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Category Archives: The land

Nothing could be finer?

Sunday, October 8, 2023

A neighbor’s horse, Pete Yep, I live in Carolina, and it was a very nice Sunday morning — the sun just above the treetops, temperature 42F with a few spots of light frost. For the past couple of weeks, the weather has been cool enough to work on re-establishing the habit of morning walks. But […]

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Yep … I’m in the woods

Monday, August 21, 2023

A drone 235 feet directly above the abbey. Click here for high resolution version. I’ve been interested in photography drones for a long time. But only recently did drones become halfway affordable. Smaller and smaller computer chips, improvements in battery technology, and smaller and better cameras have made it possible to build drones that weigh […]

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Into the woods, and more each year

Tuesday, July 11, 2023

Click here for high resolution version Fifteen years ago, after I cleared an acre of elderly pine trees for the house, the landscape looked like a huge red gash in the earth. I moved as fast as I could to restore ground cover and to start planting. Growth takes time, but nature moves fast. Though […]

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The upside of summer

Thursday, July 6, 2023

Dandelion pesto, made with Gorgonzola cheese Summer pesto: One of the best ideas I know for making the best of summer is: Eat more pesto. Already this season I’ve had pestos made of basil, kale, dandelions, and mixtures including parsley, dill, cilantro, and thyme. I was afraid that the dandelion pesto would be bitter, but […]

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In flagrante delicto

Monday, August 1, 2022

When one lives in the sticks, it is not uncommon to come upon wild things in flagrante delicto. These are eastern box turtles (Terrapene carolina). These turtles are very common here and are often seen crossing the road. Roads are very dangerous for them, because their instinct is to close up and stop. More and […]

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If you were a deer, would you be scared?

Monday, April 11, 2022

It irks me that I have to uglify my day lily bank to try to keep the deer from eating the day lilies. This year, they started eating them very early, without waiting for the flower stalks and blooms. With luck and good rain, this bank will be a green jungle of day lilies by […]

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The annual spring poem

Saturday, April 2, 2022

The bay window faces the south ridge and is the best-lit place in the house. The light makes it a poor place for a computer, but it’s perfect for a typewriter. This room is rarely needed as a bedroom now, so I’ve turned it into a little library and parlor, with a sleeper couch. After […]

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The Sierra Club

Wednesday, March 23, 2022

I felt a little irritated when I found in my mailbox a thick envelope from the Sierra Club. I had not renewed my membership, so of course it was a solicitation. The thickness of the envelope was clearly meant to give the impression of something valuable inside, as encouragement to open the envelope rather than […]

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Don’t forget to feed the birds

Monday, January 17, 2022

Cat prints and dove prints on my porch It’s alarming how hard the snow is on the creatures who live outside. While the snow was falling hard yesterday and the temperature was 20F, some doves were sheltering on my porch. Unfortunately they saw me and flew away. After dark, I heard Lily downstairs meowing in […]

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Tomorrow: first feeze

Wednesday, November 3, 2021

The National Weather Service has issued a freeze warning for tomorrow night. I made my rounds this evening as the birds were bedding down in the arbor vitae trees. Some blooming things will bite the dust in tomorrow’s freeze. Others, such as the camellias, will survive, but winter shabbiness will start to set in. I […]

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