As I walk the dogs, the sunlight cuts across in front of me and I can see dandelion seeds lift and gently blow into the trees: it is magical, like hundreds of miniature hot air balloons rising into the sky. I pause to watch them while Sam sloshes around in the stream. Outside our kitchen…
Toward The Less Comfortable
I can hear my breath as I attempt to pull the hood over my head. I close the front of my bee-keeper’s suit, zipping a painful amount of hair into the teeth. Anxious to be suited up, I yank my hair out and swear. I look over at Paul who has the older suit, to…
House Wren
We woke up this morning and bounced. Memorial Day weekend in Vermont means one thing to us: planting. For weeks we have lugged vegetable flats back and forth from outside sun to the garage for protection from the nightime cold. A sudden frost alert means that when I am done tucking animals for the night,…
“Life Is No Brief Candle To Me”
The leaves are unfurled. The view from our kitchen window is green. Living in the woods means that we essentially live in a tree house: everywhere we look there are either leaves or tree trunks. In the summer months it means that the house is darker, but I would not trade this feeling of solidarity…
In This Moment
It has been raining, daily, for about three weeks. Paul and I feel that a little of Scotland flew home with us. The rain finally broke this weekend and Saturday morning we awakened to sunshine. The sudden dry spell coupled with the turning of the calendar page to May made us feel ambitious about spring…
This Is Why
All night I dreamed shearing. I kept reviewing the list of things I needed to have ready for the next day and couldn’t find them. Not the happy, flying dream but the stress-indicating, spin-your-wheels kind of dream. We arose early, started a fire in the stove to warm the house. Good sugaring weather, cold at…
New Community
As the last vestiges of snow snake between rocks, trying to hide from the warming sun in cool crevices, it feels as if we have the luxury of time before spring is truly upon us. However, there is that one week, usually in April when the temperature rises and the snow finds there is no…
Lambing Season
When traveling, we try to take into account the fact that our time is limited and so not to over-plan, letting the breeze blow us from place to place. We’ve learned to quiet the temptation to see as much as possible in ten days, trying instead to learn what we can about the place where…
Six Degrees Of Separation or the Six Handshakes Rule
Paul and I return from a Saturday afternoon walk. The sun is warm on our faces, the stream crashes down the mountain, released from its frozen captor. The snow banks, shoved back by the plow dwindle, sprouting strange snow sculptures, sprinkled with dirt and rising like Northern Stonehenge. Robins flap past each other to mushy…
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…
Town Meeting Day
In Vermont, schools have their winter break at the end of February. The bonus has always been that Tuesday, March 4 is Town Meeting Day so kids have no school on Monday and Tuesday of the week following vacation. Every town in the state used to have Town Meeting: now it is optional, the town…
What Happens When Your Kids Move Out
March is certainly in like a lion. Well over a foot of snow Friday night through Saturday. We woke up to the rattle of the plow, assuring that the mouth of our driveway would be completely blocked. Chickens couldn’t leave coops and my book event was canceled, so we pulled up the flannel sheets for…
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…
Beautiful Beasts
Winters can be difficult on our animals. Mrs. Chubbers, our head ewe, is getting older. She walks with a slight but persistent limp and has become long in the tooth, making it harder for her to chew. In the darker months I run my hand over her white back, and when I add weight into…