Eliza Daley ~ Wordcraft & Musing on Home & Hope
The Old Farmer's Almanac says that it's time to start paying attention to the potatoes. In my garden you can hardly not pay attention to them. The potatoes are reaching out and grabbing attention. Passers-by are rubber-necking the veg. The potatoes are so prolific this year, I'm afraid there might be accidents. It's starting to… Continue reading The Daily: 22 July 2024
Today at 6:17am the Hay Moon was full, so tonight's moonrise is the closest to full. This ninth moon of the year is also called the Corn Moon. Though I have already written off summer and moved right on to fall, today the season of Midsummer shifts to Lughnasadh, fair season, gathering season, a time… Continue reading The Daily: 21 July 2024
Shortly after the Ides of July (Tacitus claims the date is July 18th), sometime around 390BCE (Plutarch says 387, Polybius says 393), a small (or medium, or large) force of the Gallic people known as the Senones (possibly intermingled with Etruscans), fought a battle at the River Allia where it flows into the Tiber and… Continue reading The Daily: 18 July 2024
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. In the last week, my sister down in Phoenix has seen a long chain of daytime highs of over 115°F (46.1°C) with nighttime temperatures never… Continue reading The Daily: 15 July 2024
Whose Independence... It is early July. In my country, we set fire to gunpowder and other explosives wrapped in paper — which are produced almost entirely in extremely hazardous conditions outside of this country — to mimic the actual gunpowder explosions that presumably were the background for the signing of a document that declared this… Continue reading The Daily: 4 July 2024
Things to look forward to... visiting a museum 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... Either way, it is the hottest time of the year in northern climes. My mother keeps calling to tell me the latest and… Continue reading The Daily: 3 July 2024
Paul Bunyan Day Paul Bunyan statue in Bangor, Maine. (Wikipedia) It’s that special day in June again. No, not that solstice thing. No, forget graduation. No, not the wedding thing. It’s Paul Bunyan Day! A day to celebrate an absolute idiot who blundered through the north woods, wearing plaid flannel, leading a bull named Babe,… Continue reading The Daily: 28 June 2024
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 2024
Summer Solstice Today is the solstice; today, the sun stands still. Well, actually, if you've read much of anything I've written, you know that 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 16 June to… Continue reading The Daily: 20 June 2024
Juneteenth Today is Juneteenth. Specifically, today is the 159th anniversary of the reading of General Order No. 3 by Union Army general Gordon Granger. This was the order which served as the Texas version of the Emancipation Proclamation, a full two years after President Lincoln and the federal government (such as it was) freed all slaves.… Continue reading The Daily: 19 June 2024
By My Solitary Hearth 