Eliza Daley ~ Wordcraft & Musing on Home & Hope
Today is All Hallows' Eve, Hallowe'en, the first night in the ancient new year's festival that Celtic language speaking people called Samhaine. We hardly remember that it was once a sacred festival, celebrating endings and beginnings, nor that it was "converted" by the Catholic Church into a day for honoring the dead. It's possible that… Continue reading The Daily: 31 October 2023
So the question of whether or not this house would be open for trick-or-treat business was answered for me. I spent Saturday doing most of the cleaning. I got all the rodent mess cleaned off the front porch in anticipation of making a spooky welcome out there. Nothing spooky about pumpkin rind gnawed up and… Continue reading The Daily: 30 October 2023
I saw the moon last night. It was almost full, shining silvery white in the early darkness of the eastern horizon. To the west there were clouds in orange and fuchsia, violet and lavender, festooning lapis skies. There were stars by the time I got home from work and my Friday night errands. I almost… Continue reading The Daily: 28 October 2023
I recently read a long and complicated essay on place-based adaptation to biophysical collapse. It discussed policy, transport, economics — all local, but all also rather superfluous to the human being. In talking of the inadequacy of urban housing, the author claimed that "nothing is more vital for human existence than shelter.” Except maybe food?… Continue reading The Daily: 27 October 2023
This is just a short, mostly small news brief for the week. But first the headline... Hurricane Otis made landfall over Acapulco, Mexico, yesterday morning. A hurricane in the eastern Pacific, where the coldest ocean waters are constantly upwelling, is singular enough. This is the strongest storm to hit the coast of western Mexico on… Continue reading The Daily: 26 October 2023
The Hunter's Moon is full on Saturday at 4:24pm. This is the 13th and last lunation of the luna-solar year. It can be full from October 28th to November 14th, so you can see that the months have shifted relative to the solar-based 12-month calendar. For most of the year, moons have been falling right… Continue reading The Daily: 25 October 2023
Magic as Wisdom I am an odd witch. Most would not consider me one at all. This is just fine with me, because most witches in history have not named themselves in that manner either, and not merely because it was rather bad for one’s health to claim the title. Most simply had no use… Continue reading The Daily: 24 October 2023
A Happy Mistake This weekend I discovered that if you accidentally pick up a quart of buttermilk and use that to make yogurt, you get a delicious cottage cheese and lots of whey. The funny thing about this mistake is that the kid at the check-out spent a long time trying to figure out how… Continue reading The Daily: 23 October 23
Where are all the people? My mail is sporadic. Before the flood, there were days now and then in which the box was inexplicably bare — there should be something every day because my newspaper is delivered through US Post. Which is questionable in and of itself. How much are the publishers paying for that… Continue reading The Daily: 20 October 2023
I have another book recommendation. This one will not keep you up until 3am, unless you get to page 161 and decide that you must read it all over again. As one does. Kayaking with Lambs is a collection of essays mostly pulled from Brian Miller's richly authentic farm journal, A South Roane Agrarian, where… Continue reading The Daily: 19 October 2023
By My Solitary Hearth 