Eliza Daley ~ Wordcraft & Musing on Home & Hope
The Dog Days begin today. This is when Sol and Sirius shine together all day long, creating blast-furnace heat. Or maybe that's just carbon... Canada is on fire. Europe is boiling. The Mediterranean is as warm as spit. The Pacific Ocean might be ENSO-neutral; but June 2025 was as hot as in any El Niño… Continue reading The Daily: 3 July 2025
Last week was a rude awakening... Okay, so I knew it was going to be different. I suspected it might be uncomfortable. I did not know it was going to be hell. I will remind you that my neighbors cut down the ancient maple in front of their house. There were reasons. The tree was… Continue reading The Daily: 30 June 2025
Today is St Dunstan's Day. Dunstan was a beloved bishop of Glastonbury in the early 10th century. He used his skills at casting bells and crafting music to bring beauty into his church. He believed music both glorified god and brought more people into the fold. Today, he is the patron of bell ringers, and… Continue reading The Daily: 19 May 2025
I got brave and removed the row covers on the garden beds this week. I have not put them away. They are draped over the waste bins in the garage to dry off a bit before I fold them up, so if frost is threatening, I can cover everything up again. We’ve had May snow… Continue reading The Daily: 13 May 2025
The Greenleaf Moon went dark yesterday afternoon without bringing much in the way of green leaves, though we are much closer to that than we were last week. Leaf casings are opening up. The maples are in full bloom. My pussy willows are almost done blooming. And the peach tree is just on the edge… Continue reading The Daily: 28 April 2025
Floralia Cosiddetta Flora from the Villa di Arianna in Stabiae near Pompeii, 1st century Roman fresco The festival of Floralia is a very old holiday. It honors Flora, the Roman idea of fertility that is embodied in spring flowers. Flora is one of the oldest deities in the Roman pantheon. She is older than Rome,… Continue reading The Daily: 27 April 2025
A Red-Letter Day April 25th is a complicated date. It is St Mark’s Day, which is honored with a wide variety of celebrations; and it is Robigalia, an ancient Roman festival intended to propitiate the god — or demon — of wheat rust and thus ensure a good harvest. These disparate themes may actually be… Continue reading The Daily: 25 April 2025
We flirted briefly with temperatures above 60°F on Saturday, though it also rained the entire day with gusty winds from every direction, making it not entirely pleasant garden weather. Sunday was dry but much cooler, never topping 50° though it was sunny in the afternoon. Unfortunately, it was also even more windy, the kind of… Continue reading The Daily: 21 April 2025
The Greenleaf Moon is full today at 8:22pm. I haven't said much about this moon cycle because it hasn't felt very accurate this year. In the past, you could count on the sugar season ending when this moon is new and new leaves washing the bare trees in spring green. Some years there are apple… Continue reading The Daily: 12 April 2025
Lady Day March 25th is Lady Day. This is another Marian holiday which incorporated older pagan traditions — in this case the New Year celebrations which fell on 25 March before Julius Caesar shifted the Roman observance to the beginning of January. Lady Day is nine months before December 25th, so you can probably figure… Continue reading The Daily: 25 March 2025
By My Solitary Hearth 