Other Musings Election Day “The price of greatness,” Winston Churchill said, “is responsibility.” He was talking to us.
Other Musings The Pumpkin Period Currently, you may have noticed, we are mired in the Pumpkin Period, characterized by the flavor of pumpkin in almost everything.
Other Musings Summer People The July and August people have arrived, bringing with them their patronage of our stores and their vehicles, requiring me to look both ways before pulling out of the driveway.
Other Musings Good, Quality Thunder The rain had stopped and we sat just to watch and listen as the storm’s slashing furry settled to not much more than a purr.
Other Musings Liver Free or Die I object to the narrow use we make of the animals that pay the ultimate sacrifice on the way to our table.
Other Musings Calmly on the Waters Of all the animals we will share property with this summer, we are most attached to the loons. They are the only creature that does not bolt the instant they become aware of our presence.
Other Musings Total Eclipse The memory of projecting light on the shirt cardboard stands out only because it was the same afternoon we were taken to see the play, Peter and the Wolf.
Other Musings Moon Walk I submit our Presidential candidates should be required to spend three nights around a campfire with a view of the sky as part of their spiritual journey to the office.
Other Musings Now We are Nearly to Spring Every year, awakened by the Mourning Dove, I would be glad to stand in that spot for a minute or two.
Other Musings Artificial Intelligence There will still be tasks available to us after AI has it under control. I feel confident about that at the end of a dirt road.
Other Musings Winter Enchantment Imagine a place where the leaf action of a spindly plant at the edge of the woods can take center stage each morning out the kitchen window.
Food About Breakfast I stopped ordering scrambled eggs at restaurants, including good ones, long ago. Invariably— as in, every case, every occasion—scrambled eggs come out overcooked and rubbery, sometimes flecked with specs of brown.
Other Musings Boxing Day You are entitled to your own set of facts when it comes to the origins of Boxing Day because there are none.
Other Musings Power to the People I wonder how far it will be in the future when the notion that we delivered electrical power around the world by stringing wires over hill and dale will seem archaic.
Other Musings Thanksgiving It is hard to feel wistful for the long hours and seven-day work weeks. But we are thankful for having been innkeepers in many small ways and, sometimes, as you see, in big ones.
Jarvis Coffin Summer's End Back to school always sneaks up on me. I am still not used to the fact it comes before Labor Day--nor am I happy about it.
Other Musings Fiddleheads Hancock’s Fiddleheads Café reopened Memorial Day weekend after a winter hiatus, during which time owner Sherry Williams continued her search for a buyer to fulfill her retirement goal, having worked might and main at the business for eighteen years. Ownership events occurring with small, rural businesses in New England
Other Musings Sentimental Lights I can conjure an argument for why our collective imagination, the state of romance, and all the poetry in the world have suffered since the advent of incandescent light.
Other Musings How's Your Back? It turns out that everyone has an opinion on back pain. Why not? One out of two people are affected.
Other Musings Snow Haves and Have Nots The line between the snow haves and have-nots is sharp this year. We met our friends outside of Boston, where there was no snow. We went further south to Foxboro, and the land was barren and brown.
Other Musings A Few Words from Dr. King We have despaired the last couple of years over the cantankerous nature of our politics. I will tell you it was worse in 1968.
Other Musings Migration Time It will be the unique and solitary sound of the owl serving as our closest friend over winter . . . except for footprints in the snow and a few ghostly pictures from our wildlife cameras strung around the trees.
Other Musings Getting Out More An ocean person will point to an island on a map and say, I have been there. Mountain people will stand at the base and respond, I have been to the top. Each always has thoughts of returning.
Other Musings Home I was moved by a sense of adventure in a strange land, by calls to prayer drifting from loudspeakers in Arabic and Hebrew, by the beauty of Christian churches, Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Armenian
Other Musings Beneath the Canopy Beneath the canopy, very little grows straight. Every bit of ground is contested. Every angle of sunlight is made available on a first-come, first-serve basis. Everywhere there are predicaments
