Eliza Daley ~ Wordcraft & Musing on Home & Hope
If Candlemas be bright and clear there'll be two winters in the year. — traditional adage from Scotland Of Candles and Divinatory Beasts There are many weather marking days throughout the year. Candlemas, falling on 2 February, was the day that our ancestors began to get nervous about the spring. A fine Candlemas portends a… Continue reading The Daily: 2 February 2023
If Brigid visited your house with a blessing last night, show her your gratitude by beginning your spring cleaning in her honor. If you have a woodstove, today is a good day to clean out the ashes and begin spreading them on your garden beds. (If you live where the soils are already saline, especially… Continue reading The Daily: 1 February 2023
The Old Farmer's Almanac claims that raccoons begin their courtship on this day. I wonder how they know this. I also wonder how they find each other when burrows are so deeply buried under the snow. But they find their way to the trash cans, so perhaps they have good snow-clearing services in Raccoon World.… Continue reading The Daily: 31 January 2023
You can achieve wisdom in three ways. The first way is meditation. This is the most noble way. The second way is the way of imitation. This is the easiest and least satisfying way. Thirdly, there is the way of experience. This is the most difficult way. — Confucius (Tolstoy's Calendar of Wisdom for 29… Continue reading The Daily: 30 January 2023
Making Yogurt: In anticipation of Imbolg, we’re going to make yogurt, a fermented dairy product that extends the shelf life of fresh milk — and adds quite a bit of nutrition and delicious flavor.
In one of the more curious instances of holidays reclaimed from obscurity, Wales has resurrected St Dwynwen's Day on January 25th. St Dwynwen was a fifth century princess, the loveliest of King Brychan Brycheiniog’s twenty-four daughters, and the Welsh patron saint of lovers. Her day in the Welsh calendar has steadily grown in popularity since… Continue reading The Daily: 25 January 2023
A wise man seeks wisdom; a madman thinks that he has found it. — Persian proverb (from Tolstoy's Calendar of Wisdom for 24 January) The wolf month is underway. Soon it will be Imbolg, then Lupercalia, and then we're marching into March. But for now, it is winter and the Wolf Moon is waxing. The… Continue reading The Daily: 24 January 2023
The third moon in the lunar year is the Wolf Moon. It is new between 28 December and 25 January; it’s full between 11 January and 8 February. This is one of the latest Wolf Moons. In fact, most of the new moons of 2023 fall at the tail end of their range, leading to an interesting sequence… Continue reading The Daily: 22 January 2023
True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice. — Martin Luther King Jr Today we remember Martin Luther King Jr. His birthday is actually the 15th, but in recent times our culture has decided to stick holidays to the closest Monday so that there is always an actual… Continue reading The Daily: 16 January 2023
Distaff Day, or St. Distaff’s Day, is an obscure and faded custom that has rather a bit more weight behind it that one might expect. The day is observed most often on January 7th, the day after Epiphany, the last day of the winter holidays. Less commonly, Distaff Day falls on the first Tuesday after Epiphany, being known as Distaff Tuesday in keeping with Plough Monday.
By My Solitary Hearth 