-
Do You Really Want To Go There?
It’s early Autumn. The air is crisp. The broad leaves of the oaks and maples are sharp and bright in the sun. Against the darker conifers, the reds and yellows are more muted–less distinct and less joyful. There is a lane. It seems to possess a faint voice calling for you to follow to wherever…
-
Elegy From The North Country
The Curfew tolls the knell of parting day; The lowing herd wind slowly o’er the lea; The ploughman homeward plods his weary way, And leaves the world to darkness and to me. -Thomas Gray Well, if you’re…
-
When A Leaf Dances A Snowflake Will Soon Fall
I’m sitting on the front deck of our house which sits on a small rise above Rainbow Lake. It’s late September in the North Country of New York State. The trees are oddly out-of-tune with the season. Some are brown, dead and waiting to drop to the ground. Some are just hinting at the blast…
-
Trying To Stay Forever Young
I’m sitting on the deck of our home at Rainbow Lake. A lone chickadee hops from branch to branch and then vanishes into the thicket of trees. I can see the shimmer of the setting sun reflecting from the water below us. Only patches of the lake can be seen, we need to trim a…
-
The Migratory Habits of the Boomers
In this lecture we will explore the migratory habits of certain unusual groups of animals. Let us begin by taking a glance at the Puffins of the North Atlantic. They migrate to a big rugged and very isolated rock somewhere in the waters of the Atlantic. There they breed. Then they migrate somewhere. It’s totally…
-
Our Appeal To The Great Spirit
[Source: Google Search] It was the icon of our school. It stood in the large foyer of the Owego Free Academy high school. The title of this equestrian sculpture is Appeal to the Great Spirit. The artist was Cyrus Dallin and it dates from 1909. The original bronze statue is at the entrance of the…
-
Spider Dilemma, My
I wanted desperately to write a blog about Daddy-Long-Leg spiders. But, there was a technical problem that I could not solve. It’s not that there is a shortage of this species here in the North Country. Indeed, just the opposite is true. They are everywhere. But try to get a photo of one…it’s not impossible,…
-
56 Years Along The Blue Trail: Then And Now
Like brave mountaineers, we weren’t bothered much by time. –Gordon Lightfoot It’s late August in the North Country. The green of the leaves and shrubs are looking tired. Some hints of the colors of autumn are emerging from the maples and oaks. Late summer flowers like Black-Eyed Susans and Ragweed are everywhere. The quarter moon…
-
My One And Only Superstition
I taught science for over thirty years. I have learned to separate fact from belief, real from unreal and rational thinking from irrational concepts. There is a world of superstition out there. It is a danger to society to rely on unproven ideas. This is why many people burned many women (and men) as witches…
-
Day And Night At The County Fair–August, 2015
It was my third visit to the Franklin County Fair. I came on Senior’s Night when the admission is a mere $2.00 for older gents like me. It was crowded with North Country folks of all sizes, shapes, and ages. Teenage girls clung to the arms of their ‘guy’. Wounded vets were pushed in wheelchairs…