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…
Author: Melissa Perley
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…
Making Change
As we enter the Dog days we are spending a lot of time harvesting. I find that when I am kneeling at the earth’s alter, my hands busy pulling carrots that will be sauteed in a cast iron skillet until they release sweetness from under their charred exteriors, my brain has time to free-wheel. I…
Our Measure Of Progress
As we round the corner into August, I begin to feel a push to squeeze all of the things we dream about in February into this month. When you live in Vermont you recognize that summer time is limited. In June we are still finishing recitals, auditions and lessons. That week Paul and I ran…