Eliza Daley ~ Wordcraft & Musing on Home & Hope
The predicted snow arrived last night. It is mostly over now. First snow doesn't linger, though the cold still steals into the gaps around these old windows. I'm looking out on a damp grey world, more than halfway to winter sleep. But lilacs and oaks seem caught unawares, with green and yellow leaves hanging limp.… Continue reading Wednesday Word: 17 November
In which there are beavers... The first moon of the lunar year begins in the wee hours of 5 November. This is my Winter Sleep Moon. The Old Farmer’s Almanac, which roughly uses Backwoods traditional names for lunations, calls the moon that is full in November the Beaver Moon. The beaver lodge in a pond… Continue reading Winter Sleep Moon
Long an irksome pull at the Math Lady lodged in my left brain, I decided I’d had enough with moon dis-logic. It is time for an intervention. Moon 101 for writers of all shades. Here is the imagery that pushed Math Lady over the edge: Facing south in the evening, she “looked over her shoulder… Continue reading A Moon Intervention
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
4 October is the feast day of St Francis of Assisi. You might know him as the irreverent but apt moniker, St Francis of the Birdbath, because that is where many of us encounter him. Bare-headed with the monk's tonsure, dressed in rough robes and coarse rope belting, he stands with one palm out, feeding… Continue reading St Francis of the Birdbath
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
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
Last week Stefanie Hollmichel posted this lovely observation on our nurturing planet. I think when we feel loved and nurtured, we in turn find it easier to love and nurture in return. Maybe part of our troubles come from not believing in the love and nurturing abundance of our Mother Earth. We has so abused… Continue reading The Wednesday Word: 25 August 2021
I wanted to write about the joys of getting up early in the morning in mid-August to watch the Perseid meteor shower. It is at its glorious peak right now with at least one blazing meteor every other minute and up to two per minute. This year with a young moon, there is no moonlight… Continue reading Perseids
Sunflowers & morning glories in August This is my favorite time of the year. There is the food, the cooling temperatures, and the lengthening night. But there are also the best flowers! This is the garden I wait for all year long. Sunflowers to asters, these are the flowers that speak to me. They are… Continue reading Language of Flowers for Ecologists — Autumnal Hues
By My Solitary Hearth 