Category Country Life
Wilbina
Inspiration to write has been sorely lacking for me lately, but a few days ago, it arrived in the form of a pig. A teenage lawn pig, to be more precise. It was Sage who first reported her presence; he’d watched her watch HIM play video games through the sliding glass door to our basement. […]
The Arrival of New Ophelia
My duckling Ophelia had a long, graceful neck; luminous, creamy feathers; and a friendly, flirty disposition. And she turned out to be a boy. So Ophelia had to rejoin her–oops, his–other siblings at my neighbor’s farm lest two males prove too rough for my little female Veelie. (There was no question of parting with the […]
An Unexpected View
This is a story for a new year: a combination of loss and epiphany—a beginning unfurling beyond an end. It starts on a hill, a steep descent where the road had been bordered by enwombing trees—a cool shady tunnel during the summer, a place where ferns and flowers nestled against the almost vertical edge on […]
The Giant Snowball
Winter isn’t QUITE here yet, but it’s scratching at the door–and Sage has the giant snowball to prove it. Yesterday brought an inch or two of sloppy wet snow to our neck of the woods, and Sage lost no time launching himself into the yard and rolling a snowball of striking proportions; it was especially […]
Horse-bonders and Pumpkin-sitters
A dear friend–Sage’s “Goddess Mother”–recently visited us with her two young daughters. It was a memorable day: they bonded with horses… Ate raspberries… And, of course, sat on giant pumpkins. I hope all three children will remember this day, with its unplugged exuberance. And I hope their children will be able to experience something like […]
More Unexpected Visitors
Last week, I wrote about the flowers that made unexpected but welcome visits to my garden. They were not, however, the only unexpected visitors. Here are a couple more: The snake provided a fun little diversion, and Sage and I relocated it to a secure location before Paul could come home and park on top […]
The Return of the Skunk
I thought I’d seen the last of our skunk visitor after it spent a day in our chicken pen with a peanut butter jar stuck on its head. Alas, that was not the case: It came back for another involuntary sojourn in the pen. Paul had set out a live trap to capture the raccoon […]
Amish Llama and Friends
The landscape around me is donning her white mantle even as I type, but the shameless hussy went naked for an unusually long time this fall. Fortunately, she had some lovely livestock to offset the bleakness of her nudity. My favorite adornment is the Amish Llama, which has been faithfully guarding its flock for several […]
Good Neighbors and Cozy Bees
As I took advantage of a rare sunny day to haul a bag full of sawdust from my Amish neighbor Jacob’s sawmill–a prize destined to become chicken bedding and then ultimately reincarnated as compost–I reflected on how fortunate I am to have such good neighbors. When my husband and I moved into our house almost […]
A Farewell to Apples
Thanks to a combination of favorable weather and eager bees, we had an outstanding apple year this year. All five trees on our property produced well, but none was as eerily generous as the one I’ve come to think of as the Giving Tree. Its branches drooped in curtains of fruit, and no amount of […]
Moments of Unexpected Beauty 