Eliza Daley ~ Wordcraft & Musing on Home & Hope
Ordinary Magic The 13th moon of the wheel of the year, theHunter's Moon, was new yesterday. Halloween, All Hallow’s, and the Day of the Dead — and Bonfire Night, if one is so inclined — are fast approaching, and, with these holy days, my calendar year is drawing to a close. It is cool and… Continue reading The Daily: 16 October 2023
Friday the 13th Today is judged unlucky by many. It is the weekday named for the goddess, Frigg, mother and matron of the Norse. She is wife to Odin, the wanderer and all-father in the Nordic pantheon. She is mother to Baldur, the golden summer lord who dies from a dart of mistletoe wielded by… Continue reading The Daily: 13 October 2023
The Old Farmer's Almanac says today is National Farmer's Day. I think this ought to be the bank holiday we celebrate in October, maybe in conjunction with Indigenous Peoples' Day — because farming for food is largely an indigenous project. (As opposed to farming for wealth, which is a colonizer project.) I have my differences… Continue reading The Daily: 12 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
Today is Indigenous Peoples's Day in my part of the world. It is actually a holiday in my office, so I'm in the garden rather than at my desk. I don't know how I feel about this holiday yet. I mean, yes, by all means honor the people who were here when the colonizers showed… Continue reading The Daily: 9 October 2023
St Francis of the Birdbath 4 October is the feast day of St Francis of Assisi. You might know him as the irreverent but apt moniker, St Francis of the Birdbath, because that is where many of us encounter him. Bare-headed with the monk's tonsure, dressed in rough robes and coarse rope belting, he stands… Continue reading The Daily: 4 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
My garden has a hummingbird! I'm fairly sure she's just passing through. I'm fairly sure she is a she, being a rather nondescript tiny greenish thing with feathers. Truthfully, she is very small, even for a hummingbird, so she may be a juvenile ruby-throat. I hope she's scouting out my yard for nesting possibilities next… Continue reading The Daily: 2 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
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 