Turning off the GPS

Last weekend, Keith and I went to Davis Creek Farm to pick up a bulk order of beef from Adam Aucoin. Allowing time for less-than-optimal road conditions, we drove down the mountain, entered the address into the Tom-Tom navigation system and proceeded south down...

I’ve been a good dog

Dear Santa, I was a good dog this year. Every morning, I made sure that Keith and Carole got up early, and I took Carole for her walk. Then I helped with leftovers from breakfast and lunch. All day, I guarded the house, growled and barked at intruders: delivery...

Writing in a Fog

One morning last week, we woke in a fog, the grey, socked-in, can’t-see-much-beyond-your-nose kind. Fog is underrated, I thought. Cocooned like this, it’s just the work and me. No gazing dreamily at the Three Peaks’ beautiful painterly colors and the Rockfish...

The Three Graces

Three maple trees graced the front lawn of our childhood home. Like the three sisters who grew up there, each displayed a unique personality. The smallest tree, a sugar maple, was closest to the house and vibrantly colorful. My older sister Jane, a petite redhead,...

Snow for Halloween and Nor’easters

As an adolescent growing up in New England, I remember worrying about the possibility of snow for Halloween. How would we trick-or-treat in our rural neighborhood and hang out with the Snyder boys who just moved into the house on Meadowbrook? How would I earn two...

If a tree falls in a forest

If a tree falls in a forest, and nobody is around to hear it, does it make a sound? Arriving at Vanaprastha in the evening last weekend, we saw a tree lying across the driveway turnaround. In our headlights, the yellow-tinted leaves looked like a maple’s, but in...