Eliza Daley ~ Wordcraft & Musing on Home & Hope
Cranberry sauce was not part of Thanksgiving until the late 19th century. I feel this was their loss. This is the one part of the traditional Thanksgiving meal that I love, but not that jellied gunk that comes in a can — which is probably mostly sugar and red dye. The real sauce is delicious… Continue reading The Daily: 24 November 2025
Lammas It's the probably not-terribly-ancient festival of bread, Lammas, Hlaf-mas, Loaf Mass. This holiday is possibly an English variant on the Irish first fruits and fair festival of Lughnasadh, but compacted into one day and generally lacking any ritual or narrative. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, churches in East Anglia constructed elaborate… Continue reading The Daily: 2 August 2025
The lingering thick smoke is scary. The inflammation in my spine is scary. The hospital bills are very scary... I am feeling in need of comfort food. I think we all get this way... More often than not, these days. We want something nourishing and simple, something quick, something that doesn't add heat to the… Continue reading The Daily: 28 July 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
The Daily for 29 March 2024: Hot cross buns!
National Dandelion Day When the dandelions bloom,time to plant potatoes. — Old Farmer's Almanac The Old Farmer’s Almanac claims that April 5th is Dandelion Day. I’m fairly certain this is not a thing, but it should be. Dandelions are pleasurable in so many ways. Just imagine an early summer lawn dotted with bee-covered smiling suns! And when… Continue reading The Daily: 5 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
We are a week into Lent. The Sap Moon will be full on Friday. By the calendar, it is the middle of spring. But for all this weather... But maybe that is the point of spring. Maybe it's our ideas that are unseasoned. Humans celebrate the vernal equinox with stories of eggs and rabbits and… Continue reading The Daily: 11 March 2025
Mardi Gras Means Pancakes... Ok, not really... Mardi Gras actually means Fat Tuesday, or more precisely, Fat Mars-day. The Romans dedicated the second day of the week to the planet named for their war god, Mars. The closest Norse equivalent to Mars was Tyr, or Tiw. Hence it became Tuesday in English and Mardi Gras… Continue reading The Daily: 3 March 2025
Tonight is Twelfth Night, the last night of Christmas and the long night before Epiphany, the festival of the Wise Men. This is the night when all the drummers show up, along with a veritable cacophony of birds; a party of lords, ladies and colorful others; and quite a few cows. I'm not sure I… Continue reading The Daily: 5 January 2025
By My Solitary Hearth 