Eliza Daley ~ Wordcraft & Musing on Home & Hope
for 15 December 2022 Wasn't I just complaining about the unseasonable warmth? I take it back... It's 7°F as I type this. The heater has been running near continuously. Skies are dark and low, with the tops of the western mountains lost in cloud. There is snow on the ground, but it's grey also. However,… Continue reading The Daily
for 14 December 2022 Halcyon Days Here is a phrase that seems to have forgotten its roots entirely. In our times, "halcyon days" refers to a golden past, a time when everything was wonderful. Sometimes it just means "youth" with overtones of innocence and insouciance. But this name has nothing to do with nostalgia. In… Continue reading The Daily
for 8 December 2022 Green in December fills the graveyard. — folklore quoted in the Hedge Witch Book of Days Mandy Mitchell (Weiser Books, 2014) The Winter Sleep Moon is past full and now waning. At my latitude, we've hit the earliest sunsets of the year, 4:11pm. It's dark by the time I leave work.… Continue reading The Daily
for 3 December 2022 While listening to Nate Hagens talk with Betsy Taylor (another newbie Vermonter!) about "nature based solutions" I finally realized why I am not fond of podcasts. To begin with, I don't generally like listening to talk media because most of it is just horrible in all sorts of sociopathic and stupid… Continue reading The Daily
Every time you wake up and ask yourself, "What good things am I going to do today?" remember that, when the sun goes down at sunset, it will take a part of your life with it. — Indian Proverb found in Tolstoy's Calendar of Wisdom for 21 November Can I just say that I really… Continue reading The Deadly Weight of the Series
Demon Copperhead Barbara Kingsolver Harper, 2022 I preordered Barbara Kingsolver’s latest book from our local bookstore because that’s just something I do, buy Barbara Kingsolver books. I had no idea what this one was about, had only a vague notion on the title, didn’t much care. I’ve never been disappointed by her writing. And I… Continue reading Demon Copperhead & an Idea
I am usually behind the times. No help for that. I find my kitchen and garden and books and making and doing far more interesting than much of what passes for au courant. Heck, I find sitting staring out the window far more interesting. Especially if there are crows. So I'm normally not motivated to… Continue reading Unmediated?
Embrace Fearlessly The Burning World: Essays Barry Lopez Random House, 2022 In his final collection of essays, Embrace Fearlessly The Burning World, Barry Lopez got me thinking on trauma. His was a life-long struggle to understand that we don’t ever get over it. Nor do we successfully bury it under a stoic silence. But his… Continue reading Embrace Fearlessly The Burning World: Book Discussion
To begin with, I have a mild case of COVID again. (Because, hello, People in Charge of Workplace COVID Policies, working in close quarters with someone who has tested positive in the last fortnight, even if masked, means certain transmission for many of us. But, by all means, pay me to sit at home and… Continue reading Not a Garden
I had the singularly dis/en-couraging experience of getting well into writing an essay in the wee hours of the morning and then, at lunch, opening up the 4th chapter of Elvia Wilk's Death by Landscape: Essays and reading nearly what I had written. Different anecdotes, different style, exact same message. Even many of the same… Continue reading Quandary
By My Solitary Hearth 