Eliza Daley ~ Wordcraft & Musing on Home & Hope
This is just to let you all know that I'm more or less fine. My home is well above flood levels, though my basement has some good puddles and the garage is a mud flat. However, my employer is, along with the rest of downtown, underwater. I'm sure some of you have seen images from… Continue reading The Daily: addendum for 11 July
The Weather Well, today is a fun example of the new normal... Vermont is under flash flood warnings for the next 24 hours. Yes, that is all of Vermont. Many towns are being evacuated. Yes, whole towns. My garage had 3 inches of standing water this morning. It got up to about 5 inches before… Continue reading The Daily: 11 July 2023
I just got done reading a horror story. Or, maybe it's not supposed to be a horror story, but it sure gave me nightmares. Water Witches by Chris Bohjalian (1995, Simon and Schuster) is the story of a Vermont attorney and lobbyist who learns the hard way that what he does to make money is… Continue reading The Daily: 29 June 2023
Tonight is the night that Shakespeare had faeries running amok in the woods around Athens. This is Midsummer's Night, tomorrow being Midsummer. Folklore has it that this is the best time to go find the Good Folk, though lore also makes it pretty clear that you may be in for trouble if you do. I… Continue reading The Daily: 23 June 23
Today is Father's Day in the US. I am ambivalent about both Sundays dedicated to our immediate forebears. I sometimes buy my mom little things for her garden or kitchen. I write my dad long emails which is his favorite mode of communication these days. I don't buy greeting cards or gifts and don't expect… Continue reading The Daily: 18 June 2023
The weather continues be confusing. We finally got rain. It has been wet all week, though the precipitation has mostly been those sporadic misting showers that hardly reach the ground. Still, it's stayed humid and we did get a couple good soakings, one storm complete with lightning and hail. Could do without the hail. But… Continue reading The Daily: 12 June 2023
This is one of those years in which we skip spring, jumping from a dragging winter straight into sudden summer. Squally snow last week, upper 70s (°F) and thunderstorms forecasted for this week. I suppose that's appropriate as Friday was cold St Dunstan's Day and Saturday was the festival of Mjolnir, the thundering hammer. I… Continue reading The Daily: 22 May 2023
I know I was just complaining about the weather, but I think I'm allowed another gritch-piece. Friends, while we in Vermont may not have an official frost-free date until the first week of June, it has not snowed in May in Vermont since 1996, and the next most recent May snowfall was in 1966. But… Continue reading The Daily: 18 May 2023
It has been a rough time in the garden! There was warmth, but not as much as predicted. This morning it was 39°F when I was recording the weather. I had planned on going outside to put some herbs in the ground, but I was not dressed for those temperatures so I decided to wait… Continue reading The Daily: 15 May 2023
Home Soil We need more geology in school. Or perhaps ecology. Probably both. If we are to survive, we need to understand who and what we are, and for that we need to understand this world that made us. We are earthly beings. We are small parts of a small planet on an average star… Continue reading The Daily: 9 May 2023
By My Solitary Hearth 