Eliza Daley ~ Wordcraft & Musing on Home & Hope
Spoiler alert: I am talking about books in this essay. One is non-fiction and I don't think that revealing its contents will ruin the reading experience for anyone else. The other book, however, is a novel; surprise is essential to the narrative experience. I tried to talk about the main lesson in this story without… Continue reading The Daily: 18 April 2024
If Candlemas be bright and clear there'll be two winters in the year. — traditional adage from Scotland Of Candles and Divinatory Beasts There are many weather marking days throughout the year. Candlemas, falling on 2 February, was the day that our ancestors began to get nervous about the spring. A fine Candlemas portends a… Continue reading The Daily: 2 February 2024
The cover blurb written by Martin Shaw for Hospicing Modernity by Vanessa Machado De Oliveira declares that "This is a book about breaking spells. And not just the obvious kind, but the grievously impacted, deep-in-the-psyche variety". I believe Shaw is right. However, I wonder how many people have truly understood what spells are being broken.… Continue reading The Daily: 18 January 2024
In the Roman calendar, this day was Larentalia, a day to honor the household gods — the lares, spirits of place — as well as the mother of all lares and the adoptive mother of Romulus and Remus, Acca Larentia. Larentalia fell after Saturnalia and before the end of the year as a way to get right with… Continue reading The Daily: 23 December 2023
I'm working my way through Rhyd Wildermuth. This was not a planned exercise, but I find his writing so compelling and original that I just keep picking up one book or essay after another. The most recent is All That Is Sacred Is Profaned: A Pagan Guide to Marxism, which is almost exactly as advertised… Continue reading The Daily: 14 December 2023
In any given week, I am reading several books a little at a time. I do this mostly so that whenever I have a spare moment, there is a book in my current reading selection that will fit my mood. Plus, I find that I can get through more difficult books if I can set… Continue reading The Daily: 16 November 2023
I have another book recommendation. This one will not keep you up until 3am, unless you get to page 161 and decide that you must read it all over again. As one does. Kayaking with Lambs is a collection of essays mostly pulled from Brian Miller's richly authentic farm journal, A South Roane Agrarian, where… Continue reading The Daily: 19 October 2023
A Brief Literary Exhortation You will want to go find a copy of Starling House by Alix Harrow. You may want to buy this perfect rendition of the Southern Gothic because you will likely read it two or three times in quick succession and then come back to it several months hence, to savor such… Continue reading The Daily: 10 October 2023
Why is it so hard to accept that we are part of a whole? Why do we suppose that there is no consciousness but ours? Or will? Or mind? Why can't we accept limits and death? Why do we impose human qualities on everything? If there are gods and spirits, why should they resemble humanity… Continue reading The Daily: 3 October 2023
The moonrise tonight is the closest to the Full Harvest Moon which happens at 5:58 tomorrow morning. In my part of the world, moonrise tonight is at 6:30pm, a few minutes before the sun sets. This ought to be one moonrise that most of New England can see, though thin clouds might dim the Full… Continue reading The Daily: 28 September 2023
By My Solitary Hearth 