In my fledgling foray into photography I'm learning light is everything, especially when your equipment is limited to an oldish Nikon and a single lens; I can make do for now, and should until I know better. The light in Arlington Park on Friday afternoon was clean scrubbed and brilliant following a spate of biting … Continue reading Winter Has Loosed Its Grip: Perfect Friday Afternoon in Vermont
Dogs
I Can’t Twirl Pasta (and other truths): Weekend Vignettes
Whoever coined the ridiculous phrase, You can do whatever you want to do, was dead wrong: I can never be a rocket scientist (not that I wanted to). I do want to twirl pasta skillfully against a spoon and I can't do that, either. Still makes for pretty pictures and good eatin' no matter how it … Continue reading I Can’t Twirl Pasta (and other truths): Weekend Vignettes
Photo Essay: Scout Between Storms
Niko left us with about eight inches of snow on Thursday, Orson's knocking at the door right now: we expect him to gift us with ten to twelve or so inches. Yesterday Scout—with shiny, new off-leash privileges—took advantage of the calm between the storms.
Stretching Dollars, Counting Blessings
Winter was kind enough last week to gift us its annual January thaw, which means the schmutz on the ground—an unpleasant casserole of crusty, gritty snow with a menacing bottom layer of ice—retreated obediently into atmosphere and earth. We have frost heaves already, a phenomenon more typical in early spring. Extreme cold temperatures arrived in … Continue reading Stretching Dollars, Counting Blessings
1.1.17: Time to Press Reset
Some people claim they don’t need a special calendar day or a personal milestone to turn a new leaf, they can do it any time. I don’t possess the self-discipline for that: positive change comes to me on occasional birthdays or after emotionally significant events, mainly. For the time being New Year’s Day will do. A … Continue reading 1.1.17: Time to Press Reset
Deep and Crisp and Even: Christmas Eve and Christmas Day Miniatures
Christmas Eve and Christmas Day 2016 in Southwestern Vermont Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from We Three Wise Guys
When the World is Nine Below
It’s tough on Tennesseans. And Texans. I remember the first time the mercury dipped below zero when I was living in my first home here, my delicious little lakeside cottage in Vermont’s exquisite Upper Valley: I recall the first time I felt pain when I tiptoed outside, the first time I heard my shepherd Clarence-the-Canine cry … Continue reading When the World is Nine Below
Stranger in a Strange Land: A Brief Doggish Essay
scout verb | \'skau̇t\ – to explore an area to obtain information; noun – one sent to obtain information Saturday morning came early, bitterly cold and windy, but clear; we'd practically forgotten how the sun looked. We stood squinting and shivering in a nondescript outlet mall parking lot with many other hopeful families, waiting, waiting, waiting for … Continue reading Stranger in a Strange Land: A Brief Doggish Essay
Licking Our Wounds: Hindsight, You Win.
I once had a dog who destroyed the back seat of my brand new car in under ten minutes, reducing it to softball-size pieces of upholstery foam; a friend was with me and the two of us had darted inside the grocery for a moment. The dog, a beautiful Siberian Husky gal named Chaika, was … Continue reading Licking Our Wounds: Hindsight, You Win.
Tail of the Dog, in Which Warden Prepares to Play the Wrong Piano Concerto
In 1999 the Portuguese virtuosa Maria Joao Pires famously sat at the piano with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, conductor Riccardo Chailly at the podium, awaiting the first bar of the piano concerto she expected to play for this lunchtime concert. Imagine her surprise when the orchestra began playing a different piece of music—the Mozart Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor—instead … Continue reading Tail of the Dog, in Which Warden Prepares to Play the Wrong Piano Concerto
Sycamore Stories 