Eliza Daley ~ Wordcraft & Musing on Home & Hope
It's dark. I know this happens every year. Intellectually, I am good with the decreasing daylight. I welcome the idea of more time to stew in the starlight, less time of constant chop chop chop in the sun. I welcome the idea... but I'm a bit more conflicted on the practical application. Especially when rain… Continue reading Wednesday Word: 6 October 2021
New England is just bonkers over autumn. It may be because we have these gorgeous sugar maples and morning mists and warm blue sky afternoons and loaded apple trees (every other year). It may be that we just like this season of impending doom. Three whole months to tune up the winter complaints. But in… Continue reading Wednesday Word: 22 September 2021
Time is telescoping again. I’m fairly certain I was just writing about Lughnasadh a few days ago, and here it is the autumnal equinox. The Full Harvest Moon will have risen and set by the time you read this. The blueberry bushes are picked bare; peaches are a sweet memory; tomatoes are just an annoyance… Continue reading Celebrating Harvest Home
When life hands you crappy plums — or when an adorable farmer who you seemingly can not deny (ahem) hands you crappy plums — it’s time to make plum jam. And plum sauce. And maybe some prunes, though I haven’t found my drying rack yet and am not completely sure it would work in this… Continue reading Ginger Peachy Plum Jam
A week or so ago the first of the maples were clearly changing colors. Maples seem to need more hours of daylight than most other trees. When day length is less than 14 hours, maples send their topmost leaves to sleep. This happens in the second week of August at Vermont latitudes. So by the… Continue reading Wednesday Word: 8 September 2021
There is an oldish adage among writers that claims that you almost always have to write the book that you want to read. I don’t know how true that is of fiction. I have a very difficult time coming up with narratives that I like and that have not yet been written, and I’ve read… Continue reading How Not to Garden
I bit off rather more than I can chew in one post. I started an essay on garden planning that I thought would be a nice little thing that would go well with this week's other posts. Maybe as much a photo opportunity as an article. It is not cooperating. It is already well over… Continue reading Excuses
I’m terrible at following recipes. I learned to cook from my grandmother who owned exactly zero cookbooks. Her recipe collection consisted of a few tattered notecards for family traditions and a head full of ideas. She was a master of flavor improv. I try my best to be like her. I do have cookbooks. Quite… Continue reading Kitchen Improv
Lately, I've been musing on the debate between those who claim that human nature is inherently selfish and those who say that we are oriented to cooperation and care. I am beginning to think that this is artificial, that the drive to name our nature is, in fact, an urge to excuse our actions. It… Continue reading The Wednesday Word: 18 August 2021
It’s planting season! And here you thought it was harvest, right? You’d be forgiven for thinking that. There is very little talk about autumn planting. For that matter, there’s also very little talk of spring harvests. But both are integral to having a food supply all year long. If you don’t have a harvest of… Continue reading Autumn Planting
By My Solitary Hearth 