Eliza Daley ~ Wordcraft & Musing on Home & Hope
Tomorrow is the solstice. I don't often celebrate the exact day of the sun's reversal. There are plenty of long nights. I don't need to tax myself just for the sake of observing the very longest. I'm also more traditional. I tend to celebrate Midsummer's Day on the 24th, the day that most of my… Continue reading The Daily: 20 December 2023
In this culture, holidays are exhausting. Even when there isn't a grand production of a gathering, there is still a decided lack of sleep. There is often travel as well, since few of us get to live near our loved ones. And then there are all the tasks that needed to happen for the week… Continue reading The Daily: 29 November 2023
The Winter Sleep Moon, also known as the Beaver Moon (Old Farmer's Almanac), is full today at 4:16am. We are moving into the waning of the Winter Sleep Moon. In calendars from the Northern Hemisphere cultures that didn't write things down (for many reasons), the waning of the first moon after Samhaine is probably when… Continue reading The Daily: 27 November 2023
If music be the food of love, play on; Give me excess of it. — Shakespeare, Twelfth Night November 22nd is St Cecilia’s Day. Nothing of her story bears repeating, but through it she became the patron saint of musicians. And maybe there is more in that story of a feisty Roman girl that we… Continue reading The Daily: 22 November 2023
Wednesday Word for 15 November 2023 cull You can respond in the comments below or go visit the All Poetry contest for November. Your response can be anything made from words. I love poetry, but anything can be poetic and you needn’t even be limited to poetics. An observation, a story, a thought. Might even be… Continue reading The Daily: 15 November 2023
It is Martinmas this weekend, an old day of remembrance for the victims of warring, created anew at the end of World War I. It is called Remembrance Day in much of the world. It is Veteran's Day in the US, reflecting perhaps our blinkered perception of who suffers and dies when men use violence… Continue reading The Daily: 8 November 2023
I saw the moon last night. It was almost full, shining silvery white in the early darkness of the eastern horizon. To the west there were clouds in orange and fuchsia, violet and lavender, festooning lapis skies. There were stars by the time I got home from work and my Friday night errands. I almost… Continue reading The Daily: 28 October 2023
The Hunter's Moon is full on Saturday at 4:24pm. This is the 13th and last lunation of the luna-solar year. It can be full from October 28th to November 14th, so you can see that the months have shifted relative to the solar-based 12-month calendar. For most of the year, moons have been falling right… Continue reading The Daily: 25 October 2023
I will be making a few changes to this website again. Some are actual new things. Probably most will be resurrections of older things. Today, I'm bringing back the Wednesday Word. This is no longer a Twitter phenomenon because Twitter itself is not much of a phenomenon now. In fact, before the Musk Ox bought… Continue reading The Daily: 18 October 2023
The ancient world of the Mediterranean and Near East has a great number of interesting mythological beings. Some are related to old gods and tutelary spirits. Some are fairly accurate illustrations of the anxieties of humankind — or maybe mankind, since women didn't have much of a voice. Some are just ludicrous. One of my… Continue reading The Daily: 29 September 2023
By My Solitary Hearth 