My mother loves to get out during the week, so I try to make use of time if I am not teaching in the morning to go and pick her up and take her on an adventure. I pull up underneath the roof outside her building’s front doorway and wait for her to come out….
Category: Winter
Homage To Things Frozen
Stepping out the front door and off the steps I balance two heavy metal buckets of water. I feel a deep pull from inside my shoulders, familiar, warm. I take a moment as I walk, to push my breath out from inside the warmth of my body into the frigid air. I watch as it…
New Year
December in Vermont is the true bridge between fall and winter. While we often have cold temperatures and some snow in November, it remains autumn in our minds. December often arrives quietly. A week or two before Christmas, winter weather commences. This can mean icy rain and/or heavy snow. One year the wet snow caused…
Continuing To Spread
Yesterday I opened the front door and found three Wyandotte hens looking at me quizzically, none of us where the other expected. It took me a second to believe my eyes as we have a large pen that connects to the sheep paddock where the chickens live, the fence is very high and has an…
Another Chance
October, so full of color. Walking down our road I pull my sunglasses down onto my nose so I can see with a proper filter. Everything looks like a party until the north wind begins to whisper, cold rain riding its back. Suddenly there are only a few tenacious leaves swinging precariously from their branch,…
Accepting The Unacceptable
It is cold. Not cold where you debate wearing a hat cold, but the kind of cold where the snow squeaks when you walk on it, like sneakers in a gym. January cold. When I go out to do chores I spend a good ten minutes mummifying myself. Wool, head to toe or, if you…
The Flock
The wrapping paper has been rolled and stored, the gifts carefully stuffed into created corners and the last of the holiday leftovers eaten. We spend New Year’s day pulling down the shooting star off the shop, burning boxes, and feeding wreaths and trees, stripped of ribbons, to our sheep and curious chickens. There is a…
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…
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…
That Sticky Time Of Year
When we get a winter thaw that lasts longer than a few days, there is a concern that apple trees will bud out, birds and bugs might make an early arrival, bears could wake and lumber down to forage from bird feeders. It can also cause sap to run early. This happened in February; the…
Falling In March
The snow began to fall Wednesday evening. I headed out to tuck animals and stood, watching the wind blow the snow underneath the barn light, diffusing it as if there were a scrim over it. I hurried around, carrying a wayward hen back from the wrong coop, checking and double checking the various latches on…
The Light Returns
Last weekend I had a rehearsal for a string quartet performance that I’m part of and, as we were finishing and I was folding up music stands, I realized that although it was 5:00, it was still pretty light outside. In Vermont, most of our winter is spent in relative hibernation. Some of this is…
My Grandfather’s Grandfather
One of my cello students wasn’t able to make their lesson today giving me an unexpected hour. Snow has just started falling outside so I am taking the seat next to the wood stove to write. All three dogs are on their sides on the wood floor, happy, as I am, to be near the…
Doorway To Magic
The wind began to blow last night. If it is hard enough that you can hear it pushing against the outside walls, maybe it is trying to get closer to the wood stove. I leaned my head back against the couch and watched the trees swaying in the blue shadow of moonlight. The wind was…
Finding And Losing The Music
We’ve had several snowstorms in the past week, lovely: light snow piling on top of the skating rink that is our driveway, a remnant of the odd January rain. I have been donning my googles to drive the ATV in hopeless, high pursuit of Muir each morning. I learned the hard way that even light…