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 2024
Today is St Brigid's Eve. In traditional cultures, this is when most of the ritual for Imbolg takes place. St Brigid is welcomed into the home with rush crosses and formal family ceremony and doors thrown wide. A bed is prepared by the hearth, and oats and cream are left on the doorstep. The fires… Continue reading The Daily: 31 January 2024
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.
I like days that have symmetry. Doesn't mean a thing, but it makes my goofy brain happy... Things to look forward to... baking something for someone My birthday is this week. It's supposed to be rainy and just above freezing. Maybe just below freezing. Either way, there are winter weather warnings for the next three… Continue reading The Daily: 24 January 24
These last few days we have been reminded that we live at high latitude and altitude here in Central Vermont. Temperatures have been hovering near 0°F. Saturday, it snowed all day, but it was so cold that it was falling as frozen mist, the individual flakes nearly invisible. But after eighteen hours of mist, there… Continue reading The Daily: 22 January 2024
Today, we remember Martin Luther King Jr on his actual birthday, rather than the closest Monday. Here is a good recording of one of the more well-known reasons we celebrate this man's life. I am home today for a change. This is the first job I've had in a long while that takes time out to… Continue reading The Daily: 15 January 2024
The third moon in my lunar year, the Wolf Moon, is new today. It is new between 28 December and 25 January; it’s full between 11 January and 8 February. This is the coldest time of year in the North. It is when stores of food are running low and hunger is stalking every home. This inhospitable month… Continue reading The Daily: 12 January 2024
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.
Plough Monday, an ancient rustic holiday that became attached to the Christmas holiday tradition, is on the first Monday following Epiphany (January 6). It is the traditional beginning of the agricultural year.
Take down all your Christmas ornaments by Twelfth Night to avoid bad luck for the rest of the year. — The Magpie and the Wardrobe by Sam McKechnie & Alexandrine Portelli I don't actually do this. I used to fret because I did not, or was not able to... because there are all these admonitions,… Continue reading The Daily: 5 January 2024
By My Solitary Hearth 