Eliza Daley ~ Wordcraft & Musing on Home & Hope
Today is All Hallows' Eve, Hallowe'en, the first night in the ancient new year's festival that Celtic language speaking people called Samhaine. We hardly remember that it was once a sacred festival, celebrating endings and beginnings, nor that it was "converted" by the Catholic Church into a day for honoring the dead. It's possible that… Continue reading Cookies for Hallowe’en
That gardening works always takes me by surprise. I put these hard and cold and seemingly inert nuggets into dirt and, wondrously, plants happen. Black dirt turns green with sprouts. Flowers follow. Bees, birds and all manner of critters appear and get busy where before there was nobody doing much of anything. And in the… Continue reading A Garden of Wonder… Still
Alyssum: still going, also still feeding bees and hover flies Today is one of those mini-marker days in my annual round, a day when there is a tangible sign that the dark season is here. Sunset here in my part of the world is just before 6pm today and, same day, sunrise is just before… Continue reading In Rotation
I’m still on the subject of heat. I imagine many of you are as well, given that the weather in the Northern Hemisphere is turning cold, and there’s this ongoing fuel crisis where it’s coldest… We haven’t had a hard freeze here yet, but it’s been cold enough to drape frost over the fields on… Continue reading Heat: A Common Concern?
It’s getting cold in Vermont. We’ve had more than one day that did not top 50°F. But so far, we’ve not had a frost. So I’m still puttering along in the garden as much as I am able. Which is not much this week, being that it’s been raining every day and at least one… Continue reading Winter Approacheth
I realized this week that not everybody knows how to winterize a home. I grew up with wood heat and old houses. I’ve spent the last many years in New England living in even older houses. My Massachusetts farmhouse didn’t even have heating ductwork. (It did have fabulous iron grates in the floors for the… Continue reading Winter Fluff
So... this is just a short post to say that there won't be much from me this week. It is homecoming at the university this weekend. As Person-in-Charge-of-Stuff and Person-in-Charge-of-Events, I won't get another break until they all go home on Sunday afternoon. And with our store manager out with something that is not-COVID but… Continue reading cannot brain today…
To begin with, I have a mild case of COVID again. (Because, hello, People in Charge of Workplace COVID Policies, working in close quarters with someone who has tested positive in the last fortnight, even if masked, means certain transmission for many of us. But, by all means, pay me to sit at home and… Continue reading Not a Garden
I have a strong inclination toward hygge culture. This is not merely that I like being comfortable and among friends… or maybe it is… because those are far more profound than our mainstream EuroWestern culture allows… but I tend to think of it in more philosophical terms. Being comfortable and among friends is precisely the… Continue reading Just Peachy!
It was bean week. Tying up the climbers. Corralling the bush beans. Pulling the stupid Japanese beetles off of the drying beans. Harvesting the pod beans then processing that pile. I also decided to go back to making my own hummus. I don’t know why I ever stopped. I vaguely remember it being difficult to… Continue reading Bean Week
By My Solitary Hearth 