Eliza Daley ~ Wordcraft & Musing on Home & Hope
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. From 17 June to 25 June, day length is 15… Continue reading The Daily: 21 June 2023
Juneteenth Today is Juneteenth. Specifically, today is the second anniversary of Juneteenth becoming a federal holiday and the 158th 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… Continue reading The Daily: 19 June 2023
Today is Father's Day in the US. I am ambivalent about both Sundays dedicated to our immediate forebears. I sometimes buy my mom little things for her garden or kitchen. I write my dad long emails which is his favorite mode of communication these days. I don't buy greeting cards or gifts and don't expect… Continue reading The Daily: 18 June 2023
June 15th, the Ides of June, was the last day of Vestalia. With great ceremony, the sanctuary of Vesta was cleansed and closed to the public for another year, the sustaining Vestal hearth-flame hidden behind walls that no man was allowed to pass. This is a slack time, a time when heat is intolerable and… Continue reading The Daily: 15 June 2023
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 2023
The seventh moon of the year is the Flower Moon. It is new between 23 April and 21 May. It is full between 7 May and 4 June. This year it is full right at the tail end of its period, at 11:42pm tonight. It will rise closest to full this evening as the sun is setting, at… Continue reading The Daily: 3 June 2023
The heat promised for last week failed to materialize. It never got much above 60°F, and I've had to keep the basil covered most nights to protect it from freezing. My neighbor planted tomatoes last Sunday. They were frost-killed by mid-week. I had planned to plant carrots and cucumbers on Monday evening, but the week's… Continue reading The Daily: 29 May 2023
Ancient Rome celebrated the festival of Rosalia, also called Rosaria, on one or more days from early May to the middle of July. The Oxford Book of Days claims the Rosalia fell on 23 May, so that's what I recorded in my calendar — though it is unusual to see a rose blooming in May… Continue reading The Daily: 23 May 23
The Greenleaf Moon is full at 1:34pm today. There is a penumbral eclipse with this full moon. In this type of eclipse the moon is in Earth's penumbra, so there is a dimming of the Moon, but no shape or color change like in a partial or total eclipse. This one is visible from large… Continue reading The Daily: 5 May 2023
the thorn queen she waxes full in fertile grace queen of quick and fay, she reigns in mantle green and seemly face quelling fear and mortal pains eternal mother, ever maid undying wisdom in her glance deathless weird is on her laid to spin th' unceasing wheel of chance again, she comes in crown of… Continue reading The Daily: 1 May 2023
By My Solitary Hearth 