Not that I’m complaining. The wood pile has only recently begun to take a very serious daily (and especially nightly) hit. Now the season is making up for a slow start-up. There is a mixed excitement and dread facing the…
“The Herdmans were absolutely the worst kids in the history of the world. They lied and stole and smoked cigars and used the Lord’s name in vain. They hit little kids and cussed their teachers and set fire to Fred…
Not. Usually by this time we’ve had a skiff of snow or two; the upper pass is off limits because of the infamous Blue IceDome of Death; and I’ve gotten a few dozen images from frozen formations on the creek.…
The spring flowering plants tend to get way more of the attention than those in any other season. And there is no great surprise in this. In spring we have waited across the dull, dreary monochrome months from November to…
Should we expect a hard winter this year to come? That might be the conclusion of some Floyd County “plant by the signs” folks. If there’s lots of acorns, it’s Nature’s (or God’s–choose your source of Providence) way of making…
The tall pole for three years held up an empty two-story penthouse that could have sheltered up to a dozen pairs of purple martins and their young. Until this spring, those little hotel rooms were empty, and only once before–early…
After a night on the futon to distance my contagion from the wife, I’ve admitted at the end of four days of symptom creep that I probably have a cold–nothing more than that, most likely. It has been a couple…
So we are on the downhill side of winter at last, or at least can see the light–or more to the point, feel the heat–at the end of the tunnel. And I have to say I will miss the wood…
Thankfully, we are well into the double digits this morning, in contrast to the single digits near or below zero for an unrelenting week of wind, gray clouds and eyeball-freezing weather. But it has been good for ice viewing–less so…
It is like coming up for air after a month submerged in holiday busyness. Finally, the first business day after New Years, and things start to resume the usual schedule of meetings and events in Floyd. OTOH, not exactly usual,…
We are not knocking ourselves out decorating this year–as if we ever have. But this year, we’ve set the bar low– and deserve an award for seasonal lethargy. Yes, we have a tree, but it’s the Charlie Brownest ever. And…
Words fail me this morning. Well, that’s not exactly true. It’s more a matter of this morning’s words belonging to an 11 page grant proposal that had to be edited for a deadline–today; and a SustainFloyd website post about the…
Another day, another distraction–a good one, mind you, if you have Iphone images to tweak while waiting for the dentist. Or a shopping wife. Aviary was bought by Adobe last year. Their IOS image editing app–for the rest of November–offers…
“At no other time (than autumn) does the earth let itself be inhaled in one smell, the ripe earth; in a smell that is in no way inferior to the smell of the sea, bitter where it borders on taste,…