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Category Archives: The land

A chicken story with a happy ending

Tuesday, January 29, 2019

One of many feathers found at the scene I was sitting at the computer upstairs when I heard the chickens screaming. I dashed to the side porch, slipped on my shoes without tying them, grabbed a broom, and ran toward the orchard yelling. The battle was happening on the far upper end of the orchard, […]

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Where the squirrels live

Sunday, January 6, 2019

Shot with a 200mm lens from an upstairs window. Click here for high-resolution version. From my upstairs office window, during the winter, I can see deep into the woods, up to the top of the next ridge, and down to the little rocky stream below the house. I also can watch the squirrels going about […]

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The white matriarch

Friday, December 21, 2018

A troupe of five does passed through the yard this morning, with the white deer in the lead. She has been around for at least three years now, so she seems to have become a matriarch. I don’t worry too much anymore about her getting shot. It’s my understanding that all the hunters in the […]

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How do the birds know that snow is coming?

Saturday, December 8, 2018

Photo update: Snowmageddon arrives: A file photo taken here in March 2014 — a cardinal While looking out the upstairs windows with Lily this morning, it was apparent that the birds were unusually active and agitated. The traffic into and out of the arbor vitae trees was particularly busy, as though the birds are laying […]

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Lookin’ good, Skwurlikins …

Monday, November 26, 2018

This squirrel is such a regular visitor to the house that I ought to give him or her a name. Sometimes he gets on the roof. Sometimes he peeks in an upstairs dormer window. And sometimes he tries to break through the screen of an attic vent, in which case I go out to chase […]

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All too short a lease

Sunday, November 11, 2018

Here in the foothills, some of the leaves are hanging on. But not far north in the Blue Ridge mountains, it’s all over for the summer of 2018. It was a good growing season, though, with more than 60 inches of rain so far this year in many areas of the mountains.

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You can’t have too much abelia

Friday, August 10, 2018

The bees, hummingbirds, and butterflies would agree: You can’t have too much abelia. Abelia shrubs bloom almost all summer long. There are thousands of little dime-size blooms. Abelia is an old-fashioned and out-of-style relative of honeysuckle, though it’s not as fragrant, and (thank goodness) it doesn’t climb. This abelia bush, now nine years old, stands […]

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If only we had more of these

Monday, August 6, 2018

My guess would be that there are very few stiles remaining in America, though I also would guess that there were never that many in the first place, except possibly in New England. Most Americans probably don’t even know the word. Even I, born and raised a country person with roots in the Appalachian Highlands, […]

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Look who’s a mommie!

Friday, July 6, 2018
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Watership Down

Monday, May 28, 2018

A rabbit friend stopped by this afternoon to inspect the clover and to remind me to remind you that, if you’ve never read Watership Down, then now is a good time to read it. And if you have read Watership Down, then now is a good time to read it again.

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