Eliza Daley ~ Wordcraft & Musing on Home & Hope
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, even those that remain are long on fiber and short on calories, and little of the spring… Continue reading The Daily: 30 July 2023
Jesus at the Home of Martha and Maryby Harold Copping (1927) July 29th is the feast day of St Martha. Martha was the sister of Mary of Bethany and Lazarus. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus visits the house of the two sisters. Mary sits and listens to the teachings of Jesus, but Martha 'was… Continue reading The Daily: 29 July 2023
I took large chunks of the weekend — in which I could not do much vigorous work outside for all the Canadian smoke and could not write much for all the bugs in this machine — to clean up my house. (I think it's actually not this machine but something iCloud-derived because it's affecting my… Continue reading The Daily: 24 July 2023
Yesterday, the Strawberry Moon went dark at 2:32 in the afternoon. So today begins the Hay Moon. I'm not sure how much hay-making we'll be doing in New England. Apart from the storms of the past week, it's been wet since early June, and before that it was very dry and very cold. In the… Continue reading The Daily: 18 July 2023
Well, it was a disastrous week in the garden. No, not the weather. The rain harried the daisies and left the potatoes prostrate, but that happens every year to no effect except dishevelment. The rain hasn't even bothered the herb bed too much, though none of those plants like humidity and wet feet. No, the… Continue reading The Daily: 17 July 2023
Here we are, one third of the way through the month of July and heading into the last quarter of the Strawberry Moon. I had a couple good weeks of strawberry harvest before the rodents took over. There are still green berries out there, but they're gone before they turn red. More precisely, those with… Continue reading The Daily: 10 July 2023
I have a complicated relationship with the 4th of July, or maybe with July period because I'm just not a summer person, but especially the 4th. I don't feel any particular urge to celebrate the war that began this country. I'm a committed pacifist and do not honor violence. I don't even like military music.… Continue reading The Daily: 5 July 2023
The Dog Days are upon us. For me, this name evokes childhood afternoons spent with my collie, Toby, reading under the fig tree, swimming in river pot-holes, and generally doing as little as possible. I have never loved summer best. I’ve never liked heat. Nor did Toby. We invented all sorts of escapes. Mind you,… Continue reading The Daily: 3 July 2023
Paul Bunyan Day Paul Bunyan statue in Bangor, Maine. (Wikipedia) It’s that special day in June again. No, not that solstice thing. No, forget graduation. No, not the wedding thing. It’s Paul Bunyan Day! A day to celebrate an absolute idiot who blundered through the north woods, wearing plaid flannel, leading a cow named Babe,… Continue reading The Daily: 28 June 2023
Today is Father's Day in the US. I am ambivalent about both Sundays dedicated to our immediate forebears. I sometimes buy my mom little things for her garden or kitchen. I write my dad long emails which is his favorite mode of communication these days. I don't buy greeting cards or gifts and don't expect… Continue reading The Daily: 18 June 2023
By My Solitary Hearth 