Eliza Daley ~ Wordcraft & Musing on Home & Hope
We have passed May Day. In traditional northern cultures this is summer. Tomorrow, the Greenleaf Moon goes dark. The Flower Moon will be a new crescent on Wednesday. The year is rolling on. But, though the days are over fourteen hours long, here in Vermont we are just now enjoying spring. We've had two solid… Continue reading The Daily: 6 May 2024
COVID in April: it's a new tradition of mine. Not one I particularly enjoy. Each April since 2022, the virus has played havoc with nearly the entire month. It makes planting season rather fraught, though it does make for an interesting Poetry Month... This April round was bad. It started just after the solar eclipse… Continue reading The Daily: 29 April 2024
The Daily for 4 April 2024: Things To Look Forward To and a Wednesday Word
I was last-Tuesday-years-old when I learned that brassicas are effective phytoremediators. I suppose I should have deduced this from all the mustard that grows lushly on Superfund sites, enlivening the soil after we've made our messes and left the locals for dead. But I never made that connection. I also never noticed that, as I've… Continue reading The Daily: 4 March 2024
February First Fruits & Quirinalia To highlight just how different the seasonal cycle is depending on latitude, mid-February, the last ides period of the ritual year in Rome, was a festival of the first-fruit offerings. While here in Vermont we are barely thinking about the growing season, never mind able to see actual earth, during… Continue reading The Daily: 16 February 2024
There is still no frost. In all the horrible news of the last ten days or so, this is what is troubling me right now. It is not that I am unaffected by the lurid headlines. I am sickened and disgusted and enraged and so very tired of idiots with large guns and larger egos… Continue reading The Daily: 17 October 2023
Home Soil We need more geology in school. Or perhaps ecology. Probably both. If we are to survive, we need to understand who and what we are, and for that we need to understand this world that made us. We are earthly beings. We are small parts of a small planet on an average star… Continue reading The Daily: 9 May 2023
Except for the flooding... With the month nearly two-thirds done, we’ve had about 1.87” of rain for July in my town. An average July sees nearly 5”, so we’re pretty squarely in drought conditions. Particularly when we take into account the fact that, of that July total, 1.27” fell on Monday. Meaning almost all of… Continue reading Land of Little Rain
It’s getting busy in the garden. There are tasks each day. Weeds to pull, fruit to harvest, and the occasional flowers to cut for the vase. This last I’m not doing very much, though, mostly because I’m not home enough to enjoy them. But also because I don’t have as many cutting flowers as I… Continue reading Of Weeds and Berries
... to Harvest! Vermont finally got some of the summer heat that the rest of the country has been enduring for weeks. Well, sort of. We managed a 40°F jump up to the lower 90s, but without the humidity. It’s not supposed to last, and we’ll likely be back to highs in the 60s by… Continue reading The Wheel Turns
By My Solitary Hearth 