A Welcome Sound

This past summer, the Hudson Valley was dry and hot.  Ponds disappeared, turning beautiful vistas into tableaux of mud.  Turtles abandoned a log beached in waterless ooze.  Fewer insects meant fewer birds and dragonflies.  A catastrophe, albeit of a minor sort when thought of against the world at large.

Moving in Circles

This time of year, I think a lot about the cyclical nature of things. It seems like only yesterday that I was watching daffodils and tulips come up. Now it is time to trim back gardens and enjoy autumn's mums and sedum. The warm afternoons will give way to frosty mornings which will give way to snowstorms which in turn will lead us back to spring sunshine.

Raining Acorns Redux

Today marks our first anniversary.

To mark the day, we are re-posting the inaugural post.

It’s raining acorns.  Last year I thought the sound was squirrels, harrying the leaves.  The sounds were scattered though, in space and time.  That should have been a clue, but I was too much a novice to connect the acorns strewn across our driveway with the noises in the woods.

When the Heat is On

I can't stand the heat, but I can't avoid the kitchen either. When the mercury tops 100, what to eat, when all you really want is cool sorbet or perhaps a mojito for dinner?

Memorial Day, Observed

When I was a child, Memorial Day was marked by the annual Memorial Day parade, a smaller, quieter parade, at least compared to our elaborate 4th of July display. Various community groups, scouts, and veterans groups would parade up the main street in town and end up at the VFW Post building. I confess I always thought it was kind of a boring day; no stores were open and there was no entertainment save for our little parade.

As I Sit Itching

I don’t recall my first encounter with poison ivy, but I remember the first with poison oak.  Driving thousands of miles along I-80 was de rigueur among the college set those many years ago.  I commuted between Chicago and California and participated in all manner of things daft.  That included clambering down a cliff to the Pacific Ocean, clad in swimsuit and sandals, only to realize the way back was straight up.  It hadn’t seemed so steep going down, so why was it necessary to crawl through the bushes to reach the top?

This Day, This May

“Besides this May
We know
There is Another—
How fair
Our Speculations of the Foreigner!

Some know Him whom We knew—
Sweet Wonder—
A Nature be
Where Saints, and our plain going Neighbor
Keep May!"

- Emily Dickinson, Besides This May

In the news today - May 20th, the 140th day of 2010:

…the Devastating Oil Spill seeps into the Louisiana Wetlands, as the Interior Secretary Acknowledges Lax Oil Regulation; North Korea Denies Sinking a South Korean Warship; Bangkok Burns as Anarchy Reigns; Europe’s Ongoing Economic Woes Unfold; Air Travel Delays Loom due to Intermittent Volcanic Eruptions in Iceland; Pakistan bans Facebook and YouTube; and, in Washington, two retired generals are warning that more than a Quarter of Young Americans are now Too Fat to Fight…

Listening to Spring

A long, wide path at Audubon’s Buttercup Farm Sanctuary in Dutchess County, New York, abuts Wappinger Creek.  It’s a paradise for birds, yet not long ago, when snow and ice still reigned, few birds could be found.

Spring Forward

The winter of 2009-2010 was a difficult one for the northeast United States. Our area had a record snowfall, accumulating 78.7 inches of snow, obliterating the previous record of 65.5 inches. In fact, February alone had more snow than all other winters, save 3, in the history of snow record-keeping in Philadelphia.

This is New York: Upper Broadway, Valentine's Day 2010

Valentine's Day, and a break in the wintry weather brought everyone out.  Hoshi Coupe's window sported hearts for the occasion, and even the lady in the pocket park was bedecked.

Photographing Birds in Winter

The winter season calls for modifications to how you dress, how you handle your equipment and how you approach the picture-making process itself.  -Tim Fitzharris, National Audubon Society Guide to Nature Photography

In winter, even birds that don’t migrate can be hard to find.  On these cold and snowy days, we see little on our walks:  a junco pecking at frozen ground, a crow settled on a high tree limb.  We thrill to spot what turns out to be a mockingbird, hunkered down in branches to escape the wind.

Winter in Valley Forge

“It is beyond description to conceive what the men suffer . . .”

~Col. Philip Van Cortland,

in a letter to the Governor of NY, 13 Feb. 1778

It is cold. The wind whips down the grand parade of Valley Forge National Park. In winter the tree branches are exposed and bare. The landscape, which had been a spectacular panorama of fiery reds, oranges and yellows in autumn, is a muddle of drab browns and grays now. The ground is frozen, it is certainly no weather to enjoy a picnic, as you might if you came to Valley Forge in the spring. But winter is the time of year to visit Valley Forge.

A World of White and Snowy Scents

Still one would want more, one would need more,
More than a world of white and snowy scents.
-Wallace Stevens

Right now, I can’t imagine beyond snow.  It’s been falling all day again, though this time, not to much effect.  Deer tracks run everywhere:  they veer toward the hemlock, then, foiled by the fencing, veer back to open ground.  The paths break into ragged patches where deer scraped through to get at grass.

December

I have it on good authority that the snowflake has long been up at the crossroads of Fifth Avenue and 57th Street in New York City.  Shop windows are already dressed for the coming holidays, and December 2nd is the date for lighting the Rockefeller Center tree.

The Weather Game

November is when Winter tries to make an early appearance in Southwest Florida. Summer will have none of it. After lulling us into a false sense of security by allowing a few mercifully cool days, Summer sends the usurper packing with a stealth move – an eleventh hour Hurricane.

The End of Daylight Savings Time

For those of us who are not, by nature, early risers, it’s unclear whether the end of daylight savings time is friend or foe.  In the morning, we make it a point of honor not to rise in the dark.  The end of daylight savings time foils our resolve, for daybreak arrives too early and wakes us up.

Abundance

A few days ago, when the cold weather lifted, the ladybugs were first to know.  They spun in the air and clung to the shingles.  They slipped inside the house and parked on the ceiling, hung from shade pulleys, and hugged the window screens.

Raining Acorns

It’s raining acorns. Last year I thought the sound was squirrels, harrying the leaves. The sounds were scattered though, in space and time. That should have been a clue, but I was too much a novice to connect the acorns strewn across our driveway with the noises in the woods.