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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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August 31 Along route 28 the sunflowers are bending their heavy heads. Their season is nearly over. I saw asters last week, and the leaves are turning on the earliest branches. Summer is ending, and I’m starting my seventy fifth trip around the sun, happy, loved, and healthy. Tamar and Ryder were up for the…
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Great chunks of granite and layers of shale; lakes, rivers and streams; the rise and fall of hills, the long views; the colors and textures and scents of fields and forests; the call of cardinals – we are back in Otsego County. For me, this is a return to the landscape I grew up in. …
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A long day of driving brought us from a rather grubby LaQuinta in Cheyenne, WY to a very pleasant Fairfield Inn in Des Moines. The animals are fed, and so are we. Everyone has had access to a bathroom – which is really the biggest deal for Hazel who has no access all day. We…
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