The natural world, life, and dogs.
The natural world never ceases to fascinate me. The more I see, and learn, the more amazing I find the intricate interplay between plants and animals. Today I learned something about mimicry. My last post was about toxic toads. On this morning’s run with Conall I saw two other toxic animals: monarch butterfly and milkweed… Continue reading Natural World Mimicry
Chann the puppy is a whirlwind of energy, except when he’s napping so he can grow (while mentally plotting more shenanigans). At his second vet visit on August 11th he weighed 19 lbs, more than double his weight when he arrived July 8th. Even weeds can't keep up with that level of growth. Conall adores… Continue reading My Hero
It has been a long, cold, snowy winter in Vermont. Still is, in fact, even though the calendar says March 31st. I hoped winter would be a good time to write my book. It has been, in some ways. But I learned something about myself: I do most of my writing in the afternoon and… Continue reading More Book Progress
Twice this month, while walking with my dogs through the woods on the neighbors' acreage, we heard wildlife warning calls: Stay away! In both instances, the calls came from a few yards off the path, well into the trees. I couldn't see the animal issuing the call, but the first one I recognized, a call… Continue reading Wildlife Warning Calls
Finn stands still at the foot of my bed. I gently place my right arm under his belly, my left against his chest and between his two front legs. As soon as I lift and his feet leave the floor, his body goes stiff. He doesn’t struggle or resist. He trusts me, knows that the… Continue reading Dogs on the Bed
Conall is still wary when we venture near where we heard the coyote crying in pain last weekend. This morning, that wariness is compounded when we hear two rifle shots in rapid succession just as we leave the house on our way to the fields and woods. The sound comes from the same area as… Continue reading A Cairn for the Coyote
Saturday, March 5, 2022 I’m struggling. Something happened today that was terribly disturbing. I need to work through it, write about it, see if there's a way to turn a terrible negative into something a little bit positive. It’s evening, I’m listening to the soothing music of Eamonn Karran streaming over the Internet as I… Continue reading Get Back On the Horse
Let me tell you the story of snow in my piece of Vermont, mostly through photos with brief descriptions. January was frigid. Trust me, it was cold. Temperatures dipping close to -30F a couple of nights, well below zero most nights, and some days not making it above zero. Add wind gusts of 15-30 mph… Continue reading A Snow Story
I’m reading Once There Were Wolves, by Charlotte McConaghy. I’m terrible at book reviews, so I won’t attempt one here. Besides, I’m only two-thirds through, although I'll finish it this weekend. Let’s just say that as literary fiction – with a murder mystery, family dysfunction and possible romance – it ticks a lot of boxes.… Continue reading Fear
Sometimes you don’t realize just how stressed you’ve been until the cause of that stress is lifted. Case in point: a yard fence for my dogs. What I thought would be a simple thing to acquire turned out to be anything but, and the stress just kept building. In the span of the past week,… Continue reading From Low to High In a Week
Wild Sensibility 