Eliza Daley ~ Wordcraft & Musing on Home & Hope
If Brigid visited your house with a blessing last night, show her your gratitude by beginning your spring cleaning in her honor. If you have a woodstove, today is a good day to clean out the ashes and begin spreading them on your garden beds. (If you live where the soils are already saline, especially… Continue reading The Daily: 1 February 2024
Floralia Cosiddetta Flora from the Villa di Arianna in Stabiae near Pompeii, 1st century Roman fresco The festival of Floralia is another 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: 28 April 2023
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 2023
The pleasures of the rich are acquired by the tears of the poor. Wealth is concentrated by human labor; usually one people produce labor, and others concentrate it. This is called the 'division of labor' by contemporary wise people. — Tolstoy in his Calendar of Wisdom for 19 March Those who own land in amounts… Continue reading The Daily: 25 March 2023
Live in the open. — Auguste Comte from Tolstoy's Calendar of Wisdom for 20 March The Season of Renewal This year, the Vernal Equinox happens on Monday, March 20th at 5:24pm. This is, I think, the most nebulous of the solar festivals. Yes, it does mark an actual solar event, but it’s not the one… Continue reading The Daily: 20 March 2023
If you see that some aspect of your society is bad, and you want to improve it, there is only one way to do so: you have to improve people. And in order to improve people, you begin with only one thing: you become better yourself. — Tolstoy in his Calendar of Wisdom on 17… Continue reading The Daily: 17 March 2023
Lion and Lamb March is upon us once again. An Old English name for March was Hlyda, meaning “loud”, presumably referring to the roaring March winds. This name survived as Lide in the West countries. Eat leeks in Lide and ramsons in May, And all the year after physicians may play. — proverb from western… Continue reading The Daily: 1 March 2023
If Matthew finds ice, he breaks it. When the cat lies in sunshine in February If he doesn’t break it, he makes it all the harder. she'll creep behind the stove in March. St Matthias with his ice breaker... If there is sharp frost on Matthew’s Day, it will last till March. The fox is… Continue reading The Daily: 24 February 2023
Mardi Gras Means Pancakes... I briefly considered writing about Mardi Gras today, but I just don’t like it enough. I am not a Carnival person. I don’t like the noise, the crowds, the mess, the stink. I hate feeling inebriated and I simply can’t tolerate drunk people. I have no use for plastic beads. And… Continue reading The Daily: 21 February 2023
If Candlemas be bright and clear there'll be two winters in the year. — traditional adage from Scotland Of Candles and Divinatory Beasts There are many weather marking days throughout the year. Candlemas, falling on 2 February, was the day that our ancestors began to get nervous about the spring. A fine Candlemas portends a… Continue reading The Daily: 2 February 2023
By My Solitary Hearth 