Welcome to Sunnyhill

Life on the hill

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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Water

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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Banquet

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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Fog

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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Straight lines

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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Thirty Seven!

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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Walking

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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All that glitters

The photo above doesn’t begin to do justice to the sunrise yesterday.  The sky was flame red – red sky in the morning, and we took warning. The school website announced a snow day before the snow even started to fall. The snow started a little before 8:00 and kept on coming down steadily for…
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Gravestones

Snow shapes the landscape.  Today, most of the fields are perfectly smooth, their stubble covered in the deeper snow.  Anything that sticks up is likewise covered with its own cap of snow – a bush, dried flowers, fence posts, a mailbox.  The lines of snow draw your eyes to the horizontals, to the roof lines…
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