Eliza Daley ~ Wordcraft & Musing on Home & Hope
So, when is winter over... I have about two feet of snow around the house. Even under the cedars, it's over a foot deep. I shoveled the walk last night and woke up to another 2-3 inches. I did not shovel today. It got up to 20°F today, and there was a bit of sun… Continue reading The Daily: 15 December 2025
Halcyon Days Now, here is an idea that seems to have forgotten its roots entirely. In our times, “halcyon days” refers to a golden past, a time when everything was wonderful. Sometimes it just means “youth” with overtones of innocence and insouciance. But this name has nothing to do with nostalgia. In fact, it’s an… Continue reading The Daily: 14 December 2025
Lucy Light Shortest day, longest night —traditional English proverb Before Pope Gregory tweaked the Julian calendar and caused a great deal of confusion, 13 December was celebrated as the winter solstice in Scandinavia. The poem by the late 16th century English writer, John Donne, “A Nocturnal upon St Lucy’s Day, Being the Shortest Day” shows… Continue reading The Daily: 13 December 2025
The Winter Sleep Moon, also known as the Beaver Moon (Old Farmer's Almanac) and sometimes the Cold Moon, is full today at 6:14pm, a few hours after moonrise in my part of the world. This is the third full supermoon of 2025, being large and silvery at moonrise; but our satellite is not quite as… Continue reading The Daily: 4 December 2025
Well, here we are in the last month of 2025. Does anyone else find it strange that we're a quarter century into the 21st century? There are adults who were not alive in the 20th century. The oldest millennials are in their 40s. Few people alive today have adult memories of the prosperity of the… Continue reading The Daily: 1 December 2025
Didn't I say last week that there would be ice on my walkway by this week? Well, yep, that happened. We had a doozy of a storm from Saturday night right through to Tuesday morning. Windy and cold and dark with about 2" of precipitation altogether. Mostly icy rain until Sunday afternoon, then mostly snow… Continue reading The Daily: 19 November 2025
Remembering is an act of resistance. Gaslighting is ineffective against a firm memory. The lies unravel when someone is keeping a close record. Want to be a true subversive? Then get the facts straight and tell the story. Footnotes help, but be wary of the oft-quoted sources. You can see who they're working for... I'm… Continue reading The Daily: 12 November 2025
This was the first weekend with no garden tasks. I had every intention of writing pages of prose and poetry. But did I? Nope... Instead, I had a weekend off. I made six pints of apple butter. Roasted a pie pumpkin and turned that into ginger pumpkin soup. Also made another round of spiced pumpkin… Continue reading The Daily: 10 November 2025
The Hunter's Moon rises full today at 4:17pm. The time of rising and setting varies by latitude. Those further north will see moonrise a little bit later, further south a bit earlier, but still somewhere around 4-5pm local time. However, the Moon will turn full at the same moment all around the globe, but at… Continue reading The Daily: 5 November 2025
All Hallows: An Entanglement Today is All Hallow's Eve, Hallowe'en, with all the sweet treats, riotous good fun, and spooky debauchery that entails. Tomorrow is All Saints Day, All Hallows, a reincarnation of the ancient Irish festival called Samhain, which means “end of summer”. Samhain is one of the few clear remnants from at least… Continue reading The Daily: 31 October 2025
By My Solitary Hearth 