Eliza Daley ~ Wordcraft & Musing on Home & Hope
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 displays… Continue reading Lammas Muffins & Myths
Now the rudbeckia are opening. The topmost leaves on the maple trees have a faint wash of orange overlaid on green. And the roadside stands of goldenrod are beginning to turn into fields of sunshine. It is just shy of the season of Lughnasadh. We’ve nearly made it through July, and now the blessedly cool… Continue reading Roasting!
The morning glories are blooming. And the agastaches. And the monkshood! While the rest of the country is burning, deliquescing into lakes of molten misery, we in northern New England seem to be gifted with an early autumn. The mornings are cool, sometimes cold. Fog drapes the green mountains, drifting down to the river bed… Continue reading Autumn in July
It’s getting busy in the garden. There are tasks each day. Weeds to pull, fruit to harvest, and the occasional flowers to cut for the vase. This last I’m not doing very much, though, mostly because I’m not home enough to enjoy them. But also because I don’t have as many cutting flowers as I… Continue reading Of Weeds and Berries
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, and wielding an… Continue reading Paul Bunyan Day
... to Harvest! Vermont finally got some of the summer heat that the rest of the country has been enduring for weeks. Well, sort of. We managed a 40°F jump up to the lower 90s, but without the humidity. It’s not supposed to last, and we’ll likely be back to highs in the 60s by… Continue reading The Wheel Turns
The sun reaches its northernmost point on the horizon today. Tomorrow evening it turns around and starts heading south again. In the US, we call this the beginning of summer, but traditionally this is the middle, Midsummer. The official date of the Midsummer holiday is the 24th, much like the winter solstice holidays are tied… Continue reading Jungle to Veg Garden!
Sourdough, that is... This may not be news to many of you, but I’ve discovered that it is very difficult to maintain a sourdough culture in a household of one. I just can’t eat that much bread. I’ve had to do full refreshes on the critters each month because they pine when they get neglected… Continue reading A Problem with Culture
Let me just start with this declaration: weeds exist. There are people who will debate that one with me; but I remain staunchly convinced that some plants do not belong where they are growing, some are annoying wherever they grow, and a few just shouldn’t exist at all. (Oriental bittersweet… why?) This is apparently the… Continue reading On Weeds…
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 in the… Continue reading Home Soil
By My Solitary Hearth 