Eliza Daley ~ Wordcraft & Musing on Home & Hope
In the continuing saga of plunder and extortion that is life in the 21st century... Son#1 and I went down to visit Son#2 and his new wife for a Thanksgiving with his "caravan of exalted, super-twinkly, international friends." (Name that quote and you can probably figure out where I was...) This was a long-planned trip.… Continue reading An….d We’re Back…
19 November 2022 This weather is not doing things by half, I'll give it that. We went from the longest growing season on record — 181 days, theoretically long enough to grow even protracted growing season veg like okra — with the official first frost date ringing in at 28 October, to... well, there's a… Continue reading The Daily
I've always been confused by the idea that there is an economy that is not land-based. Everything comes from the Earth, from the air that we breathe to every single resource we toss into our toolkit. But even a narrow interpretation of the land economy as farming makes no sense. There is no other economy.… Continue reading Owning Earth
17 November 2022 First, here are some pictures of snow from our first storm of the season. These were taken Wednesday morning before it was done dumping. Veg beds under snow Garden path before shovels Perennial beds under snow Flocked arborvitae The inevitable closing of the road out of my neighborhood... only temporary, but still...… Continue reading The Daily
Welcome to The Daily Daley! It may not prove to be daily, but it will certainly take up the slack that social media's implosion is creating in my writing life. Here will be snippets of weather, of gardening and cooking, of myth and folklore and history. Here will be my equivalent of funny cat pictures… Continue reading The Daily, 13 November 22
On November 11th at 11 in the morning, we practice a moment of silence for two minutes to remember the day we reached an accord and agreed to lay down arms after the brutality of World War 1. A century ago we stopped fighting. Soldiers came home. It was a time very like this. A… Continue reading Martinmas
Demon Copperhead Barbara Kingsolver Harper, 2022 I preordered Barbara Kingsolver’s latest book from our local bookstore because that’s just something I do, buy Barbara Kingsolver books. I had no idea what this one was about, had only a vague notion on the title, didn’t much care. I’ve never been disappointed by her writing. And I… Continue reading Demon Copperhead & an Idea
I am usually behind the times. No help for that. I find my kitchen and garden and books and making and doing far more interesting than much of what passes for au courant. Heck, I find sitting staring out the window far more interesting. Especially if there are crows. So I'm normally not motivated to… Continue reading Unmediated?
In Tolstoy’s Calendar of Wisdom, he says that a “man” does not fear death. “Fear of death is our animal nature,” he claims. I don’t know that any part of that is accurate. To be sure, we have a very unhealthy relationship to death. We tell ourselves stories of our mastery of death, of death’s… Continue reading The Day of the Dead
It is All Saints Day, All Hallows, the ancient new year festival called Samhaine, which is usually translated as “end of summer”. Last night was the All Hallow's Eve, Hallowe'en, a new year's eve in former days with all the sweet treats, riotous good fun, and debauchery that entails. This is one of the few… Continue reading All Hallows: An Entanglement
By My Solitary Hearth 