Eliza Daley ~ Wordcraft & Musing on Home & Hope
The goldenrods began blooming last week, the garlic is ready to dig, and the calendula are getting unruly. This is when central Vermont starts to see these sorts of signs of the approaching autumn. The very tops of the maples start to glow in yellows and reds. Many mornings begin in fog, and many evenings… Continue reading The Daily: 29 July 2025
June 15th, the Ides of June, was the last day of Vestalia. With great ceremony, the sanctuary of Vesta was cleansed and closed to the public for another year, the sustaining Vestal hearth-flame hidden behind walls that no man was allowed to pass. This is a slack time, a time when heat is intolerable and… Continue reading The Daily: 15 June 2025
The Strawberry Moon is full at 3:44am this morning here in Vermont. I expect most of us will miss that moment of fullness, though I have been having insomniac nights lately. Too much to do. I have those lists of things that did not get done plaguing the predawn hours. Still, there isn't much to… Continue reading The Daily: 11 June 2025
The Hunter's Moon is full at 7:26am today. This is the last full moon of my calendar. In two weeks the annual lunar cycle begins anew with the Winter Sleep Moon. This is a time of reconciliation and reckoning. It is time to say goodbye to the growing season and to turn to the resting… Continue reading The Daily: 17 October 2024
The goldenrods began blooming this week, the potatoes are starting to yellow around the edges, and the cucurbits are getting unruly. If that isn't enough evidence of a sea change, the weather here in central Vermont has been heavenly. We've been treated to a growing strand of kind blue days that open in cool fog… Continue reading The Daily: 29 July 2024
June 15th, the Ides of June, was the last day of Vestalia. With great ceremony, the sanctuary of Vesta was cleansed and closed to the public for another year, the sustaining Vestal hearth-flame hidden behind walls that no man was allowed to pass. This is a slack time, a time when heat is intolerable and… Continue reading The Daily: 15 June 2024
A Benediction for Lupercalia Today is Lupercalia. This is one of the oldest festivals in EuroWestern culture and, in fact, likely predates the Euro-bits. As with most ancient things, this holy time is a dense web of themes that don’t all mesh together well, but somehow make a lovely tapestry when viewed from a certain… Continue reading The Daily: 15 February 2024
In one of the more curious instances of holidays reclaimed from obscurity, Wales has resurrected St Dwynwen's Day on January 25th. St Dwynwen was a fifth century princess, the loveliest of King Brychan Brycheiniog’s twenty-four daughters, and the Welsh patron saint of lovers. Her day in the Welsh calendar has steadily grown in popularity since… Continue reading The Daily: 25 January 2024
Jesus at the Home of Martha and Maryby Harold Copping (1927) July 29th is the feast day of St Martha. Martha was the sister of Mary of Bethany and Lazarus. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus visits the house of the two sisters. Mary sits and listens to the teachings of Jesus, but Martha 'was… Continue reading The Daily: 29 July 2023
A Love Story for Bloomsday Thomas Bloom was a professor. Business. He was not remarkable looking, talking, feeling, or thinking. The only remarkableness about Tom was an enormous lack of remarkableness. Bored freshmen amused themselves by pretending this apparent unremarkability constituted a cover for a secret identity of intrigue. Only for amusement. Could they have… Continue reading The Daily: 16 June 2023
By My Solitary Hearth 