While I was looking through the digital photos on my hard drive, I came across a couple of photos I took on the way home from my son’s wedding.

I’d say it’s a Southern thing, but I know a few people in the Midwest who’d put the National Bird Dog Museum under the must-see column on their vacation lists [...]

Sometimes I have to get away from the house . . . the office . . .  and the phone . . . and email . . . the internet . . . and the overflowing inbox and long to-do list .   Sometimes I need more room to breathe.  To think.  To slow down the frantic [...]

The passage of the seasons seems more dramatic in certain places.  One such place lies some ten miles up the road from the farm.  There, steps lead down the steep slope to a cliff’s edge.    I stop there often and follow the cliff path down to a stone bench set into the wall.  From there,  [...]

The office cat loves snowy weather.  She sits at the window for hours, though not because she wants to play outside.  She’s there for the influx of wild birds drawn to the feeders.   Granted, the birds come other days, too, but just a few, now and then.  When snow blankets their world, hiding much of [...]

When the winter wind chases me indoors, and the sky outside the window remains gray and gloomy, I need to daydream.  Memories of lambs frolicking  under sunny skies won’t stop today’s shivers, but at least I can smile through them.   So today I’ll think about my farmcollie Freckles and his devoted caretaking, and I’ll think [...]

Yesterday I eased the pickup down the driveway. The feed bins were empty, and I could put off the trip to the feed store no longer. Here’s what I found at the end of the driveway — bare mud on the road. What a beautiful sight! I like mud.

Their house still stands, though it and the rest of the property is neglected and unused now. The county long ago abandoned the road that once bordered the north side of the yard. My youngest daughter and I visited there a few years ago on a long road trip we took for the primary purpose of her gaining a lot more real-world driving experience before taking the exam for her driver’s license. The old farm place seemed a fitting destination for that coming-of-age experience, and I bored her for days with stories of my childhood adventures with my cousins there. Hot summer days picking blackberries . . .

Life’s been busy lately. Too much to do, not enough hours in the day, or enough energy to speed through the to-do list at the pace I moved in my 20s. Or my 30s. Sometimes I get so caught up in keeping up that I lose track of the flow of nature as the seasons progress.

It’s been a while since I posted.  Life’s been particularly busy this spring . . . and I’ve not been up to the challenge of keeping up with any but the most critical tasks.  Now summer has crept upon me before I’m ready.  That’s how life is sometimes. Here’s a quick update – just the [...]

The woods here are greening.  In the understory the wild rose bushes, buckbrush, and honeysuckle vines are leafing out.  The willows and elms already have tiny leaves, and even the buds on the oaks are swelling.  Oddly, these signs of spring have made me realize something I’ll miss about winter. 
 

I’ll miss the tree skeletons, the [...]