth moon in my calendar is the Strawberry Moon. It is new between 22 May and 19 June, full between 5 June and 3 July. This year the Strawberry Moon is full tonight at 7:56pm here in the Eastern Daylight Savings Time Zone. This is not something that happens on local time. The Moon is full at… Continue reading The Daily: 29 June 2026
Today is St John's Day and Midsummer's Day. Last night, the faeries ran amok. Tomorrow is the last day with over 15 1/2 hours of sunlight. The waxing Strawberry Moon is in its second quarter and will be full on the 29th. It may seem like summer has hardly begun, but we are halfway through… Continue reading The Daily: 24 June 2026
Tonight is the night that Shakespeare had faeries running amok in the woods around Athens. This is Midsummer's Night, tomorrow being Midsummer's Day. Folklore has it that this is the best time to go find the Good Folk, though lore also makes it pretty clear that you may be in for trouble if you do.… Continue reading The Daily: 23 June 2026
June 22nd is the feast day of St Alban, one of the first British martyrs to the Christian faith, a sort of protomartyr, in fact. It is said that Alban was beheaded by Roman authorities on this date, though the year this happened may be any time between 209 and 304. Stained-glass portrait of St… Continue reading The Daily: 22 June 2026
Summer Solstice Today is the solstice; today, the sun stands still. Well, actually, it's been standing still for a few days now, and it will continue to do so for a few more days. In my part of the world, from 17 June to 25 June, day length is 15 hours, 30 minutes, and a… Continue reading The Daily: 21 June 2026
June 9th, was the Roman feast of Vesta. This festival fell within the state holiday of Vestalia, and it did have state rituals assigned to it. But mostly it was a festival of the plebs, and particularly of the army of bakers that kept the Romans fed. So this is a grain harvest festival tied… Continue reading The Daily: 9 June 2026
As you might have noticed, I have not had time to do anything but work and then garden. The weather finally warmed enough to get the planting done... So... I moved all the indoor plants outside. The weeds are pulled and the grass is reined in. Tomatoes and chiles are outside, still in their flats,… Continue reading The Daily: 8 June 2026
In the last few years I’ve seen a wide variety of people arrive at the conclusion that what we need as a society to avert self-destruction — self and everything else, that is — is a new religion. I’ve encountered novelists and sociologists (who might be predisposed), economists (who probably are not), celebrity chefs and… Continue reading The Daily: 7 June 2026
By My Solitary Hearth 