By the time I am done teaching at six each evening it is heavy dusk. Not quite full-on dark, but getting there. I walked down the road to gather sheep and stood by the garden looking up at a melon sky surrounding a fringe of clouds still lit by a far away sun. As I…
Parenting Older Children
The rain and wind started today, whipping the leaves into autumn confetti. The temperature outside hovered around fifty degrees, not terribly cold by VT standards in October but cold enough to warrant throwing a few sticks into the woodstove to take the chill off. I looked out the kitchen window and could see the sheep…
Moving: The Spookiest Word
Moving. Even typing the word upsets my stomach. We are currently looking at the back side of moving my mother from the home that she and my father were in for twenty years before he died, into an apartment I’m still having moving nightmares. There are only a few things I hate more than moving,…
The Importance Of Impermanence
Listen! The wind is rising, and the air is wild with leaves. We have had our summer evenings, now for October eves. -Humbert Wolfe, (1885-1940) It is the opening weekend of October and we are ablaze. If you don’t see it now- you don’t see it. Paul and I try to save Sunday for projects…
Woolen Mill
We grabbed the three dark bags bulging full with wool. Some that hadn’t found its way into our last shipment to be made into blankets and some from a recent shearing. We’d decided to use this smaller batch to make some specialty yarn from a small Vermont mill that we had heard good things about….
The Other Liquid Gold
Putting sheep into their paddock on September mornings I scan the hillside that rises up behind them. Each day now color creeps across the mountain. Yellow arrives first, looking more like the green leaves are feeling a little “off.” There are teasing splotches of reds and oranges visible through morning fog. I call to Bronte…
Finality
Recently I was laying in bed on a warm evening and was struck by the symphony lulling me to sleep. The crickets, all shapes and sizes, were rubbing their wings together singing. Some on the beat, some off, periodically a high pitched sawing song would join in creating harmony. During the earlier hours the Thrush…
Out Of The Nest
Spending a lot of time going up and down the hill to the garden. The tomato wagon has plants bursting with tomatoes leaning precariously off its wooden edges. We have cherries, heirlooms, Old Germans, Early Boys and a couple of new varieties. Tender new kale leaves push forward as soon as I snip larger leaves…
Being There
I finished feeding sheep and chickens this morning, walked up the hill to begin baby-chick chores and stopped. In the busyness of the day there was an odd silence. I stood facing the woods, listening intently, I realized that the Hermit Thrush was gone. Theirs is a sound that I’ve never become accustomed to: I…
Paper Hanger
There is a truth that is somewhere between death and taxes: if you have one room in your house painted, or perhaps wallpapered, soon you will find another room that would look a smidge better if it too, were painted or papered. Paul and I were at a coffee house in Middlebury this winter and…
Deep, Dark, Secret…Spot
Sitting at the computer in the kitchen having a lesson with a student in Alaska, we talk about how the period of total light has just ended for them and days are back to relatively normal length. Paul quietly opens the front door and stands, arms full of towels, waiting for me to finish so…
Magnificent, Mischievous, Magical, Maniacal Muir
I headed down to the garden this afternoon, vegetable basket in hand. It has been a month since thegarlic scapes were cut and the leaves are now beginning to brown. Time to harvest. I stuff my feet intomy brilliant yellow Crocs and begin walking down Magic Road. Following close behind are all threeBorder Collies; Sam,…
The Bottom of the Well
We are now in the heart of summer: after the solstice but before the dog days. While on vacation at thelake we had cooler than normal temperatures but now that we are home, away from the water, herecomes the heat. I make feeble attempts at meal planning but we end up throwing sandwiches and cansof…
Born Under the Sign Of Water
We are in the heart of summer. We choose our week at the lake to coincide with the Fourth of July, not so much because of the fireworks but because of the other heat. As much as you can count on weather in Vermont (20% max)- that particular week can usually be counted on to…