Happy New Year!

For John, Doug & Kim, and all those who revere the natural world.
Digging one day for fish worms I discovered the ground nut (apios tuberosa) on its string, the potato of the aborigines, a sort of fabulous fruit, which I had begun to doubt if I had ever dug and eaten in childhood, as I had told, and had not dreamed it. I had often since seen its crimpled red velvety blossom supported by the stems of other plants without knowing it to be the same. Cultivation has well nigh exterminated it...In these days of fatted cattle and waving grain fields, this humble root, which was once the totem of an Indian tribe, is quite forgotten, or known only by its flowering vine, but let wild Nature reign here once more, and the tender and luxurious English grains will probably disappear before a myriad of foes, and without the care of man the crow may carry back even the last seed of corn to the great corn-field of the Indian's god in the southwest, whence he is said to have brought it; but the now almost exterminated ground nut will perhaps revive and flourish in spite of frosts and wildness, prove itself indigenous, and resume its ancient importance and dignity as the diet of the hunter tribe.
Walden
Henry David Thoreau

kindred

Temperature at 30 degrees this morning. It's been warm and wet, squirrels out and about. I've been reading Walden, by Thoreau over the Christmas break. I think I found a kindred spirit.
In the midst of a gentle rain...I was suddenly sensible of such sweet and beneficent society in Nature, in the very pattering of the drops, and in every sound and sight around my house, an infinite and unaccountable friendliness all at once like an atmosphere sustaining me...Every little pine needle expanded and swelled with sympathy and befriended me. I was so distinctly made aware of the presence of something kindred to me...
Walden
Henry David Thoreau

Christmas spirit

Temperatures unseasonably warm. The creek is high, and the lane is muddy. Had a wonderful Christmas with family and friends. The highlight (or lowlight) was when Shawn was fighting for 1/4 point credit in Andy's current events quiz last night; one quarter of a point! That's the Christmas spirit.

Merry Christmas!

I saw this at the Rutland recycling center at this time of year in 2011. It seemed to me to be a poignant statement, not only about the world we inhabit, but also what it means to be a human being. Merry Christmas!

crystalline

Clementines in the markets. Season of windshield washer fluid. Icicles forming out of cuts along roadways. They look like crystalline pipe organs.
A mouse is miracle enough to stagger sextillions of infidels.
Walt Whitman
Zen page-a-day calendar

wood heat

Like many men my age, I find myself getting up a couple of times during the night. When I open the door to the bedroom, and head towards the kitchen, I can estimate pretty quickly that state of the fire burning in our wood stove. Our Vermont Castings Resolute stove is merely decorative during the warmer months. In the winter it is probably the central feature of our life at home.
I was over at a friend's house last night. We talked about a number of things, but spent most of the time talking about his new chimney insert pellet stove. It sure put out a lot of heat. He mentioned our recent storm, and how he had to buy a generator to keep the new stove going. I pointed out the advantage of our stove. Electricity isn't needed to keep our stove operating nicely during  the winter weather

in the morning

I took a walk on the Crossroads at dawn on Saturday for the first time in a long time; Jupiter high in the sky overhead, smell of wood smoke, ice crunching underfoot, sound of a blue jay in the nearby pine tree. It was 8 degrees above zero, fingers and cheeks burning from the cold. I have gone for a walk in the morning ever since.

The morning, which is the most memorable season of the day, is the awakening hour.
Walden
Henry David Thoreau

south-facing

There is a new young man operating the snow plow this year. I have put out road markers along the side of the lane to show him the way. Hauled out the wool Green Bay Packers hat for cold days. In the same way that south-facing parking spaces are desirable this time of year, so are south-facing offices. I don't have one.

sunny side

Rain yesterday on top of ice, snow; a bad combination. Road salt for sale in the stores. Our parking lot has a shaded side, and a sunny side. I try to part in the shaded side during the summer. Now I am shooting for the sunny side.
I frequently tramped eight or ten miles through the deepest snow to keep an appointment with a beech tree, or a yellow birch, or an old acquaintance among the pines.
Henry David Thoreau
Zen page-a-day calendar

Milky Way

Whenever I am out, and the nights are clear (and there haven't been many of those lately), I take a look to see what is going on in the night sky. I look for planets, stars, constellations, and other objects I can name. The Milky Way is usually prominent. I remember one evening when I was doing a lot of star gazing, that there was an area I was looking to observe except there was a persistent cloud that was in the way. If only it would move a little or disappear, the viewing would seemingly be easier. It never did move. After awhile I realized it wasn't a cloud, it was the Milky Way, duh.
In the summer the Milky Way runs almost directly north/south. At this time of year it runs southwest to northeast. I've never been able to wrap my head around what is going on there, to see it in my minds eye.
A couple of weeks ago I was out looking around as usual. The Milky Way was in its usual fall/winter position, and I got it. If the stars that I look at in the southernmost section of the Milky Way are out of view to the southwest, then when they are present in the sky at this time of year, it's daylight. Suddenly it all fit together, and another of my celestial mysteries was solved.

tacky

The Nutcracker being performed at the Paramount. Handel's Messiah has already been performed. We put up the Christmas tree over the weekend. What a wonderful smell. Boy, we sure have some tacky Christmas ornaments.

birds in winter

In our newly consolidated plant at work, the sales area has become the engraving area. They are lucky to have inherited the large, south-facing windows. A bird feeder was immediately installed outside. I like to stop over there periodically and watch the activity (note the cardinal). The chickadees & others bring such effervescence and life to the winter months.
The crows seem to come out of the shadows this time of year. They are such an intelligent presence. When you watch them & listen to them, there always seems to be some kind of underlying drama going on that I'm not privy to. There was a guy who used to work here that hated the crows. He used to yell at them, and bother them whenever possible. One day he came to work, and a crow was sitting on the top of the entryway. The bird flew directly over this person, and s%*t on him. It wasn't an accident.

aftermath

Driving in to work on Thursday morning, pickup trucks plowing out driveways. When I went by the Holiday Inn, a whole fleet of utility vehicles was pulling on to Route 7. There were at least 20 of them, probably more. It reminded me of the time after Hurricane Katrina. Sound of people stamping their boots before coming inside.
I mentioned in passing how my neighbor & I had cut down the tree on his property that was blocking my lane. Not everyone's neighbor is like that in Vermont, but a lot of them are. I think it's fair to say that the sense of community is very strong in Vermont.
Allyn had another snow day yesterday. That's three in a row!

anatomy of a snowstorm

Our latest snowstorm began on Tuesday.
Allyn had a snow day. It didn't start snowing until about 4:00 PM.
When I left work, however, it was really coming down, big wet flakes about the size of an apricot.
It was very difficult driving home. I was going about 30 on the bypass, about 20 when I got behind a slow mover on 133. Doug said he got behind someone going 5 mph.
Allyn went to Bone Builders. When she got home, she said there was a tree leaning over the lane. It was on the neighbor's property so I called him. We cut it up together.

Wednesday the storm continued. Allyn had a snow day. I got a call from work to stay home until called. It's the first time we've both been home on a workday that I can remember.
I finally went in to work about 10:00, limbs hanging down. The snow was very wet. The snow that had been moved by the snowplows held itself together. It looked like a large ice cream log.

It snowed, sleeted & rained all day. It was snowing hard when I drove home. This time I was able to hit 40 on the bypass, and 30 on 133.

Thursday morning. The storm appears to be over. Allyn has a two hour delay at school. Sheesh.

by the way

There are only two things going on this time of year on The Other Side of the Creek. People are preparing for Christmas, and for the advent of winter. Christmas lights on Rte 7. Smell of snow in the air. Christmas music in the stores. Oh, and by the way, John & Ellen are expecting a baby in June!

Christmas trees

Christmas trees seen in lots, and on the tops of cars as well as at work. Annual appeals appearing in the mail. Bringing work shoes into the office, and leaving them there over the winter. Wearing boots to and from work to contend with snow storms like today when we're expecting 10 inches of snow.

splinters

It is interesting and kind of ironic that thermodynamic phenomena are most easily seen during cold weather. There are too many to name, but a couple occurred recently. Allyn reported that there were splinters of ice in the lane under either foot prints or tread prints. I understand that pressure will turn snow flakes into water which then becomes ice. When our boots squeak in the snow, it means that it's too cold for snow to be turned into water/ice.

The second occurred on the patio in the back where some areas were melting and some were not. I originally thought that the melting areas were over the wooden border around the bricks, but closer inspection revealed that the melting was actually taking place over the bricks. Why this was happening only around the edges is a mystery.

In the light there is dark, but don't take it as dark;
In the dark there is light, but don't take it as light.
Light and dark oppose one another
Like the front and back foot in walking.
The Sandokai

stick season

With the advent of snow, we are coming to the end of "stick season", a stark, austere, beautiful time of the year. So many varying shades of brown, gray, auburn, amber, beige. Driving home last night and seeing the constellation Orion rising in the east. The full moon, the "Cold" moon is Saturday night.

gleaming

Driving Route 7, the high peaks of the Adirondacks gleaming white with snow far to the west. Sound of the Salvation Army bell at Price Chopper.

Foothills beneath a deepening pall of snow as twilight falls.
Far away in a cedar grove, the muffled boom of a bell.
Shinkei
Zen page-a-day calendar

who knows where the time goes

Another snow event. Driving the truck to work a couple of times a week now which is more than I do in the summer. It helps to keep the battery from dying. Brilliant red seed pods appearing on the magnolia tree out front at the Zen Center. I've never seen them before.

Across the evening sky, all the birds are leaving
Oh but don't you know it's time for them to go.
By the winter fire I'll still be dreaming.
I do not count the time.
Who knows where the time goes?
Who knows where the time goes?
Sandy Denny

teflon

Snow on the windshield comes off in the morning like a fried egg in a teflon pan. Shoes, boots & jackets accumulating in the kitchen. Cars with Jersey plates & skis heading north on Route 7.

On dead branches crows remain perched at autumn's end
Basho
Zen page-a-day calendar

l'heure bleu

Woke up on Thanksgiving morning to one of my favorite wintertime phenomena, the arrival of blue snow, the color of a robin's egg. The French have a phrase for this magical time of day, l'heure bleue.

transformed

As it says in the title, this blog is about the, "signs of the times from rural Vermont", the changes observed in the natural world and otherwise. Some of these changes occur gradually, the turning of the leaves in the fall, the greening of the grass in the spring. Some of these changes occur suddenly, like the appearance of icicles this time of year, and the sound of thunder as the world warms up in the spring. There is no event that brings more sudden and profound change than the first major snowfall of the year. The world is utterly transformed. This occurred for us on Wednesday.

Thank you

Chestnuts and  Hood's golden eggnog on sale in the markets. I'll have a glass with nutmeg on top for you, Pip.

If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is, "Thank You", it will be enough.
Meister Eckhard

metallic

Ice on a pond in Ferrisberg. Water in streams and ponds takes on a silvery, metallic quality this time of year. I don't know why, maybe it's the light. Cornfields in Middlebury plowed under and covered with fertilizer.

Cruel autumn wind cutting to the very bones of my poor scarecrow.
Issa
Zen page-a-day calendar

reprieve

We had a reprieve from winter yesterday with temperatures in the mid 60's, but the wheel turns. Patio furniture going in the attic, and putting the snow tires on the Subaru. When I came home from the Zen Center on Sunday afternoon the holiday preparations were already well underway. John was helping Allyn put the lights on the lilac bush in the front. There was a wreath on the front door, and a poinsettia on the island in the kitchen.

almost like thunder

We are in the midst of hunting season, pickup trucks and suv's parked along the sides of roads. Car door sticking because of ice in the doorjamb. Sound of the snowplow, almost like thunder, on the road

the walk

As I've said before, one of the factors that has facilitated this blog over the years is that I lead a boring life. I drive to work. I drive home. I drive Route 7 to the Zen Center and return. I am seeing and experiencing the same plots of land day after day, week after week, year after year.
For the past dozen years, Tuttle Printing has worked out of two buildings, and for 5-6 times a day I have walked between them. The walks over to the production facility have been the most fertile ground I've had for material for this blog. I don't know how many posts have started, "walking over to production." There are blossoms on the crabapple tree in the spring, snow on the picnic table & icicles on the pine trees in the winter, dandylions in the spring, burning bush in the fall along with many, many other opportunities for observations.
But now Tuttle is in the final stages of consolidating into one building. I still walk over to the other building, but it's just once or twice a day. I let some of the workers of the new occupants in, and try to make sure that it's locked up at the end of the day. By the first of December I won't have any reason to go over there at all.
I'm going to miss those walks. They have been a small, but not so small part of my life for many years.

season of chapstick & snow

Signs for Christmas wreaths in West Rutland. Hauling out the chap stick for the winter season. Dusting of snow.

turning

Windy and cold. Winter's farmer's market open for the season. Cars in the parking lot at the ski house in West Rutland. Willows turning, they are about the last to go. Driving through Rutland the other day, temperature reading 42 degrees on the car thermometer. It's amazing how warm 42 degrees feels in the spring, and how cold it feels in the fall.

insight

I've been doing what evolved into this blog since 2007. I see the yearly changes in the world every day, but there are few real revelations. The other day, however, I was walking over to the production building, and walked by some Burning Bush. The berries were still  flaming red, but the leaves were long gone. I realized that the berries will remain rooted on the branches virtually all winter long, providing feed for the chickadees, and other cold weather warriors. As I was walking back to the admin. building, I went past the crabapple tree. Again, the leaves were long gone, but so were the apples. They had also fallen off the tree quite awhile ago. It made me realize that while trees and bushes are all trying to spread their seed far and wide, they are attempting to attract difference species to actually do the work. Bushes with berries are looking for birds to carry away the seeds. Fruit-bearing trees are looking for animals on the ground like deer to eat the fruit and disseminate the seeds in their travels. It was a small but interesting insight into the workings of the natural world that I hadn't really thought about before. This is one of the reasons I keep doing this.

birch

Thanksgiving and Christmas decorations now appearing in stores. The basketball season is now in full swing on all levels, even in Turkey. Andy's girls team won their first game in two years! They've got a great coach. Noticing the white trunks of the birch trees  in contrast to the green of the pines.

blossoms

It is dark when leaving work these days. Looking back when taking the bypass home you can see the lights of Rutland. It is beautiful. There is a vine that blooms at this time in November. It's about the last blossoms we'll see until spring

barren

Green Mountains almost totally barren of leaves. We came over the Green and White Mountains about a week ago, snow on the tops. Have noticed over the years that the really small trees, those around a foot or so in height keep their leaves longer than the others. Wondering if that is just due to the fact that they are so close to the ground, or if there is some other adaptive reason that they keep them so long. Maybe it is a time of the year when they can collect a little extra sunlight.

drama

As the leaves come down, and the corn fields are harvested, the vistas in Vermont grow appreciably. Bird and squirrel nests, which have been hidden all summer long are now revealed. With the bird houses which we have in the backyard, I'm aware of the high drama that unfolds during the summer months. The birds are born, the parents are challenged to nurture their young; to feed them and protect them from danger. In the case of our bluebirds, the danger comes from sparrows who would kill the bluebirds, and take over the nests. I've been known to install some odd looking contraptions on the top of the nests to keep the sparrows away. Sometimes some swallows will take over a nest. That is not a problem as the swallows & bluebirds co-exist nicely. You see the nests in the bare trees & realize that the drama playing out in our back yards is multiplied a million-fold in the fields & forests all over the state. In the spring as the trees leaf out, there is the feeling that a curtain is being drawn to shield the dramatic participant from prying eyes.

sun pillar

Clearing out the garage so the car can go in. Bringing the wood rack down from the attic. Cold weather sometimes brings sun pillars in our neck of the woods. You see them at sunrise or sunset when sunlight reflects off of ice crystals falling from high level clouds.

on the other hand

The long, cold season of darkness is a season of high activity for astronomers. As I was driving home last night, the nearly full moon was rising above the Green Mountains in the east. It shone in a silver/gold, mother of pearl. In the summer, the sun ranges high in the sky during the day, and the moon, in a logical manner if you think about it, is very low in the south. In the colder months, the trend is reversed. The sun is low in the sky, and the full moon cruises high in the blackness. The full moon, the "Beaver" moon is tonight.

As we walked homeward across the fields, the sun dropped and lay like a great golden globe in the low west. While it hung there, the moon rose in the east, as big as a cart-wheel, pale and silver and streaked with rose color, thin as a bubble or ghost-moon. For five, perhaps 10 minutes,  the two luminaries confronted each other across the level land, resting on opposite edges of the world.
In that singular light every little tree and shock of wheat, every sunflower stalk and clump of snow-on-the-mountain drew itself up high and pointed; the very clods and furrows in the fields seemed to stand up sharply. I felt the old pull of the earth, the solemn magic that comes out of these fields at nightfall. I wished I could be a little boy again, and that my way could end there.
My Antonia
Willa Cather

season of darkness, season of light

Daylight Savings Time has passed. The elections are over. It was dark when I left work yesterday for the first time in a long time; walkway lights between the two buildings ablaze. I remember driving to work in the dark the other day & thinking immediately and reflexively about family and friends. They are our necessary support structure during the long upcoming season of darkness. Our attention turns almost automatically from the warmth & light we experience outside to the same that now occurs within the confines of our snug little homes. It seems no accident that the two holidays that most celebrate family occur during the next two months.

seeing your breath

Sound of the ice scraper on the windshield. Birch and aspen turning a bright yellow. Seeing your breath in the morning, although the first time this happened for the year was over a month ago on the Allagash.

happy halloween!

Happy Halloween! Asparagus & tamaracks are among the many foliage turning at this time. Oftentimes the asparagus looks like a miniature version of the tamarak. 2015 calendars available at a local bank. Starting up the wood stove.

copper

For the most part, the bright vibrant colors of the foliage season have gone by, but that doesn't mean that it's over. Many of the remaining trees display more muted colors as their leave turn. The oaks certainly fall into that category. The beech trees settle into a burnt orange, and then brown as the days pass. Ragweed evolves from a brilliant yellow into a dull gray. Noticing the color of the blackberry leaves in the front yard. It's the season of copper.

gets late early

Signs for the Haunted House, and corn maze in Pittsford. Dark colors of branches contrast with brighter colors of leaves as the falling of leaves exposes them. On some trees, only the bottom leaves survive. Sometimes they are the brightest.
Like Yogi Berra said, "It gets late early these days." It's dark when coming in to work early in the morning. I go to a local meditation group three mornings a week. It is dark now when we get started. Christmas tree lights have come out early to brighten up the room there during our sitting.

mixed blessing

Walking over to production, noticing the intensely red berries of the burning bush. They are redder than the leaves. I don't remember noticing that before. The burning bush is beautiful this time of year. It's not hard to understand how what I'm sure is a non-native plant ended up being planted here. I just got done with a very large project to remove multifloral rose from a section of my property. They are also an non-native plant that has become a big problem as an invasive species. Once it gets started, it's very difficult & painful to remove. They also have beautiful red berries this time of year, and, again, it's easy to see how they got imported here. Definitely a mixed blessing