Other Musings

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Other Musings

Essays and creative non-fiction separate from the Postcard-from-Monadnock series. Many of them are from Jarvis's column, "Off the Highway", which has appeared bi-weekly in the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript, since 2022.

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

The White Wood Aster

The White Wood Aster

There is a metaphor in that, which the White wood aster knows.

Sentimental Lights

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.

The Children are Back

The Children are Back

We are asked frequently if children are welcome at the Inn. The answer is yes for the reason that in our own lives, as children, inns were magical places.

How's Your Back?

How's Your Back?

It turns out that everyone has an opinion on back pain. Why not? One out of two people are affected.

Winter

If you want the real deal when it comes to New England, you must come in winter.

Our Inner Loon

[Loons] are among the Eagle Scouts of evolution. They are ungainly on the ground, not graceful fliers, but clearly, loons opted for diversification, perhaps because it made sense to hedge their bets at a time when volcanoes were still erupting and meteors plummeting to earth.

Snow Haves and Have Nots

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.

Where Have You Gone, David Crosby?

Where Have You Gone, David Crosby?

The loss of David Crosby has me worried about this . . . What compares today? What do we hold in common? Things appear and disappear so fast in this information age . . . turned to mulch with every page refresh. In a content world built around sharing, there is very little to hold on to.

A Few Words from Dr. King

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.

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.

Getting Out More

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.

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

Saving Huckleberry

Saving Huckleberry

Life without a dog for nine months had advantages, mobility among them. Go anywhere, anytime, without having to provision for the animal.

Beneath the Canopy

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

The Player's Punch

The Player's Punch

Sit through any community auction, and you will learn something about its people.