Our friends T. and A. live on Donlon Road in Fly Creek, a road less traveled. They’ve been there for a long time, long enough to add onto the old farmhouse they found there when they were young, long enough to create an amazing garden. T. set out from there to her work as a…
Read more
On the lovely walk to Moe pond there were loads of violets along the path. And then a little flower I didn’t know – more magenta than purple. My handy app identified it as fringed polygala, a type of milkwort. So easy – just snap a picture and the app reports back nearly instantly. I…
Read more
Forty five degrees and sunny. The snow has retreated to small shaded islands. Charlie wants a real walk in this warmer weather and his nose is on high alert. The vanishing snow had opened a world of buried scents. Charlie trots along and comes to a sudden halt – something in the air I’m oblivious…
Read more
The word cantata came up in the spelling bee puzzle this morning and it sent me down roads and byroads of memories of my Bach-loving Dad, and especially of Sunday mornings. Dad and I would do the shopping at Daitch Market on Mamaroneck Avenue and we would bring home bagels, cream cheese, lox, smoked whitefish…
Read more
It’s snowing today, the big fat flakes that drift down slowly. Our vocabulary for snow is impoverished. I don’t recognize a lot of kinds of rain, but there are a lot of kinds of snow. These fat flakes are especially pleasing to watch. You can see individual flakes clearly, and they fall so slowly that…
Read more
In the bedroom with six windows on the south wall, three on the west wall, and three big skylights on the south facing slope of the roof, rain takes over. The soft sound fills the room, the warmest and lightest in the house. The rain sheets on the skylights, distorting the view of the treetops. The…
Read more
Our dear friend Joe Tarin called last night to tell us that he and Joan put down their sweet old dog, Bailey, yesterday. Bailey was the dog of Joe’s retirement, and those two were as deeply bonded as Jay and Charlie. Bailey had been sick for some time and had recently stopped eating. Yesterday he…
Read more
The Lynch family was up from Pittsburgh last weekend and stayed in a very pleasant Air BnB in Fly Creek, just five minutes from here. It had a spectacular view, not quite as long a view as from Sunnyhill, but stunning. Holly (Sean’s Mom) and her sister Carole were here for the weekend too, so…
Read more
Each shift in seasons here is full of miracles. As the days get shorter and the temperature drops the chlorophyll dissipates in the leaves on the trees. That chlorophyll has transformed sunlight into tree food since the leaves unfurled in the spring, but it can’t keep up its work now. Its departure reveals the yellow…
Read more