Eliza Daley ~ Wordcraft & Musing on Home & Hope
The Feast of the Assumption It is the Feast of the Assumption. In the Church calendar, this is the day Mother Mary was taken bodily up to heaven without the inconvenience of dying first. But in the older calendar of Europe, this was the time when it was recognized that the heat of summer was… Continue reading The Daily: 15 August 2026
The Hay Moon, or Mead Moon, went dark yesterday in spectacular eclipse at 1:36pm. Today begins the Blueberry Moon. This is the tenth lunation of my calendar. It is new between 19 July and 16 August, full between 2 August and 30 August. The Blueberry Moon of 2026 is very late, another three days and… Continue reading The Daily: 13 August 2026
Supposedly, the Dog Days have ended, but you wouldn't know it by the weather. It has been hot and humid for days, with no rain to break the heat. Not even much of a breeze most days. Just relentless heat. And... well... I'm not going to tell you what temperature wilts a Vermonter and sends… Continue reading The Daily: 10 August 2026
Lammas It's the probably not-terribly-ancient festival of bread, Lammas, Hlaf-mas, Loaf Mass. This holiday is possibly an English variant on the Irish first fruits and fair festival of Lughnasadh, but compacted into one day and generally lacking any ritual or narrative. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, churches in East Anglia constructed elaborate… Continue reading The Daily: 2 August 2026
Midsummer's Day is long past. We saw the last of the 15-hour days in my part of the world on July 20th, and the shortening of the days is hastening toward the autumn equinox. We lose over two minutes of daylight each day now, and sunrises and sunsets are rolling south on the horizon by… Continue reading The Daily: 27 June 2026
Crom Dubh Sunday In many northern communities, July is a hungry month. The spring flush of greens and quick-growing roots like radishes and beets may still be trickling out of the garden, but most have bolted and run to seed. However, those that remain are long on fiber and short on calories, and little of… Continue reading The Daily: 26 July 26
Nature, having stridently and unambiguously declared Her many objections to the hatred and corruption on flagrant display in my country's center this week, decided to release us from the hellscape weather Her fury has inflicted upon us of late, instead gifting central Vermont with an absolutely divine day. No smoke. No crushing heat and humidity.… Continue reading The Daily: 6 July 2026
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... Canada is on fire again. More than 130 active blazes are darkening the skies and sending smoke trailing southeast (so... here...), with the vast majority of the fires listed as "out… Continue reading The Daily: 3 July 2026
June 9th, was the Roman feast of Vesta. This festival fell within the state holiday of Vestalia, and it did have state rituals assigned to it. But mostly it was a festival of the plebs, and particularly of the army of bakers that kept the Romans fed. So this is a grain harvest festival tied… Continue reading The Daily: 9 June 2026
As you might have noticed, I have not had time to do anything but work and then garden. The weather finally warmed enough to get the planting done... So... I moved all the indoor plants outside. The weeds are pulled and the grass is reined in. Tomatoes and chiles are outside, still in their flats,… Continue reading The Daily: 8 June 2026
By My Solitary Hearth 