Eliza Daley ~ Wordcraft & Musing on Home & Hope
The name for the month of May may be derived from Maia, the wife of Vulcan and mother of Mercury, Roman goddess of the green growth of spring. Roman Maia may have been a native deity to the Italic peoples, possibly representing spring, though no myths survive to shed light on this shadowy ancient deity.… Continue reading The Daily: 6 May 2026
Floralia Cosiddetta Flora from the Villa di Arianna in Stabiae near Pompeii, 1st century Roman fresco The festival of Floralia is a very old holiday. It honors Flora, the Roman idea of fertility that is embodied in spring flowers. Flora is one of the oldest deities in the Roman pantheon. She is older than Rome,… Continue reading The Daily: 26 April 2026
Don't plant on this day or your horse will die... so says the Old Farmer's Almanac... I don't have a horse, so maybe it's safe to plant my carrots today. A Red-Letter Day April 25th is a complicated date. It is St Mark’s Day, which is honored with a wide variety of celebrations; and it… Continue reading The Daily: 25 April 2026
The Sap Moon went dark yesterday at 7:52am. Today begins the Greening Moon. I have not written much about this lunation. Usually I am very busy in April because of Poetry Month with its various poetry readings and, to a lesser extent, because the garden is becoming demanding during this moon of leafing out. I'm… Continue reading The Daily: 18 April 2026
Today is National Dandelion Day. It's also Easter. I don't celebrate Easter in the Christian sense. I think there is quite enough suffering in the world without invoking the sacrifice of grain gods into the beginning of spring. However, I am starting to think that the secular holiday, the bits with rabbits and eggs and… Continue reading The Daily: 5 April 2026
The Daily for 1 April 2024: a high probability of pranks
Floralia Cosiddetta Flora from the Villa di Arianna in Stabiae near Pompeii, 1st century Roman fresco The festival of Floralia is a very old holiday. It honors Flora, the Roman idea of fertility that is embodied in spring flowers. Flora is one of the oldest deities in the Roman pantheon. She is older than Rome,… Continue reading The Daily: 27 April 2025
A Red-Letter Day April 25th is a complicated date. It is St Mark’s Day, which is honored with a wide variety of celebrations; and it is Robigalia, an ancient Roman festival intended to propitiate the god — or demon — of wheat rust and thus ensure a good harvest. These disparate themes may actually be… Continue reading The Daily: 25 April 2025
Earth Day Earth Day was created in 1970 as a direct political challenge. Wisconsin's Senator Gaylord Nelson wanted the US government to do what government is supposed to do — protect its people and lands from rapacious business. He created Earth Day and organized the first demonstrations across the country to force the hand of… Continue reading The Daily: 22 April 2025
We flirted briefly with temperatures above 60°F on Saturday, though it also rained the entire day with gusty winds from every direction, making it not entirely pleasant garden weather. Sunday was dry but much cooler, never topping 50° though it was sunny in the afternoon. Unfortunately, it was also even more windy, the kind of… Continue reading The Daily: 21 April 2025
By My Solitary Hearth 