Serendipity

deer I photographed last Oct. 2011 (Every now and then, I come across an email that is just too good not to share. This is one of them.........) This is a very well written, hilarious story about an attempt to lasso a deer.  Why we shoot deer in the wild (A letter from someone who wants to remain anonymous, who farms, writes well and actually tried this) I had this idea that I could rope a deer, put it in a stall, feed it up on corn for a couple of weeks, then kill it and eat it. The first step in this adventure was getting a deer. I figured that, since they congregate at my cattle feeder and do not seem to have much fear of me when we are there (a bold one will sometimes come right up and sniff at the bags of feed while I am in the back of the truck not 4 feet away), it should not be difficult to rope one, get up to it and toss a bag over its head (to calm it down) then hog tie it and transport it home. I filled the cattle feeder the...

Concord grapes   One late Summer morning after my mom died, Grandpa came to the house with his little Ford tractor towing behind it a little black and battered wagon. He called to me to get a couple of clean garbage cans and load them into the wagon...we were going grape picking. I did what he asked and climbed onto the back of the tractor, completely baffled...I didn't know we had grapes growing on the farm!  We went up to the top of the hill, and across the road from the fishing pond that I spoke about in my last blog, was another field and at the very top of it was a huge apple tree. Wrapped all throughout the apple tree were a grape vines, with huge clumps of concord grapes hanging down between the apples and leaves.  Grandpa pulled the old wooden ladder out of the wagon, and propped it securely against the tree. Without hesitating, he climbed up and began cutting clumps of grapes off, then handing them down to me to gingerly put into the garb...

The pond I fished in as a child looked almost exactly like this one! My grandfather was my best friend as a child, everywhere he went, he came and got me on his little Ford tractor or in his car and we went off wandering the farm. One day, he decided he'd take me fishing to a pond that was out in the middle of a cow pasture near one of our barns on top of the hill. Loaded with worms, the tackle box and our fishing poles...mine was a bamboo pole...we crossed through the barbed wire fence and walked the little ways across the uneven ground (pitted with cow tracks) to the pond. Grandpa told me we had to take some of the bullheads out of it, as it was getting too overpopulated and they wouldn't get any bigger otherwise. Being a young girl, then of about age 13, and wanting to get a tan, I wore a bikini top with my shorts, even against the warning of my mother, as it was not only very hot and muggy out that day, but hazy as well. She told me I was going to get a "bad...

chokecherry tree clump Across the road from where I lived, there was a clump of chokecherry trees, not unlike the ones in the photo above. The difference, however, was that these trees were younger and much more plentiful, and had grown in a circle about 15 feet in diameter. Each tree had grown straight up, had no branches until it reached the top, where it then branched and leafed out during the Spring and Summer months. A perfect tree house!   My tree house! The white dot represents where my tree house was... Somehow, in the way that the trees grew...it was like a ring of trees in the center and then an outer ring...giving way to about a 2 foot walkway in-between...and the center of the clump of trees was barren as well. The only modifications I had made were to make 'doorways' into both rings...thus I had my 'tree house'! Even as a child, I had a vivid imagination (obviously!) and I had made certain areas (mentally) into different rooms of my house...

farms across the valley from me now The summer of my 16th year, after the death of my mom some four months earlier, I entered into a period of having long bouts of insomnia. Be it from depression or something else...maybe grief...or maybe both. I only know that I couldn't sleep at night...and never was able to get to sleep until the wee hours of morning. I couldn't sleep, no matter how I tried. I was very restless...and feeling very lonely...to the point that I had to get up and do "something".   And since my dad, brother and sister were sleeping, I didn't want to wake them by finding something inside the house to do, so I would take my Cocker Spaniel, Leo with me and go for walks...sometimes lasting until 1 or 2 in the morning. The farm--meaning the houses and buildings--was nestled into a little valley between two gentle hills. My home was nearly in the middle between those hills, but I always chose to go what we considered 'up' the hill closes...

When I was a child of at least 8 or 9, during the hot Summer days when I was bored, I often wandered down into the woods that were behind our house. My journey would start by walking down our black-top road for about an eighth of a mile, turn left onto a little dirt road and when I reached the creek that meandered into the woods, it was there that I began my little journey. I would climb down the small bank that separated the road from the wooded land, and then get into the creek and began wading through crystal clear water that was as cold sometimes as ice. I would take my time, climbing over the occasional big rocks some of which had that green slimy, slippery stuff on them, taking care not to fall into the water. I was fascinated by the tadpoles and frogs that I might find, although there were no fish...even though the creek was the outlet for a pond we had that did have various fish stocked in it. No snakes either...thankfully! I love walking under the cool canopy of t...

pieces of life Back almost twelve years ago to the date (January 4th, 1990) I wrote a poem that still holds a lot of meaning for me...it's power of suggestion is still strong all these years later. Pieces I believe in...                                                                                                             dreams, stranger things, and                     fleeting mome...

From the time I was a child, who had a younger brother and sister, and later a step-sister and four step-brothers...into adulthood, having no less than one child with me (and up to 6 children in the household--my three and 3-step-children--at one time)...then living with my daughter and her three for most of the last decade, I have not known "silence". There was always, always the sounds of children in my home where-ever I have lived. For all those years in my adulthood, the need for silence, peace and quiet, away from the daily influx of noise, was a thing I coveted. It was my way of recouping and maintaining some degree of sanity...away from children and husbands. What little time alone that I did get, was rare...and there were times that I was lost because that silence was deafening to me. Call it a misguided sense of co-dependency. When I moved away from my daughter's home last September, away from my grand-children and their daily noises, I was like a bird t...

Imbalance in the scales of justice It came as no surprise when Friday, we learned that Judge Latham denied Shawn's request for a new trial. As I had stated in an earlier blog, there are those of us that really believe that he had decided how he would rule on this as far back as May of last year...but it was even more evident the last day of the court hearing that I attended, as the judge seem short tempered and even bored with the whole issue. No was contacted prior to the news report that aired Friday night on our local news (but was posted on Facebook by Shawn's cousin--which is how I found out!), so imagine our shock! I talked to Shawn Sunday (yesterday) morning and he had no idea that the judge had ruled on his case until I told him.  Was he surprised at the denial?  No. He is anticipating getting his copy of the denial in the next few days from his attorney, so that he can move forward and get his Appellate lawyer working on this at the next level. Because as...

Well, it's here...Winter has arrived and with a vengeance.   We knew it would...it was a matter of time, but what was unknown was just how much we would get. First thing this morning, just after daylight broke, I got a few photos before the snow became too disturbed by the winds that were building: The truck before my brother left for work     I apologize for the quality of these photos...I took them from the windows ...warmly stationed inside the house! You can see the wind blowing the snow The wind had begun to really start blowing, which can be seen in this photo. The roads have been kept plowed, and school went on as scheduled...no delays. A good 3 inches already at 7:43 a.m.     Snow that had accumulated on the railing... pines frosted A closeup of the pines that are catching the snow on their limbs... better view of the depth of snow on the railing Snow not only accumulated on ...

Gearing up...er...down! ImprovEverywhere has released another video with this caption: "On Sunday, January 8th, 2012 tens of thousands of people took off their pants on subways in 59 cities in 27 countries around the world. In New York, our 11th Annual No Pants Subway Ride had nearly 4,000 participants, spread out over six meeting points and ten subway lines." Check out the looks on people's faces!  Enjoy!

Most of us go through our daily lives not thinking about much beyond that which we are familiar with on a daily basis, yet every once in a while we are directed to something that we know is there but we keep hidden in the back of our minds. I am just as guilty of doing the same. In 1990, I wrote a poem which is heart-breaking yet just as relevant today as it was then...about a child who was unwanted, abused and finally run away. I named him: "Disappointment" because a single word can relay so much hurt and anger, loss and loneliness. A Child Named 'Disappointment' He walks with head bent Against a cold insistent wind, His shoulders are pulled forward  In an effort known as defeat. He struggles with his emotions, Humiliation and loneliness: unwanted friends, Never sparing him more than a glimpse  Of life as it could be...should be. Disappointment is his only name, Born with him, beaten into him By a cruel, drunken father, Nev...

Beautiful skies...Dec. 20, 2011 While we are constantly being bombarded by both the scientists and the nay-sayers as to whether climate change or global warming is real or not...anyone who is really paying attention, can tell you that the weather patterns are changing. I've been witnessing it for years now, and it's more evident this Winter than ever before. I titled this "What Winter?" for that very reason, as we aren't seeing 'typical' Winter weather here in NY. In fact, we haven't seen more than 2"-3" of snow total yet this season. sanders plowing and sanding...12/9/2011 With this snowfall we have gotten, of course it's a necessity that the roads be plowed and/or sanded/salted. Snow storm...12/23/2011 A nice dusting on the trees looks so pretty... Snow storm...12/23/2011 At least there are still berries on the trees for the birds... Snow storm...12/23/2011 When the snow did...