Before Thanksgiving we had snow, not just a dusting, but piles. We pulled on winter coats, gloves and boots to go to my sister’s summer place to share turkey. It felt wonderful to walk into the camp, stomp our feet and unwrap ourselves from wool. The week before Christmas colored lights reflected in the snowbanks…
Author: Melissa Perley
Winter Lights
I like to save a bit of holiday shopping for the week before Christmas. Normally the idea of being crushed by impatient people in the aisles of a small shop is off-putting, but this week it appeals to me. I manage to find an open spot to put my truck, happy to see the red…
The Most Quiet Time Of The Year
I sit watching the snow fall from the sky in thick, ponderous plops to the ground. White rain. I can see Paul dragging chunks of wood that he had cut from the tree that had toppled into our driveway during the night. I finish plugging in the two crockpots of chili on the wood bar,…
How Much Is Enough
The difficult days are the ones filled with the “why me?” or, maybe, “why not me?” We all know what it is to have someone make comment from the corner of their mouth; wondering how you possibly manage to live in a house with “only” one bathroom, drive a car that a family of four…
First Snowfall
Each Sunday we refer back to the tattered paper list we keep on the counter with the title, “Winter Things to do.” Over Sunday eggs and toast, we divide chores according to skill sets. Paul sets off in the truck, chainsaw in the back, down to the woods to cut some blocks we left after…
The Community We Create
Stick season is upon us. I step outside to do an evening check of animals and a cold wind whips dried leaves around my ankles, making me wish I had grabbed a coat off the hook before leaving the house. We spend part of Sunday winterizing bee hives. We kneel on the grass in our…
November
I always think of October as rounding the corner. We begin the month with the foliage party: everything ablaze. We wear T-shirts to walk the dogs and still feel the warmth of the slanted autumn sunlight until late afternoon. The sheep mill around the pasture nibbling and enjoying afternoon naps at the edge of our…
Evolution
Sitting in the music room teaching I looked out the window and noticed an eerie long garland of brittle brown leaves swinging back and forth in the breeze. They were held together by an invisible thread making it Halloween worthy. Each day I make a point of noticing them and each day the garland grows….
The Day
The week has been magical; dry and sunny and the foliage seems to have arrived with the tour buses. Driving to and from home we pass underneath an archway of color. Windows down we hear our tires crunch through fallen leaves and watch them blow out from behind our car, like confetti following a parade….
Walking Into The Past
It has been one of those weeks; every line on every day in the calendar book full. This weekend the weather was sunny and dry and we decided to skip digging potatoes and hike heading to one of our favorite fall foliage areas in the Champlain Valley. Leaf litter crunches as a light breeze pulls…
Preparing
I close the gate to the pasture after letting the sheep in and push hard on the metal gate to the garden. Long tendrils curl away from the pumpkins, small yellow bulbs swell but don’t really resemble a Jack O’lantern yet. Kale plants, eternally hardy, faithfully push new leaves out for me to harvest. The…
Fair Time
The beginning of the third week in September has a distinctly different feel to it. Something wonderful this way comes. It is the Tunbridge fair. Paul and I talk about who will check the fair schedule, feed the dogs, and bring sheep up so that we are ready to leave as quickly as possible. It…
Cidre
The leaves are beginning to drop. Some color is showing itself on the mountainside[s] but the majority of maple leaves are rusty, without their normal brilliance. Because we are Vermonters, we have to explain everything in terms of weather; this year, the lack of brilliance thus far is being put down to the unprecedented height…
Circle Of Fire
The red cider press is bolted to the deck and ready to go. Leaves spin down, our road already covered. Our apple trees are loaded with hanging fruit which are also beginning to drop. It is cider season. Tomorrow we will spend the morning of the holiday as we do most years, at the Labor…