# jarviscoffin.com
> Fiction writing, and essays on rural living from the Monadnock Region in southwestern New Hampshire. By Jarvis Coffin, author of "Calmly on the Waters."
Public Ghost content for AI and LLM tooling. Use `/llms-full.txt` for consolidated page and post context.
Append `.md` to any post or page URL to get the content in Markdown (for example, `/example-post.md`).

## Pages
- [About this site](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/about.md) - Musings on life from the Monadnock Region of southwestern New Hampshire
- [Calmly on the Waters](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/calmly.md) - A collection of Jarvis Coffin's seasonal essays, published by Bauhan Publishing, June 2026
- [Other Musings](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings.md) - Other Musings is home to columns and essays that have been published elsewhere, in particular my bi-weekly column in the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript.
- [Fiction Workshop](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/workshop.md)

## Posts
- [When the Time is Right](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/when-the-time-is-right.md) - At the edge of the pond, the leaves on the small maple tree are turning red. You have heard of this tree before, perhaps. The tree that by choice or agreement is the first to signal the onset of autumn around the pond. In the years we have lived here, it has remained mostly the same, not growing at…
- [Ready. Set. Hike.](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/ready-set-hike.md) - Is it any wonder that the appearance of returning fall athletes affects me in the same way that the dwindling daylight hours affect our hummingbirds?
- [Another Deluge](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/another-deluge.md) - Last week, we drove through the Hudson River Valley, doing our best to dodge the final few punches of a storm that dropped twelve inches of rain on our destination in the Catskills. The Catskills, you may know, are the result of millions of years of sediment from the bottom of ancient streambeds pi…
- [An Old Canoe](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/an-old-canoe.md) - Where is the person who embarked with it on those waters? It must have been someone like me, who desired a hidden canoe to hop across nature’s boundary.
- [A Midsummer Journal](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/a-midsummer-journal.md) - I have reached the point in summer when I am tired of mowing the lawn—tired of conducting routine maintenance across a landscape that is burned out, anemic, and sloughing off space to various weeds and crabgrasses. It is not like pruning lilacs or weeding the vegetable garden, both of which can be…
- [Pocketknife - Part One](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/workshop/pocketknife.md) - My father died eight months ago at age eighty-eight. Now he is back, standing not more than twenty yards away.
- [The Deep Green](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/the-deep-green.md) - I am looking at a wall of deep, forest green, against which my whip and chair seem poorly matched.
- [This Fourth of July](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/this-fourth-of-july.md) - Huckleberry wouldn’t understand voting. He would vote for everybody.
- [Calmly on the Waters](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/calmly/calmly-on-the-waters-3.md) - Purchase "Calmly on the Waters" Calmly on the Waters (Bauhan Publishing | June 2026 | $22.00 trade paper, illustrated) is Jarvis Coffin’s first collected volume of essays. For more than a decade, as co-owner with his wife of New Hampshire’s oldest inn, The Hancock Inn (now, The Inn at Hancock), Cof…
- [With Our Grandchildren](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/with-our-grandchildren.md) - Somewhere along the line, a person and place become one. I have two places—two versions of me—one being a small town in the northeast corner of the Catskill Mountains called Tannersville, and the other, what used to be a small town just over the border in Canada called Niagara-on-the-Lake. I have n…
- [National Ice Cream Month](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/national-ice-cream-month.md) - Hope is present in a cone, a cup, or under a mountain of whipped cream and hot fudge sauce, cherry on top.
- [The Valedictorian](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/ode-to-an-oak.md) - We chose it as our signature tree, as a centerpiece of the field—We voted it valedictorian, and class president.
- [Here We All Are](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/here-we-all-are.md) - The woods are resurrected and alive.
- [I Wuv Woadwork](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/i-wuv-woadwork.md) - It is roadwork season. Wherever we go around New England, at some point we will be down to one lane.
- [Burn, Drag, Split, Stack](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/burn-drag-split-stack.md) - A pile of wood—branches and brush, or full-grown timber—imposes its presence. It can stop a truck.
- [Going Out with the Ranger](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/going-out-with-the-ranger.md) - My goal is to go out with the Ranger. Not in it, mind you—which would serve no one—but out together as we shift down, tow less, and go slower uphill.
- [Grits Just Come](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/grits-just-come.md) - "Even if you don’t order them, grits just come. Same with email. Email just comes."
- [Bridge Out](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/bridge-out.md) - I think we should not build any additional bridges until after the next epoch, whatever that is. Maybe after the next ice age.
- [Caught Flat-footed](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/caught-flat-footed.md) - The fox was a gift of creation. I hollered, “No! No! No!”
- [How Was Your Winter?](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/how-was-your-winter.md) - Huckleberry and I hiked out to the secluded Shattuck Pond last week, which is about a mile from our back door, up the hill and through the woods. It has been closed to us since heavy snow accumulated, although I can’t remember how long that’s been. By now, the snow has disappeared from a good porti…
- [March Madness](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/march-madness.md) - I have always questioned the virtue of awarding an extra hour of evening daylight to March. I feel sure the month was as surprised to get the win as April was the loss. We are not quite prepared for the added benefit around here. It’s like having guests arrive early to the party while you’re rummag…
- [To Explain](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/to-explain.md) - The very branches where fathers courted mothers, and later supervised the first flight of youngsters, will be gone.
- [Too Bad You missed It](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/too-bad-you-missed-it.md) - And, thus, in those few minutes, I was possibly as comfortable, and at rest, as I had been in fifty years.
- [Winter Distemper](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/winter-distemper.md) - I think the deep freeze we have been experiencing is making everything irritable
- [Frozen](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/frozen.md) - Irony is at work in global warming, tempting bluebirds north for the winter to be sandbagged by frigid temperatures.
- [Report from the Outside World](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/report-from-the-outside-world.md) - Except for those sanctuaries we have discovered along the way, we drove two thousand miles through an unimaginative, impersonal wasteland.
- [Deep Winter](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/deep-winter.md) - It has been a steady barrage of wind . . . the sort of wind that occupies your thoughts, and raises your voice.
- [What’s in Your Pocket?](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/whats-in-your-pocket.md) - What are you thankful for, I asked? What travels with you?
- [Gripped by Vortex](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/gripped-by-vortex.md) - It is the season when I feel the undertow of email offers, direct mail catalogues, and the bombast of television commercials. They won’t get me.
- [A Conversation With My Boots](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/a-conversation-with-my-boots.md) - The boots are all business at these times, plodding forward like draft horses, saddled with crampons that grab the ice underfoot.
- [Shop and Drop.](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/shop-and-drop.md) - When you shop like. . . I do, you rarely win prizes for Best Overall Present at the holidays.
- [Bare Trees](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/bare-trees.md) - Nature...does not usually confront us with the piled-up carcasses of once living things—not, at least, in the normal course of business.
- [Standard Time—Sort of](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/standard-timesort-of.md) - Of course, “standard time” is a misnomer. Time is far from standard around the world.
- [Good Luck, Little Buck](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/good-luck-little-buck.md) - Deer season starts today in New Hampshire, and this is no time for attitude if you are a handsome buck.
- [Holiday Megalopolis](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/holiday-megalopolis.md) - It is within the power of marketing to transform any inherently good and joyful thing into one of those over-muscled people, wearing a Speedo.
- [Thanks for Working Today](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/thanks-for-working-today.md) - Since we were together last, I attended a college reunion of sorts in Schenectady, New York. It was the 200th anniversary of the fraternity I belong to, and let me point out, I was around for the 150th. On the appointed evening, there was the obligatory reception and dinner, which followed the grou…
- [Of Free Will and Graders](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/of-free-will-and-graders.md) - Free Will and Graders 10 3 25 123 PM0:00/326.93399092970521× We live along a dirt road, and the big news this week was the town arriving to grade it. This happens once in the spring and once in the fall. Sitting outside on our porch, we can usually hear the machine coming from where it turns off th…
- [Autumn Hugs](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/autumn-hugs.md) - Fall has arrived, and we hope, so will the pilgrims.
- [Local Newspapers Are Our Best Defense](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/local-newspapers-are-our-best-defense.md) - Where is our final line of defense under the circumstances? The local newspaper.
- [Ever Seen a Lizard Dressed as a Wizard?](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/ever-seen-a-lizard-dressed-as-a-wizard.md) - Science is not the concern of Postcards from Monadnock. Wonder is; more specifically, wondering.
- [When the Inspector Calls](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/an-inspector-calls.md) - A singer’s got to sing, a dancer’s got to dance, and an inspector's got to find stuff.
- [The Culmination of Days](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/the-culmination-of-many-days.md) - One goose honked until it was hoarse—until anyone could have understood its anguish. ‘Help!’ it was screaming. ‘My baby!’
- [When the Rain Came](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/when-the-rain-came.md) - I wanted to know how well we did at our cabin in the woods recording eight inches of rain . . . It turns out, we can run with the big dogs.
- [Les Grandes Vacances](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/les-grandes-vacances-2.md) - What we would do if France did not have Les Grandes Vacances, which sends the country into a state of hibernation every August?
- [Riding with Mom](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/riding-with-mom.md) - We have heard, my brothers and I—now wives, even grandchildren—those stories a thousand times.
- [Cue Summer](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/cue-summer.md) - There is not enough closet space in our cabin to accommodate our seasonal wardrobes, that is, our separate fall/winter and spring/summer collections. I feel like a putz mentioning it. How many sweaters or cotton shirts does one person need? If we could simply divest ourselves of three-quarters of o…
- [Blindfolded Canoe Racing](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/blindfolded-canoe-racing.md) - There is something about blindfolded anything that separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom: you do not see chickens daring each other to cross the road blindfolded.
- [Eat, or be Eaten](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/eat-or-be-eaten.md) - I am all about live and let live these days, with one—well, two—current exceptions: ticks, and mosquitos.
- [Thinking About Our Vietnam Veterans](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/thinking-about-our-vietnam-veterans.md) - Vietnam changed our country. It was toxic. But I believe, fifty years later, we have it to thank for the parts of us that are better than we were.
- [(Human) Nature](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/human-nature.md) - “Travel,” read the sign on a Seine River cruise boat, “is the ethic of caring for the world.”
- [Reach Out and Grab Hold](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/reach-out-and-grab.md) - I enjoy being surrounded by people from around the world, all of us single-minded regarding one thing, in this case, art.
- [Foreign Correspondence](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/foreign-correspondence.md) - We are off to France to visit a son and his family
- [Tell Him Not to Feed the Bears](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/tell-him-ot-to-feed-the-bears.md) - But there he was, busy pulling, twisting, adjusting, exchanging one tool for another from his leather belt in an easy motion.
- [Annual Meeting](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/annual-meeting.md) - There is an adage, you know, that the founding of this country was achieved by one-third of the population.
- [Daylight Savings for What?](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/daylight-savings-for-what.md) - The poetry of our spring has less to do with flowers opening than snakes shedding skin. We molt. The sensible thing to do is hide.
- [800 Words on Maple Syrup and Wiper Fluid](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/800-words-on-maple-syrup-and-wiper-fluid.md) - You may be thinking, is he really postcarding about washer fluid behavior?
- [Lost in the Woods](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/lost-in-the-woods.md) - For example, there is the possibility of getting lost in the woods . . .in freezing temperatures. I did this last week.
- [Walking on Ice](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/walking-on-ice.md) - It is a superior feature of winter to be able to step onto a frozen pond or lake, and we have many of them. It is liberating.
- [February](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/february-2.md) - We made it. February. Now the year can really begin.
- [Our Town](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/our-town.md) - I kept thinking . . . all these people are paying what it costs to buy food for a week to hear what Mr. Wilder can share with them about life . . . . in our small corner of the world.
- [Wood Heat](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/wood-heat.md) - Heating with wood is a complex business . . . one manufacturer described the process as more art than science.
- [Home Again](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/home-again.md) - It is good to get out of the woods now and then. Even Huck would agree.
- [November](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/november.md) - November 11 29 24 349 PM0:00/318.01752834467121× November scored first this season with one power outage, one tree down across the driveway, and five inches of snow. The outage happened while we were away for the night, which made it impossible to know how long it lasted. When we got inside, the ca…
- [Election Day](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/election-day.md) - “The price of greatness,” Winston Churchill said, “is responsibility.” He was talking to us.
- [Thump, Thump, Thump](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/thump-thump-thump.md) - The sun pours through the sliding glass doors, spills over the floor, and each day it does resolves every question about having a dog.
- [The Pumpkin Period](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/the-pumpkin-period.md) - Currently, you may have noticed, we are mired in the Pumpkin Period, characterized by the flavor of pumpkin in almost everything.
- [Michaelmas](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/michaelmas.md) - We celebrated Michaelmas—the feast of the Archangel St. Michael, as well as his compatriot Gabriel (I think also the other Archangels)—by pulling up our carrots.
- [Fall](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/falling-acorns.md) - Within a second of its release from a branch, an acorn falls to earth at the rate of approximately thirty-two feet per second, or about fifty-seven miles per hour. How do I know this? I looked it up on the internet. There was the answer—which has me thinking that we must be nearing the fulfillment…
- [Quiet Time](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/quiet-time.md) - I finally went to the trouble of getting a canoe onto on body of water known as Carpenter’s Marsh. Getting there requires four-wheel drive and something to port the canoe, a trailer for instance, or a rack, or, since this is New Hampshire, a pick-up with a bed that can accommodate a ten-foot canoe,…
- [Labor Day Weekend. Already.](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/labor-day-weekend-already.md) - The steps to our hillside garden are not repaired. The felled wood is not all cut up and stacked. The dock is still waiting to be treated with teak oil.
- [Chicken Barbeque](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/chicken-barbeque.md) - . . . nothing says community—or, Old Home Day—like a volunteer fire department and chicken barbeque.
- [Harvest Jitters](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/harvest-jitters.md) - For us backyard gardeners, this is the time of year we fear most for our crop. It is not like we have a super abundance to go around.
- [August](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/august.md) - These are the sultry days of deep summer.
- [Visualizing World Peace](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/visualizing-world-peace.md) - Attendees at this year’s [MacDowell] Medal Day, were given white luggage tags and a pen and urged to write our wishes and hang them on fruit trees in the MacDowell Gardens.
- [Summer People](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/summer-people-tag-othermusings.md) - The July and August people have arrived, bringing with them their patronage of our stores and their vehicles, requiring me to look both ways before pulling out of the driveway.
- [Independent, Inching Forward](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/independent-inching-forward.md) - Soon you have the sense you are talking about the same things, which is when it hits you . . . you have only inched forward.
- [Good, Quality Thunder](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/good-quality-thunder.md) - The rain had stopped and we sat just to watch and listen as the storm’s slashing furry settled to not much more than a purr.
- [A Sensitive Time](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/a-sensitive-time.md) - Those are things you must get used to in New England, learning to be a tough tomato.
- [Spring Cleaning](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/spring-cleaning.md) - I am vulnerable to every link I come across leading me down another dark tunnel to a free weekly subscription.
- [June](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/june.md) - Huckles has developed a problem: he visits the neighbors.
- [Liver Free or Die](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/liver-free-or-die.md) - I object to the narrow use we make of the animals that pay the ultimate sacrifice on the way to our table.
- [Tractor Pull](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/tractor-pull.md) - I interview everyone with a tractor and they say the same thing: I love my tractor.
- [Calmly on the Waters](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/calmly-on-the-waters.md) - Of all the animals we will share property with this summer, we are most attached to the loons. They are the only creature that does not bolt the instant they become aware of our presence.
- [Total Eclipse](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/total-eclipse.md) - The memory of projecting light on the shirt cardboard stands out only because it was the same afternoon we were taken to see the play, Peter and the Wolf.
- [Easter](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/easter.md) - When it comes down to it, nothing unseen fits comfortably into the containers of what is seen. Time is one of those things. And surely you know, Easter is another.
- [Town Meeting](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/town-meeting.md) - It is Town Meeting season, that time of year . . . for throwing a few punches at your neighbor over the cost of building a new school, apportioning land, and repairing roads so . . . people can . . . get to church.
- [Moon Walk](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/moon-walk.md) - I submit our Presidential candidates should be required to spend three nights around a campfire with a view of the sky as part of their spiritual journey to the office.
- [Mozart on Norway Pond](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/mozart-on-norway-pond.md) - Mozart was with us that day, regretting every other invitation from the concert halls of Europe and around the world.
- [Now We are Nearly to Spring](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/now-we-are-nearly-to-spring.md) - Every year, awakened by the Mourning Dove, I would be glad to stand in that spot for a minute or two.
- [Artificial Intelligence](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/artificial-intelligence.md) - There will still be tasks available to us after AI has it under control. I feel confident about that at the end of a dirt road.
- [Up Yours](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/up-yours.md) - As usual, it took a minute when I slipped behind the curtain and unfolded the paper ballot to process all the names in front of me.
- [Winter Enchantment](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/winter-enchantment.md) - Imagine a place where the leaf action of a spindly plant at the edge of the woods can take center stage each morning out the kitchen window.
- [About Breakfast](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/about-breakfast.md) - I stopped ordering scrambled eggs at restaurants, including good ones, long ago. Invariably— as in, every case, every occasion—scrambled eggs come out overcooked and rubbery, sometimes flecked with specs of brown.
- [Nothing Much Happens](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/nothing-much-happens.md) - If you had to pick one thing to describe rural life, it could easily be that nothing much new ever happens.
- [Boxing Day](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/untitled-2.md) - You are entitled to your own set of facts when it comes to the origins of Boxing Day because there are none.
- [Power to the People](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/power-to-the-people.md) - I wonder how far it will be in the future when the notion that we delivered electrical power around the world by stringing wires over hill and dale will seem archaic.
- [Just Like That](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/just-like-that.md) - Thanksgiving, and just like that our inboxes are full of Black Friday offers. The world is released to fill the airways with carols, string holiday lights, and buy Christmas trees.
- [Thanksgiving](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/thanksgiving.md) - It is hard to feel wistful for the long hours and seven-day work weeks. But we are thankful for having been innkeepers in many small ways and, sometimes, as you see, in big ones.
- [Porcupine](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/porcupine.md) - Going forward, I want to stress this for any porcupines that may be reading this postcard: Huck does not sniff around first thing in the morning. Remain calm. Stay put.
- [Vaccine](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/vaccine.md) - I have this personal connection to vaccines. When the polio vaccine came out my mother, aunt, and uncles were among the first to receive the shot--among the first, I tell you, after six thousand years of polio's recorded torment.
- [Growing Tucker](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/workshop/growing-tucker.md) - Looking back, Matthew says it was too much responsibility to put on the boy at the time.
- [Crunch Time](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/crunch-time.md) - We can imagine fifty thousand acorns hitting the ground in front and another fifty thousand more behind. A total of one hundred thousand acorns scattered across our parcel in the woods.
- [Docks Out](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/docks-out.md) - Notice has been given by the nice people that handle the in and out of our dock that the time for out is upon us . . . This is usually when remorse settles in about how little time we spent during the season on the pond.
- [Neighbors](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/workshop/workshop-2.md)
- [Summer's End](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/summers-end.md) - Back to school always sneaks up on me. I am still not used to the fact it comes before Labor Day--nor am I happy about it.
- [Fiddleheads](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/fiddleheads.md) - Hancock’s Fiddleheads Café reopened Memorial Day weekend after a winter hiatus, during which time owner Sherry Williams continued her search for a buyer to fulfill her retirement goal, having worked might and main at the business for eighteen years. Ownership events occurring with small, rural busi…
- [The White Wood Aster](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/the-white-wod-aster.md) - There is a metaphor in that, which the White wood aster knows.
- [Green Tomatoes](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/green-tomatoes.md) - It is tough to be a tomato in New England.
- [Sentimental Lights](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/sentimental-lights.md) - I can conjure an argument for why our collective imagination, the state of romance, and all the poetry in the world have suffered since the advent of incandescent light.
- [Bear](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/bear.md) - The counselors positioned it this way after breakfast: go back to the cabin, brush your teeth, put on good shoes, we’re going bear hunting.
- [The Children are Back](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/the-children-are-back.md) - We are asked frequently if children are welcome at the Inn. The answer is yes for the reason that in our own lives, as children, inns were magical places.
- [How's Your Back?](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/hows-your-back.md) - It turns out that everyone has an opinion on back pain. Why not? One out of two people are affected.
- [For the Art](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/for-the-art.md) - It has been a year of writing full-time. How did that happen?
- [Winter](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/winter.md) - If you want the real deal when it comes to New England, you must come in winter.
- [Our Inner Loon](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/our-inner-loon.md) - [Loons] are among the Eagle Scouts of evolution. They are ungainly on the ground, not graceful fliers, but clearly, loons opted for diversification, perhaps because it made sense to hedge their bets at a time when volcanoes were still erupting and meteors plummeting to earth.
- [Snow Haves and Have Nots](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/snow-haves-and-have-nots.md) - The line between the snow haves and have-nots is sharp this year. We met our friends outside of Boston, where there was no snow. We went further south to Foxboro, and the land was barren and brown.
- [Where Have You Gone, David Crosby?](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/where-have-you-gone-david-crosby.md) - The loss of David Crosby has me worried about this . . . What compares today? What do we hold in common? Things appear and disappear so fast in this information age . . . turned to mulch with every page refresh. In a content world built around sharing, there is very little to hold on to.
- [A Few Words from Dr. King](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/a-few-words-from-dr-king.md) - We have despaired the last couple of years over the cantankerous nature of our politics. I will tell you it was worse in 1968.
- [Migration Time](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/migration-time.md) - It will be the unique and solitary sound of the owl serving as our closest friend over winter . . . except for footprints in the snow and a few ghostly pictures from our wildlife cameras strung around the trees.
- [They're Baaack](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/all-creatures-great-and-very-small.md) - The black flies came early this year. The adage has been Mother’s Day through Father’s Day, but I think they were here right after Easter. We live in the woods by the water, prime conditions for the little bloodsuckers.
- [Getting Out More](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/getting-out-more.md) - An ocean person will point to an island on a map and say, I have been there. Mountain people will stand at the base and respond, I have been to the top. Each always has thoughts of returning.
- [Home](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/home.md) - I was moved by a sense of adventure in a strange land, by calls to prayer drifting from loudspeakers in Arabic and Hebrew, by the beauty of Christian churches, Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Armenian
- [Saving Huckleberry](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/saving-huckleberry.md) - Life without a dog for nine months had advantages, mobility among them. Go anywhere, anytime, without having to provision for the animal.
- [Beneath the Canopy](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/beneath-the-canopy.md) - Beneath the canopy, very little grows straight. Every bit of ground is contested. Every angle of sunlight is made available on a first-come, first-serve basis. Everywhere there are predicaments
- [The Player's Punch](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/othermusings/player.md) - Sit through any community auction, and you will learn something about its people.
- [Thank you, Puppy](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/thank-you-puppy.md) - I have a lifetime to try and make good on my obligations to humankind, but the dogs are never around long enough to even the score.
- [Pilgrimage](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/pilgrimage.md) - Streams of people ahead of us down the footpaths, all of us coming behind those who excavated the caves of worship centuries before
- [Spring Feverish](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/spring-feverish.md) - God help us; it is March, and we are beginning to think about spring.
- [Snail Salad](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/snail-salad.md) - It is entertaining to imagine myself at the table with my grandchildren, bargaining with them to finish their snail salad.
- [February](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/february.md) - The rhododendron leaves are folded up very tight this morning. I could pluck one and slide it into a cigar tube. It is forecasted to be twelve degrees tonight, and the temperature is headed down for the weekend.
- [Ice](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/ice.md) - A couple of people went through the ice last week on a nearby lake. They were rescued, thankfully, but it always sends a shock and a reminder.
- [Happy New Year and a Half](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/happy-new-year-and-a-half.md) - New Year feels more like the middle of the year to me. The feeling derives from measuring time in school years and the passing of summer vacations.
- [No More Work Tonight](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/no-more-work-tonight.md) - At around three o’clock on Christmas Eve afternoon, my father would lead my brothers and me into the living room, motion us onto the sofa or a place on the floor, pour himself a glass of wine, settle into the armchair next to the fireplace and start reading Charles Dicken’s, A Christmas Carol—all t…
- [All Bluster. No Snow.](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/all-bluster-no-snow.md) - The sun is weak against the dark and cold right now. It is powerless to rescue young sprouts out when they shouldn't be.
- [Happy Thanksgiving](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/happy-thanksgiving.md) - -- and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer
- [Election Notes](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/election-notes.md) - I made mistakes over many years. I go back to that meeting with the headmaster as the one where I was, in addition to all else, on the wrong side of history.
- [Wine Country and Other Places](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/wine-country-and-other-places.md) - We were on the road this month, attending class reunions and memorial services. It was a catch-up across the board.
- [Pot Roast](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/pot-roast.md) - This story is about pot roast, and any story about food is also about the weather.
- [A Respectable Bird](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/with-the-turkeys.md) - As a friend used to say, “It’s down to you and the turkeys.”
- [A King's Highway Runs Through It](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/a-kings-highway-runs-through-it.md) - Stripped of its power over centuries, and derided as a circus act, the British monarchy draws us to it. Why?
- [The Meeting House](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/the-meeting-house.md) - These places can seem less and less important as life trickles out of them while life carries on around, just fine. Until it is not, just fine.
- [Old Home Days](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/old-home-days.md) - "I wish that in the ear of every son and daughter of New Hampshire, in the summer days, might be heard whispered the persuasive words: Come back, come back.
- [Corn on the Cob](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/corn-on-the-cob.md) - I serve corn on the cob as a separate course between the main meal and dessert, with a budget of three ears per person, minimum.
- [Water](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/water.md) - There is something rewarding about leaving nature to do its own thing.
- [Seasonal Returns](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/seasonal-returns.md) - This year, two seasonal delights returned to us after absences caused by the COVID pandemic.
- [Sexy Woods](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/stories.md) - Ask me to choose between autumn colors and stonewalls, and I will choose the walls. They tell stories.
- [The Incredible Revelation](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/the-incredible-revelation.md) - Could it have been an error in the supernatural? A loophole in the atmosphere? I knew that no one had told me but that I had seen it - it was true.
- [Swimming Close to Shore](https://www.jarviscoffin.com/untitled.md) - All I have ever wanted to be is a writer.

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