Eliza Daley ~ Wordcraft & Musing on Home & Hope
If Brigid visited your house with a blessing last night, show her your gratitude by beginning your spring cleaning in her honor. If you have a woodstove, today is a good day to clean out the ashes and begin spreading them on your garden beds. (If you live where the soils are already saline, especially… Continue reading The Daily: 1 February 2025
It's that time of year when I have to remind myself to eat... at least once a day. I'm just not that hungry in the late winter, especially in the morning. Breakfast is right out. Dinner is more of a snack. And there are some days when I am getting ready to brush my teeth… Continue reading The Daily: 27 January 2025
Today, we are not talking about the travesty of an inauguration that is happening somewhat south of here. I am doing my utmost to draw lines around my world and stay within those lines. I am not paying attention to things that I can't change and that don't truly affect me directly anyway. On that… Continue reading The Daily: 20 January 2025
Distaff Day, or St. Distaff’s Day, is an obscure and faded custom that has rather a bit more weight behind it that one might expect. The day is observed most often on January 7th, the day after Epiphany, the last day of the winter holidays. Less commonly, Distaff Day falls on the first Tuesday after Epiphany, being known as Distaff Tuesday in keeping with Plough Monday.
Tonight is Twelfth Night, the last night of Christmas and the long 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… Continue reading The Daily: 5 January 2025
There are many ways to divide up the year. We all use several different calendars — one based on months, one based on seasons, perhaps a school calendar or a business calendar. Some cultures emphasize the moon, with varying degrees of correspondence to the solar year. Some cultures don't bother with a framework and base… Continue reading The Daily: 24 December 24
I spent most of my adult life and raised my sons in a place where traditions are still living and enacted. Moreover, these traditions are understood. The reasons we do the things we do are well known and the source of endless discussion and debate. Nothing is simply the done thing. There must be both… Continue reading The Daily: 16 December 2024
Cranberry sauce was not part of Thanksgiving until the late 19th century. I feel this was their loss. This is the one part of the traditional Thanksgiving meal that I love, but not that jellied gunk that comes in a can — which is probably mostly sugar and red dye. The real sauce is delicious… Continue reading The Daily: 25 November 2024
I have never been particularly attached to Thanksgiving. It feels all wrong. It is supposedly a harvest festival, but it falls well after the harvest. It is lavished in the colors of autumn — which faded away weeks ago in the real world. It is based on a story that is neither factual nor especially… Continue reading The Daily: 24 November 2024
What Do We Do Now? Four years ago, we were adjusting ourselves to a future that did not include Trump. Biden was declared the winner of the 2020 election on November 7th, four days after voting ended. However, the counting had not ended. Republicans were filing lawsuits in crucial states, claiming that the counts were… Continue reading The Daily: 18 November 2024
By My Solitary Hearth 