Eliza Daley ~ Wordcraft & Musing on Home & Hope
World Water Day is 22 March 2021. This annual observance was organized by the UN in 1993 to focus attention on the importance of freshwater and to promote sustainable freshwater management. Each year a different theme is chosen, centered on topics relevant to clean water, sanitation and hygiene. The theme for 2021 is Valuing Water… Continue reading World Water Day and Drought
There is some confusion regarding the solar event that happens this week. I thought I might try to clear that up. True or False: The vernal equinox is when spring begins. Not exactly. The beginning of spring depends on where you live, and it is more a cultural phenomenon than a meteorological one. Tradition in… Continue reading What Is This Vernal Equinox Thing?
March is upon us once again. An Old English name for March was Hlyda, meaning “loud”, presumably referring to the roaring March winds. This name survived as Lide in the West countries. Eat leeks in Lide and ramsons in May, And all the year after physicians may play. — proverb from western England Ducks wan't… Continue reading Lion and Lamb
Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future Elizabeth Kolbert Crown, 2021 In Under a White Sky Elizabeth Kolbert, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sixth Extinction, examines the future world we are engineering. Kolbert dispassionately reports on schemes to mitigate the multiple disasters we have created for ourselves — from climate change and ecological… Continue reading Under a White Sky: Review
We are the metaphorical frog. We’re sitting calmly in this lovely personal pond. It’s warm and comforting. There are no predators. True, the food is a wee bit scant, but we are fat. We can hold off on eating. We are happy. We are happy. Except for the little nudges from under our skin. There’s… Continue reading Wicked Frog Problem
This is the time of year that is the most difficult for high latitude living. The sun is up by 6:30am. The birds are loudly busy. There have been seed catalogs filled with glossy green seduction in the post box every day for weeks. The chickens are talking more, attempting to leave the roost more,… Continue reading Hungering for Spring
Ash Wednesday is the beginning of the spring fast, Lent. The name lent derives from an Old English word meaning “spring season”. Other languages name this 40-day period before Easter with words that derive from “fasting”. We can see from these names that Lent is not merely a season of preparation for the Christian Easter.… Continue reading Lessons in Living in Season
The Weather of the Future Heidi Cullen Harper, 2010 Heidi Cullen, Director of Communications and Strategic Initiatives at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, opens The Weather of the Future with an anecdote from one of her first seminars on climate change. After her presentation a man from the audience approached her, saying he enjoyed… Continue reading Remembering The Weather of the Future
I have chionophobia, fear of snow. This is not a professional diagnosis. Nor has it always been true. I used to love skiing and ice-skating. I could build a mean snow fort well into my nominal adulthood. The sharp scent of snow elicited memories of birthdays and mountain nights. The silence of snowfall still takes… Continue reading Chionophobia
Because it's time to start planning those gardens, folks. And because there are all these broken trees after that last nor'easter. Hügelkulture (pronounced HOO-gl-culture) is the most fun word ever to come out of agriculture. Sounds like the hoopla around faddish felt gnomes or something, doesn’t it? Or maybe a really bad New Mexico cannibal… Continue reading Hügelkulture
