Eliza Daley ~ Wordcraft & Musing on Home & Hope
I know I was just complaining about the weather, but I think I'm allowed another gritch-piece. Friends, while we in Vermont may not have an official frost-free date until the first week of June, it has not snowed in May in Vermont since 1996, and the next most recent May snowfall was in 1966. But… Continue reading The Daily: 18 May 2023
It has been a rough time in the garden! There was warmth, but not as much as predicted. This morning it was 39°F when I was recording the weather. I had planned on going outside to put some herbs in the ground, but I was not dressed for those temperatures so I decided to wait… Continue reading The Daily: 15 May 2023
We had frost this morning. I was nervous when I saw the sparkles on my porch roof. But it doesn't seem to have affected the garden. Perhaps the cool weather even helped the potatoes. They prefer to send out roots and shoots in cold, damp soil. I never had much luck with potatoes in New… Continue reading The Daily: 10 May 2023
Home Soil We need more geology in school. Or perhaps ecology. Probably both. If we are to survive, we need to understand who and what we are, and for that we need to understand this world that made us. We are earthly beings. We are small parts of a small planet on an average star… Continue reading The Daily: 9 May 2023
It is officially spring now. The groundhog woke up. Or maybe she had her babies under my neighbor's porch and is now able to leave the den for foraging. She is not traveling far. No further than my neighbor's front yard and the adjacent small patch of grass around my cold frame. She seems uninterested… Continue reading The Daily: 29 April 2023
A Red-Letter Day April 25th is a complicated date. It is St Mark’s Day, which is honored with a wide variety of celebrations; and it is Robigalia, an ancient Roman festival intended to propitiate the god — or demon — of wheat rust and thus ensure a good harvest. These disparate themes may actually be… Continue reading The Daily: 25 April 2023
The weather finally caught up with the calendar — and then it ran right on into July. It was over 80°F for the last several days. This is extremely unusual for April. Burlington was setting daily record high temperatures. My town probably was also, but records aren't as complete here. For comparison, in central Vermont,… Continue reading The Daily: 17 April 2023
Prune forsythia and lilacs after they flower. — The Old Farmer's Almanac First Planting Day! Peas and fava beans, soaking I gambled on the weather, betting that last night's freeze will be the last dip below 25°F and this week's projected 70s warmth will be as inspirational to the seeds as it is to me.… Continue reading The Daily: 10 April 2023
Last March I did some very rough calculations to see if it is possible to feed eight billion people without further turning this planet into a monoculture of humans. While these figures are in no way admissible in peer-reviewed publishing, I did conclude that it is possible to sustainably grow enough food on one acre… Continue reading The Daily: 7 April 2023
The fifth moon of my solar year is the Sap Moon. It is new between 24 February and 24 March, full between 10 March and 7 April. This is a period of rapid change. The Sap Moon rarely sees the same weather from year to year. When it’s early in the solar calendar, this month is… Continue reading The Daily: 6 April 2023
By My Solitary Hearth 