Eliza Daley ~ Wordcraft & Musing on Home & Hope
We are a week into Lent. The Sap Moon will be full on Friday. By the calendar, it is the middle of spring. But for all this weather... But maybe that is the point of spring. Maybe it's our ideas that are unseasoned. Humans celebrate the vernal equinox with stories of eggs and rabbits and… Continue reading The Daily: 11 March 2025
It is Ash Wednesday. In the Christian calendar, this day inaugurates the fasts of Lent. This is holy time, a period of 46 days of cleansing and purging the body and soul before the celebration of Easter. The time echoes the 40 days Jesus spent in the desert before he went to his death. Originally,… Continue reading The Daily: 5 March 2025
Today is Mardi Gras. I don't much celebrate Fat Tuesday. I like the pancakes, but that's about it. I don't drink much, certainly not when I have to be at work in the morning. I've no use for purple plastic beads. There aren't any parades round these parts — because who wants to be standing… Continue reading The Daily: 4 March 2025
Mardi Gras Means Pancakes... Ok, not really... Mardi Gras actually means Fat Tuesday, or more precisely, Fat Mars-day. The Romans dedicated the second day of the week to the planet named for their war god, Mars. The closest Norse equivalent to Mars was Tyr, or Tiw. Hence it became Tuesday in English and Mardi Gras… Continue reading The Daily: 3 March 2025
Lion and Lamb March is upon us once again. An Old English name for March was Hlyda, meaning “loud”, presumably referring to the roaring March winds. This name survived as Lide in the West countries. Eat leeks in Lide and ramsons in May, And all the year after physicians may play. — proverb from western… Continue reading The Daily: 1 March 2025
Today the Snow Moon goes dark at 7:45pm. Tomorrow is the new Sap Moon, which is the first moon of spring. Most years. Spring is nowhere in evidence here in central Vermont... but it has to be soon... Tomorrow is also the Economic Blackout, organized by the People's Union USA. What's that? Here is how… Continue reading The Daily: 27 February 2025
If Matthew finds ice, he breaks it. When the cat lies in sunshine in February If he doesn’t break it, he makes it all the harder. she'll creep behind the stove in March. St Matthias with his ice breaker... If there is sharp frost on Matthew’s Day, it will last till March. The fox is… Continue reading The Daily: 24 February 2025
There's almost four feet of snow on my garden now. And a "major nor'easter" to hit midweek. I am not sure how the past weekend's nor'easter was not major, given that it snowed more or less continuously from Saturday afternoon to this morning. (It is probably still snowing as some of you read this.) There… Continue reading The Daily: 17 February 2025
February First Fruits & Quirinalia To highlight just how different the seasonal cycle is depending on latitude, mid-February, the last ides period of the ritual year in Rome, was a festival of the first-fruit offerings. While here in Vermont we are barely thinking about the growing season, never mind able to see actual earth, during… Continue reading The Daily: 16 February 2025
A Benediction for Lupercalia Today is Lupercalia. This is one of the oldest festivals in EuroWestern culture and, in fact, likely predates the Euro-bits. As with most ancient things, this holy time is a dense web of themes that don’t all mesh together well, but somehow make a lovely tapestry when viewed from a certain… Continue reading The Daily: 15 February 2025
By My Solitary Hearth 