Eliza Daley ~ Wordcraft & Musing on Home & Hope
I listen to quite a lot of music. Not much of it feels rooted or even connected to Earthly life. I'm beginning to wonder if many of our problems stem from an inability to celebrate what is life-affirming. Maybe we need an aesthetic of the hearth and home, of the constant and congenial and communitarian.… Continue reading We Need New Songs…
There was ice on the garden at the beginning of the week. Today, there are snowdrops and crocuses. And honeybees! The bud scales have dropped off the apple trees and the lilacs are beginning to open. I can walk to the mailbox without a coat and I've had the curtains drawn wide all day. I'm… Continue reading The First Flowers of Spring!
Vermont has food waste laws. We can’t put anything edible or compostable into the trash. On the face of it, this is a good law. It’s a bit murkier in practice. First, like most of New England, maybe most of the country by now, there is no municipal waste collection in my city. We pay… Continue reading On Cold Composting
My kitchen faucet started leaking last week. Once upon a time, this would have been cause for something close to panic. I am not a handy person. The skills I possess come through hard work and practice, and I don’t practice plumbing. It takes quite a lot of remedial tutoring for me to even get… Continue reading The Lesson in an Ex-Leak
Today is Pi Day, 3.14… (The date sort of breaks down after the first two decimal points. It was fun in 2015 though…) I had intended to make a vegetarian shepherd’s pie, but I hadn’t finished eating the potato, leek and fennel soup I made earlier in the week. So there wasn’t a great deal… Continue reading Pie in the Sky Day
March 11th is Penny Loaf Day, though it is also traditional to set the observance to the Sunday closest to 11 March. This is an obscure holiday that I’d like to revive. Because first of all, it involves bread (so, duh, of course!), and second it celebrates generosity that has endured for nearly four centuries.… Continue reading Penny Loaf Day
About this time of year the maple trees around New England become festooned in bright tubing. It isn’t as romantic as the old-timey, hanging-bucket pictures on all the syrup bottles, but it’s much easier to maintain and keep clean. The trees are tapped (meaning a small hole is drilled down to the inner bark) and… Continue reading Sugar Season!
It is that difficult period of winter-into-spring. It is assuredly not spring weather out there. As I write this, there is a four foot deep mound of snow all along the side of my path and it’s 8°F as the dusk gathers. That’s -13°C for the rest of the world. The forecasted low is -12°F,… Continue reading Simple Living Style v Simply Life
It is Twelfth Night, the last night of Christmas and the night before Epiphany, the festival of the Wise Men. This is the night when all the drummers show up along with a veritable cacophony of birds; a party of lords, ladies and colorful others; and quite a few cows. I'm not sure I would… Continue reading Wednesday Word: 5 January 2022
Saturnalia begins on Friday this week. Much like with Mardi Gras, this holiday is not particularly my thing. But I do relish the breakdown of order. All the more so since I'm not overly fond of most order these days. Tricksters in the Tree The David and David tome that everybody is reading right now… Continue reading Wednesday Word: 15 December
By My Solitary Hearth 