Category: Uncategorized

Life on the hill

Dominos

Six years ago today I was just 19 miles from here at The Plains in Oneonta where Dad’s life was ending.  Mom had died just 14 months earlier in their home in Sharon, Connecticut. Tamar and Aviva persuaded Dad that he couldn’t live there alone, and Aviva and Peter found a lovely place for him…
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Whole

A mockingbird sings its long, complicated tune just outside the sanctuary.  Inside, Rabbi Janet speaks of Harvey.  Her voice cracks often with emotion.  The large, beautiful room, is filled with people who loved and admired Harvey – the inmost circle of family in the front row, and behind them row upon row of friends and…
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Passover

Friday afternoon, before Tamar and Ryder arrived for the weekend, we saw bluebirds checking out the nesting boxes on the fence posts in front of the house.  I finally saw the redwing blackbird I have been hearing for days.  Tamar and Ryder came with haroset and bags of goodies from Crown Maple.  It was Ryder’s…
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Country

Spring! The stream isn’t frozen over. An abandoned place on Gulf Road – occupied until last year. Crocuses at Peter and Aviva’s!  We saw them Sunday, purple and gold, poking up through the leaf mold in the warming sun.  There are more and more signs of spring in the longer days.  Loads of deer come…
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Fire and Ice

On Friday we had a lovely little Harman wood pellet stove installed.  What a joy!  It keeps the house toasty for much less than the cost of our noisy Propane heater, and there’s the fire to stare at as an added bonus.  The blower (even at full strength – which we rarely use) is much…
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Sky

In the middle of last week, before the time change, I woke to another rippled grey sky.  Through a small break in the clouds I saw the pale last quarter moon, slightly ghostly. But by the time I had poured my coffee, it was gone, hidden from view as the clouds closed in. It was…
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Invisible

I can’t see the snow as it crosses the huge grey sky or as it lands on the white slope of the lawn.  I can only see it as it slants between me and the dark trees on the hillsides, from the bedroom windows to the east and the living room windows to the west. …
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Storm

It’s a storm fit for King Lear to go out and rage in. The snow started around ten last night.  We had good warning of the nor’easter heading our way. School closings were announced early yesterday.  Folks stocked up and cancelled plans.  The wind has been blowing hard and gusting all day, full of snow…
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Memory

Walking down our driveway, turning north to walk to the top of Gulf Road, I cross the stream that runs out of the pond on our neighbor’s property.  The sound of it, even more than the sight of it, reminds me of a favorite book I read over and over as a kid.  It was…
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The big show

I have dozens of photographs of sunrises and sunsets, but none of them come close to showing what I see.  This morning was especially spectacular, with a sky full of low clouds that put on a show for an hour.  If I had woken at seven rather than at six, I would have seen only…
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