Spring in Vermont doesn’t show up the way it does in some other states with their quiet unveiling of green in the month of April. Here we diddle with mud and brown and snow for about two months, vacillating between boots and Crocs: Mother Nature seemingly unsure about the exact season to put us into….
Author: Melissa Perley
New Beginnings
Because it has been a cold spring I was somewhat surprised by May. Normally I have been combing seed catalogs with my old lady glasses on, being a plant voyeur long before now. Suddenly it was the weekend before Mother’s Day and I realized a truth that all serious gardeners take to heart; always, always…
Wanting What You Have
I shut the barn door for the final time Monday evening. As the wooden bar thunked into place, three ewes crowded close to be sure that I didn’t have one more feeding in me. I stood in the dark, looking up at the millions of stars and breathed in the temperate spring air. I woke…
For Seasons
The greatest percentage of the joy of living in Vermont comes from the fact that we have four very distinct seasons. Cue Vivaldi. For us it isn’t about the clothes that we wear or the photo-ops that present themselves, it is about who we are because of these seasons. Summer in Vermont is our short,…
For The Love Of A Dog
The warmer weather means more than just ruts and mud boots; driving past the pond on some of these newly-above-freezing nights we begin to put our windows down in anticipation of the familiar sound of the peepers. For about a week or more in April we’ll pass the pond in the evening, roll down the…
Many Ways To Say It
Just outside my studio window, sitting on a ledge, is a robin’s nest. It has been there for several years. Prime real estate, under complete cover, high off the ground, comes fully furnished. A turn-key deal: all you have to add is eggs. I walked past the window a week ago and noticed some new…
Ancestral Memory
The mud has been unusually deep this year: does that seem a bit metaphoric? It is, but it is also the truth. Vermont, statistically, has more dirt roads than paved. My hand always goes up to keep my dirt road, but it is a long season. At some point, perhaps when we are all so…
Opportunity Arrives In Disguise
I’m the person that doesn’t read the manuals. It isn’t that I don’t understand the value in doing so: I just don’t do it. I’d like to tell you that the reason is because I enjoy the process of figuring things out for myself, but the truth is that I hate reading manuals more than…
In One Year
A week ago Saturday we got another foot of snow. The term for late snow is “sugar snow:” the reasonis that the temperatures edge above freezing during the days and then slink back down to their cold resting places at night: ideal weather for making maple syrup. As we drive down the softened dirt roads…
Daylight Spending
This weekend the clocks will spring ahead (that’s how I remember which way to turn them) and we will begin to gain daylight into the evening hours. The mercury has climbed out of the negative digits and I can feel the increased warmth from the sun. We have had evenings of rain instead of snow…
Finding Your Farm
We climbed into the truck yesterday morning and headed north to Shelburne farms, one of my favorite places on earth. Before leaving we checked temperatures for the day and, knowing that we were going to be in a barn for about three hours, began layering up. There are odd little things that Vermonters take pride…
Leaning In
Tuesday I pulled on mud boots to head to run errands. The temperature had climbed into the fifties and the warmer sun began to melt the skim off the top of the road, enough so that there were deep ruts to navigate. As I drove through downtown I noticed a few people wearing shorts, they…
Musicians Farming Sheep: Cold
In the summer months, heading out to do morning or evening chores means sliding on some barn boots. In just a few minutes we can be up to our knees in straw, hay or poop. In the winter months it takes time to prepare ourselves to greet the cold: it is all about the layers;…
C is for Cello, Chocolate & Comparison
My studio has two recitals a year, without fail. We have our winter recital after the holiday-hoopla and then spring recital in late May. Last year our two recitals were both virtual. This year, as did most people, we zoomed into the new in-person fall semester full of hope for a “normal” season. I don’t…
Musicians Farming Sheep: Losing A Farm Hand
The year is brand new and, as we turn the page of the calendar, the cold arrives. There are two kinds of cold; December cold which is moist: you can smell the possibility of snow but that can, just as easily, foretell rain, The weekend before Christmas we had a rainstorm that, because the temperature…