My computer had a wee bug... Because, this week, why not... It seems to be improving, but I might be short on posting for a few days. Eliza
The Daily: 21 July 2023
Author: Eliza Daley
I'm an inveterate book-slinger, gardener, baker, geologist & writer. This blog is a collection of book talk, recipes, gardening tips, observations & essays on nature & culture — with a healthy dose of armchair philosophy & sociology — my attempt to muddle through all the mess and feel the wonder of this world.
The Daily: 20 July 2023
This is a short, but irate, outburst. Apologies for the language... For a very long time I have been irritated at the word sacrifice used to describe what we have to stop doing in order to survive. It is an utterly appalling misuse of language and ideas. What is a sacrifice? What does that mean?… Continue reading The Daily: 20 July 2023
The Daily: 19 July 2023
Tuesday morning there was brown fog. Is is still smog when the smoke is from wildfires that are burning hundreds of miles away? Do we need a new term for foreign smoke and local fog blanketing a largely rural region? I looked out over the valley and couldn't see more than a couple blocks. It… Continue reading The Daily: 19 July 2023
The Daily: 18 July 2023
Yesterday, the Strawberry Moon went dark at 2:32 in the afternoon. So today begins the Hay Moon. I'm not sure how much hay-making we'll be doing in New England. Apart from the storms of the past week, it's been wet since early June, and before that it was very dry and very cold. In the… Continue reading The Daily: 18 July 2023
The Daily: 17 July 2023
Well, it was a disastrous week in the garden. No, not the weather. The rain harried the daisies and left the potatoes prostrate, but that happens every year to no effect except dishevelment. The rain hasn't even bothered the herb bed too much, though none of those plants like humidity and wet feet. No, the… Continue reading The Daily: 17 July 2023
The Daily: 15 July 2023
St Swithin's Day St Swithin's day, if thou dost rain, For forty days it will remain; St Swithin's day, if thou be fair, For forty days 'twill rain na mair. I've heard it said that great strawberries hardly ever happen in Vermont. I even know a guy who used to drive to the north border… Continue reading The Daily: 15 July 2023
The Daily: 14 July 2023
Having water destroy much of the state you live in —taking not the biblical 40 days to wreak havoc, but something like 8 hours — makes one rather conscious of adaptions that might be made to one's living arrangements. It's not good enough to clean up the mess and put it all back how it… Continue reading The Daily: 14 July 2023
The Daily: 13 July 2023
Central Vermont is in disaster rehabilitation mode after things decidedly fell apart on Monday. There are tubes snaking out of buildings, draining basements of water. Belongings are being corralled and cleaned. Trash and irreparably broken things are filling up bins. Front loaders are scooping up tons of mud and gravel from the roads, and trucks… Continue reading The Daily: 13 July 2023
The Daily: 12 July 2023
Today is Julius Caesar's birthday and the reason we call this month July. Then August? His heir... I prefer the Moon of the Flowers and the Nutting Moon and the Cold Moon. And of course the Wolf Moon. I think names matter. I think words matter. These are the ways we see the world and,… Continue reading The Daily: 12 July 2023
The Daily: addendum for 11 July
This is just to let you all know that I'm more or less fine. My home is well above flood levels, though my basement has some good puddles and the garage is a mud flat. However, my employer is, along with the rest of downtown, underwater. I'm sure some of you have seen images from… Continue reading The Daily: addendum for 11 July
By My Solitary Hearth 