nature The Valedictorian We chose it as our signature tree, as a centerpiece of the field—We voted it valedictorian, and class president.
Other Musings Burn, Drag, Split, Stack A pile of wood—branches and brush, or full-grown timber—imposes its presence. It can stop a truck.
emerald ash borer To Explain The very branches where fathers courted mothers, and later supervised the first flight of youngsters, will be gone.
Other Musings Holiday Megalopolis 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.
ticks Eat, or be Eaten I am all about live and let live these days, with one—well, two—current exceptions: ticks, and mosquitos.
maple syrup 800 Words on Maple Syrup and Wiper Fluid You may be thinking, is he really postcarding about washer fluid behavior?
Other Musings Our Town 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.
Jarvis Coffin November 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
Jarvis Coffin Labor Day Weekend. Already. 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.
Other Musings Summer People 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.
Other Musings Moon Walk 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.
Jarvis Coffin Mozart on Norway Pond Mozart was with us that day, regretting every other invitation from the concert halls of Europe and around the world.
Other Musings Now We are Nearly to Spring Every year, awakened by the Mourning Dove, I would be glad to stand in that spot for a minute or two.
Jarvis Coffin Up Yours 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.
Jarvis Coffin Nothing Much Happens If you had to pick one thing to describe rural life, it could easily be that nothing much new ever happens.
Other Musings Boxing Day You are entitled to your own set of facts when it comes to the origins of Boxing Day because there are none.
Jarvis Coffin Just Like That 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.
Jarvis Coffin Porcupine 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.
Other Musings Vaccine 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.
Jarvis Coffin Crunch Time 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.
Other Musings Docks Out 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.
Jarvis Coffin Summer's End 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.
