Welcome to Sunnyhill

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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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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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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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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There is so much of it.  Coming from thirsty California, it’s so noticeable, but I suppose that in time I’ll stop seeing it as anything noteworthy.  At every turn there is a bog, a marsh, a pond, a lake, a spring, a stream, a creek, a river. With a couple of warm days Tuesday and…
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This morning, after a snowfall over night, I sat looking out as the light brought the white landscape to life.  It was so beautiful I couldn’t read.  I just kept looking up and staring out the window.  DeWitt Jones, a wonderful photographer, made a video of some of his photographs with a lecture about seeing. …
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Yesterday the morning fog was so thick we couldn’t see the first line of trees at the edge of the property.  There was a dense quiet, but when a car crunched over a driveway off Scotch Hill Road it echoed, and sounded like it was 10 yards away. I heard the woodpecker again.  I wonder…
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Looking out east this morning it struck me how few straight lines I see.  There are the fence posts, and a house in the distance, but other than that nothing is straight. The tree trunks are close to straight, but the overwhelming impression is the curves of the hills and the clouds, the broken lines…
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Who knew it could feel so warm?  My nose didn’t freeze walking up the hill today.  Gulf Road was quite clear.  The snow plow uncovered the dead leaves and mud at the side of the road, and where the cars drive the snow had turned to slush.  The slush is slippery, and I paid attention…
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Twenty some degrees this morning, and with more snow predicted we weren’t eager to drive into Cooperstown today, so we got our exercise with a frosty walk before the snow started. When we walk in the part of the road that’s been plowed but not driven on, we get pretty decent traction in the loose…
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