Eliza Daley ~ Wordcraft & Musing on Home & Hope
Well, we still have not had a frost, though tomorrow night temperatures are supposed to "plummet" all up and down the eastern third of the country. We'll see what happens... It may be that we get to have highs in the 60s (°F) rather than in the 80s. Still much higher than what is expected… Continue reading The Daily: 7 October 2025
I got my bi-monthly water bill last week. After a bit of mild cardiac arrest, I decided that it was quite the effective underscore on my water use in July and August. Now, there was another rate increase this summer, but that was small compared to the use increase. With both increases combined, I am… Continue reading The Daily: 8 September 2025
The Romans had concerns about drought at this time of year. Three very old festivals were grouped together at the end of July to honor deities who presided over watery things. The first was the Lucaria, the clearing of the groves. This was an ancient observance even in Varro's time (116-27 BCE), and little is… Continue reading The Daily: 25 July 25
Last night was the shortest night of the year. Tonight will be just a bit longer. Tomorrow's sunrise will be ever so slightly later. Of course, you'd be hard-pressed to note the difference even with a very flat horizon that reveals the exact moment of sunrise. Exact moments are difficult to catch even when you… Continue reading The Daily: 21 June 2025
June 9th, was the Roman feast of Vesta. This festival fell within the state holiday of Vestalia, and it did have state rituals assigned to it. But mostly it was a festival of the plebs, and particularly of the army of bakers that kept the Romans fed. So this is a grain harvest festival tied… Continue reading The Daily: 9 June 2025
I got brave and removed the row covers on the garden beds this week. I have not put them away. They are draped over the waste bins in the garage to dry off a bit before I fold them up, so if frost is threatening, I can cover everything up again. We’ve had May snow… Continue reading The Daily: 13 May 2025
In my garden planner, I have ambitiously scribbled "plant summer squash, cukes, melons, and spinach". For the second year in a row... Not surprisingly, once again, I will not be following my schedule. It is not freezing, and it is raining — both good for germination — but it's not warm enough for cucurbit seeds… Continue reading The Daily: 11 May 2025
The Greenleaf Moon went dark yesterday afternoon without bringing much in the way of green leaves, though we are much closer to that than we were last week. Leaf casings are opening up. The maples are in full bloom. My pussy willows are almost done blooming. And the peach tree is just on the edge… Continue reading The Daily: 28 April 2025
March is still lion-ing, no sign of that lamb at all, though we have entered Aries... Most of the snow melted in a day of cold rain which filled the rivers to just shy of flood stage. The next day it froze and covered the ground in white, which melted by the end of the… Continue reading The Daily: 24 March 2025
I made a bittersweet discovery last week. I had been noticing little piles of chewed up green stuff on the walkways and on my porches. It looked like unripe fruit, so I thought the rodents had gotten into some deep patch of the jungle that had a stunted peach or plum or something. I am… Continue reading The Daily: 16 September 2024
By My Solitary Hearth 