Eliza Daley ~ Wordcraft & Musing on Home & Hope
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
Juneteenth Today is Juneteenth. Specifically, today is the second anniversary of Juneteenth becoming a federal holiday and the 158th anniversary of the reading of General Order No. 3 by Union Army general Gordon Granger. This was the order which served as the Texas version of the Emancipation Proclamation, a full two years after President Lincoln and… Continue reading The Daily: 19 June 2023
I recently finished Brandon Sanderson's latest Cosmere book, Tress of the Emerald Sea. Like all his books, this one is full of tangential tales and side trips into philosophy, science, and whatever strikes his wide-ranging fancy in the moment. Sanderson is witty without being arrogant and patronizing. His characters are never contrived. His worlds are… Continue reading The Daily: 13 June 2023
I've been reading Art Goodtimes', Dancing on the Edge: The McRedeye Poems, during my morning meditation time. This collection draws out laughter and head-shaking, tears and hope. Goodtimes, himself, is an intriguingly contradictory person. He studied to be a Roman Catholic priest and then turned rather feral on points of religion. His poetry reveals a… Continue reading The Daily: 13 April 2023
There's a big wet snowstorm dumping on us for the next three days. So what am I doing? Thinking about gardens, of course! A Tale of Two Garden Books I'm still reading about the garden rather than tackling the pruning and brush clearing that I feel like I should be doing at this time of… Continue reading The Daily: 13 March 2023
So it's been snowing every day since... I can't remember. My weather journal says 19 February. We've seen the sun here and there but only for a couple hours, mostly in the mornings. Today, we were supposed to have "snow showers" which normally means a bit here and there. However, it is 5pm and it… Continue reading The Daily: 2 March 2023
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 2023
for 1 January 2023 New Year's Day is definitely one of those holidays that feels out of joint. I don't think it's me. I think this date, this point in the solar year, lacks ties to reality. It is historically wrong. When the Romans created these two new months and set their state calendars to… Continue reading The Daily
for 24 December 2022 Have you noticed that though worldwide post-agricultural cultures are mostly decidedly patriarchic and grossly misogynistic, much if not most of ritual, imagery, and myth is centered on women? The major pagan celebrations largely honor female deities, or, if they are male, then they're only vaguely human-like with substantial animalistic elements. The… Continue reading The Daily
for 21 December 2022 Green Man in the cold morning light Today, 21 December 2022, the sun appears to stand still at its most southern point at 4:48pm. We call this period of slow change, where day length changes incrementally and then not at all, the solstice, the “sun pause”. In the Northern Hemisphere, this… Continue reading The Daily
By My Solitary Hearth 