The second toe on my right foot has a bruised toenail. This is absolutely unnoteworthy, except this has happened for three consecutive years. The cycle goes like this. First there is a little bothersome pain, which inspires me to scrutinize my toe. It looks fine. And for the record, I keep my feet clean and … Continue reading Fun with Dangerous Chemicals: Small Amounts Won’t Hurt You…
Running
Sitting with My Sadness
that day Scout and I met up with a Great Blue Heron on the Walloomsac in downtown Bennington A tragic story lies herein. The Green Mountain State is doing what it does in January, and nobody should be surprised. Still. For this Southern transplant, at this particular mile marker in the journey, bone and sinew … Continue reading Sitting with My Sadness
Sunday Almanac: We March Inevitably Towards Winter
It is always a little sad to me when the snowplow rig assemblies start showing up on pickup trucks around town; it’s inevitable, but cold weather comes a little too soon on the heels of summer (to say nothing of ephemeral fall) in these parts, and wears out its welcome along about April, when everybody … Continue reading Sunday Almanac: We March Inevitably Towards Winter
Sunday Almanac: It’s Fall Foliage Time in Vermont
Kinda. Here in town, some leaves seem reluctant to let go of the summer, as am I. But the ‘peepers’ have been here in droves like they are every year, not dissuaded by The Plague, nor pestilence, famine, nor floods, it would seem. This year they’ve descended upon us not so much in tour buses, … Continue reading Sunday Almanac: It’s Fall Foliage Time in Vermont
Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes: How This Pandemic Is Forcing the Evolution of Our Species
It is not the strongest of the species that survives, not the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change. ―Charles Darwin from the New York Public Library Digital Collections Downtown Bennington is small, like Bennington itself, with a ‘four corners’-style crossroads at its heart, North and South … Continue reading Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes: How This Pandemic Is Forcing the Evolution of Our Species
Mid-Week Almanac, 9.23.20
It’s somehow Wednesday already, a vacation day for me because I have a little bidness to take care of later on this afternoon, and maybe I simply needed a day for myself. There’s nothing left for me to say about missing our annual travel down South that I haven’t already said, so I’ll leave it … Continue reading Mid-Week Almanac, 9.23.20
Beware of Goat (And So Much More)
our sign is up Would that Van-Goat-the-Statuary were all any of us needed to beware of at this moment. One of my bffs down South once told me a story that will stay with me forever. It happened way back in the day when she was still in college in her twenties, and working part-time … Continue reading Beware of Goat (And So Much More)
Saturday Photo Essay: Social Distancing, Vermont Edition
It's a grey day today, but the temperature was perfect for running, around 48 or so when we struck out. And there's no denying how bucolic the landscape. We had a good run. Scout ground scored a gravel-encrusted dog turd when I wasn't paying attention, which I had to pry out of his slobbery mouth, … Continue reading Saturday Photo Essay: Social Distancing, Vermont Edition
Journal Entry: Change Is Bad, Except When It Isn’t
“My ass is hanging off the bed.” Those were the Chef’s first words to me this morning, prompted by one Scout-the-Goldapeake-Retriever’s pushing four paws into me, with his back to the Chef, who was forced out of the bed this way. All six-feet-plus of him, at a quarter ‘til six. The planets are misaligned; that’s … Continue reading Journal Entry: Change Is Bad, Except When It Isn’t
Journal Entry: It Is Still Winter
And we are almost out of firewood: we have what you see in the photo, plus a bit more stacked on the front porch. No big deal. We don’t depend on it to heat our house, as I did in the beautiful but isolated Vermont loft where I lived between 2013 and 2015. But we … Continue reading Journal Entry: It Is Still Winter
Sycamore Stories 