Author Archive
Sunday, June 24th, 2007
Nocturnal Visitor
   This is a photo of a “possum” (opossum), Didelphis virginiana, that was in our yard last week. I had to shine a flashlight on it in order to take a picture because my camera doesn’t have a flash suitable for night photos. It is the largest possum I have ever seen. The possum is […]
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Saturday, June 23rd, 2007
Return of the Red Fox
The red fox returned last week. About 9:30 p.m. I heard the alarm calls for a few minutes, then silence. It’s strange how this is the first time I’ve heard it calling since March. That’s from vernal equinox to summer solstice, almost. Does it have some kind of internal clock that sends it to this […]
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Friday, June 22nd, 2007
A Tale of Two Turtles
   In the late ’90s I was walking up the main road to the back entrance of the Palace. I encountered a very large turtle on the side of the road opposite the Palace driveway. It had a shell that was about 12″ in diameter, so I knew that it was very old. I was […]
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Thursday, June 21st, 2007
Motherwort
This is the herb motherwort (Leonurus cardiaca) in flower:
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Thursday, June 21st, 2007
A Haiku for the a.m.
   There is a chorus outside my window. This haiku seems appropriate for this first day of summer:
The cricket
proudly pricks up its whiskers
and sings.
—-Issa
(trans. by Stephen Addiss)
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Thursday, June 21st, 2007
Summer Solstice
Today marks the summer solstice, the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere. It is also the first official day of summer.
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Wednesday, June 20th, 2007
Great Mullein on West Virginia Day
   Today is celebrated as West Virginia Day, in honor of the entrance into statehood of West Virginia. It split from Virginia in 1863 and today marks the 144th anniversary. West Virginia is noted for great natural beauty, an abundance of wildlife, and a huge variety of plants. This is a photo of […]
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Wednesday, June 20th, 2007
Birds Sighted
flicker: digging in our lawn
ruby-throated hummingbird: staring at me, from the opposite side of a glass storm door
turkey:Â flushed into flight on Rt. 88, at the old farmhouse near the sharp turn (past the cemetery)
turkey:Â ambling down the road across from our deck
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Tuesday, June 19th, 2007
Daisies
“I think of each life as a flower, as common
as a field daisy, and as singular . . .”
—-from When Death Comes, by Mary Oliver
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Tuesday, June 19th, 2007
Deer Visits
This is the young buck who visited our yard. His antlers are about 3-4 inches long.
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Tuesday, June 19th, 2007
Barbara Kingsolver and Eating Locally
   I’ve just finished reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, by Barbara Kingsolver. It is the account of her family’s one year experiment in eating locally grown food (theirs and others nearby). In order to do this, they moved from Arizona to Virginia. They already owned an old family farm in the Virginia countryside, so they didn’t […]
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Sunday, June 10th, 2007
Barkcamp Outing
Yesterday we traveled to Barkcamp State Park, just past St. Clairsville, Ohio. The lake was formed from the damming of a creek (1963). I observed two different species of hawk and a great blue heron. One of the hawks, the one with the longest wings, swooped down and snatched something from the water. It was […]
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Thursday, June 7th, 2007
Haying
Our neighbor has begun the mowing of the hayfield above our place.
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Wednesday, June 6th, 2007
Resident Deer
A mother deer and her tiny spotted fawn are browsing in the orchard in the morning and before dusk.
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Monday, June 4th, 2007
Wood
Wood is my teacher,
wood is my tool,
my sustenance,
my Holy Rule.
Wood fires my furnace
and my soul.
Through wood
I have achieved my goal.
—-copyright Ms. Rural, from The Basketmakers,
in honor of Connie & Tom McColley