Lessons from the forest

I was headed out the driveway this morning when something bright caught my eye off to the side.  A small rhododendron which we had planted last Spring has a solitary white bloom!  This is in the same corner…

It is 40 degrees this morning … still … here as May is approaching its end.  Little basil sprouts do not like 40 degrees.  I had moved them outside to big pots on the deck at the beginning…

For three years now I have been trying to dig up blackberry vines in this particular section of the property.  But as you can see from the photo, the blackberry shoots coming up this year are rampant!! Bitterness…

I was calmly sitting here having my breakfast this morning when two coyotes trotted out of the woods, one after the other.  TWO!  I have never seen two coyotes together before.  They both trotted across the back yard…

For the past five days straight, we've been enveloped in soupy dense fog up here on the Ridge. No breeze. No air movement. Just dense soupy fog that's settled in heavy and thick! Isn't that how life feels…

Nature’s Christmas gift to us was snow, compacted ice, and a week’s worth of below-freezing temperatures.  Nothing like a bit of excitement to ring in the New Year! As entertaining as it was, we all looked forward to…

The week after Christmas we had a terrible cold spell, accompanied by snow and ice.   I was peacefully occupied, putting away Christmas decorations, when I noticed a woodpecker land on the cedar tree just outside the dining room…

A coyote has been lurking about recently.  Coyotes are so sneaky and devious!  Here is a photo from a few days ago of a coyote trotting across our backyard.  It’s so hard to get a good photo of…

We recently have had the start of a wasp's nest in the top of our car barn. It's been too high to knock down, and my aim with stones hasn't been very good. I've thought often how we…