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Transitions

Sunshine starts a second snowfall

 

 

 

There are things you do in your 50’s that you thought you’d do in your 20’s.
This is a given.

What you remember is often what you wished for,
not what really happened.

Some things you declined to say when you could have will ring in your ears forever.
It’s better to say them all.

There will be more joy than you expected,
certainly more than you thought you deserved.

You will continue to have conversations with people you loved,
decades after they’re gone.

You will often cry unexpectedly –
not when things are sad, but when they are beautiful.

These are some things I’ve learned.

 

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White Christmas

Snowy River

 

(to start of project)

Fresh snow got home before we did on Christmas Day. After dinner with family in DC, we drove back south, headlong into waves of a big storm as it broke over the hills on the way north. The last hour of driving was spent tacking back and forth in the dark, looking for cleared roads. We’re getting used to this by now, and the novelty has definitely worn off.

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Room With A View

Mirror Pond 

 

(to start of project)

Our house is surrounded by over 300 acres of woods and overgrown hay fields. The land was bought by a big-time developer just days before we moved in, but has laid fallow for almost 30 years. We’ve savored the quiet it provides, a buffer between us and the rest of the world, and it’s a haven for all sorts of wildlife. We frequently take walks there in the evening. Continue reading “Room With A View”

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Decked Out and a Swim

Tom supervises the deck operation.

 

(to start of project)

Spent the weekend on more prep work. Though there’s not much to see, a lot got done. Used a round-over bit to take the sharp corners off all the exposed edges on the framing. It’s a small detail, but keeps the wood from splitting and splintering when stuffing gear inside. It also keeps you from getting bit when reaching in to retrieve things. An especially nice touch on grab surfaces, where hands naturally go for carrying or moving a boat. Continue reading “Decked Out and a Swim”

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The Antipode of Autumn

Listening to Peepers, outside in the yard.

 

(to start of project)

I hope you can hear this. The vagaries of computers and the web makes some things uncertain. But if you can, this is what it sounds like here, right now, tonight. Driving home from work late, just after dark, I rolled down the windows just to listen when passing a wet place in the woods, or a farm pond overgrown.

Nothing sounds more like Spring to me than peepers on the first warm night of the year, the same way calls of geese coursing southward overhead on moonlit nights, plaintive and cacophonous, sound like fall. Minstrels announcing the entrance and exit of a very hard season, with a harmonic flourish.

Continue reading “The Antipode of Autumn”

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Warm Inside

 

 

Big snow storm tonight. Took two hours to get home, and Terri is still stuck in town, staying with friends.

It’s already deeper than the dogs. Emily is outside with them, and they bound through it like antelope, or burrow like groundhogs. I can hear her laughing in the dark.

It will fall through the night and into tomorrow.

A good night to be warm inside by the fire.

We’ll have a White Christmas.

 

 

 

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Morning Commute

Black Angus, Morning Fog, Scottsville

 

It’s a 45 minute drive to work and back every day from Scottsville to Gordonsville. There are three or four different routes, but all go through rural farmland and take about the same time. Beats sitting in traffic. These are all shots from that drive, mostly from a single day.

Continue reading “Morning Commute”