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The Third Sunday in Lent
My Old Farmer’s Almanac tells me that today marks the beginning of the hummingbirds’ migration north. The little wonders will arrive here and we will have their feeders ready for them, and our hearts will be glad to see them, and we will enjoy their company morning and evening as they swoop past and talk to us with their whirrs and squeaks. Speaking of birds, I have neglected to mention that we have a lovely little screech owl living in our barn. She was perched on the limb of the maple out back the other night when I was outside with Jinx, and she flew closer to the house and…
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Long Walk Home
The day started with the usual routine: Jinx awakened me by sticking his nose into my ear and snorfeling and snarfeling around like a Texas javelina, we made coffee, fed the dogs, got showered and dressed. Off to work, and everything was calm until a few miles from my office. That’s when the car started vibrating, pitching and yawing. Oh, man, I thought. Flat tire. But I happened to glance down at the dashboard and saw the Check Engine light flashing on and off like a strobe light at Studio54 in 1978. I’m no mechanic, but I know enough to realize that when that particular light is blinking, it’s bad…
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Suffering’s Work
I have for the last several days been in a sustained mood of contemplation and prayer, feeling and responding to an almost urgent sense of needing to pray, to seek companionship with God the Father, with Christ the Lord, with the Blessed Virgin Mary, and with my patron saint, the Maid — St. Joan of Arc. Today before entering my place of work, I offered a very focused supplication that I might not be drawn into nor affected by the dozens of little soap operas whirling about me on any given day. Regular readers of this blog know that I have been battered by the foolishness that is the norm…
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The Second Sunday in Advent
The weekend was a mild one, foggy and rainy for the most part, but with a three hour sunbath this afternoon. We sat out on the front porch and read for a good long spell, enjoying the fresh air and watching the battalions of birds as they ate and visited. Methuselah, the ancient white-faced squirrel who has lived on this land longer than we have, scampered in his deliberate, arthritic way across the driveway. How many winters has he seen? Jinx and I climbed to the top of a high ridge yesterday and enjoyed a rest up where we could peer down to our place and for quite a ways…
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Those Who Are Aware
Some years ago, we obtained a pretty little house plant with dark green, white-speckled leaves. The plant is known as a scindapsus pictus, or “argyraeus.” Not long after my wife installed it on the baker’s rack in the kitchen, it began to climb the wall behind the rack. We were utterly charmed by the little suckers the plant used to attach itself, and by what a living presence it was, even sitting among some other, more dramatically-leaved plants. Each tiny, pale shoot of jade at the end of the vine was cause for exclamation. Several weeks ago, while cleaning around the baker’s rack, I managed to tear the vine away…
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The First Sunday in Lent
The sun favored us all day, rising in a golden mist, warming and drying the marshy earth. Jinx and I were out early, enjoying the welcome light. After our walk, I returned to the house. Jinx followed his own inner urgings and stayed out all day, napping in the sunshine beneath the Japanese maple out front. A washing machine on the fritz, a large limb broken somehow from the weeping willow, a new security light to install, a writing project to complete — the sun moved across the sky with extra speed today, or so it seemed. And now it dips towards the western ridge, and it’s not too long…
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Romancing The Coon
The day was raw, but it didn’t prevent me from doing some chores on which I’ve been procrastinating. The dog and I took a walk up in the cemetery this morning, a penetrating wind pushing us around the entire time. Mrs. Orr and I went down into town and ran a few errands, then returned home and took a brief nap (thank you, Jinx, for all your efforts to prevent us from sleeping too long!). While my wife worked on supper and baked what turned out to be an exquisite apple pie from scratch, I got the chainsaw and gave the crape myrtle tree out front a severe trimming, then…
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Full Wolf Moon
Jinx spent a lot of time up on the ridge last night, blending his voice with the keening yips of the coyotes on the next ridge. They were singing their ancient song to the moon, telling tales of her power and allure and treachery. When I was going about my morning ablutions today, I noticed in the mirror that I had a series of scratches along my back near where my arm attaches to my shoulder, red lines along my latissimus dorsi. Then I saw a series very thin and deep scratches on my chest and abdomen, the sort a sharp cat’s claw might make. I touched all of the…
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Land Within Reason
Out here in the country, we don’t have a trash pickup service, so we have to take ours either to the county landfill or to one of the smaller drop-off stations situated in various places around the county. The one we mainly use is a few miles from our house, on a two-lane highway that offers beautiful scenery year-round. Just before the turnoff for the drop-off station sits a small farm. Out in front of the house is a pasture with an old but still serviceable barn. In the pasture is a hay ring, and most times I pass the place, there is an old horse and a goat…
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Wings Of Contemplation
We received a surprise skiff of snow during the night, and an even more surprising squall of the stuff during the morning, giving us a couple of inches of nice, fluffy snow, the kind that squeaks beneath the boot and provides good traction. The sun came out a while ago, but more snow is supposed to move in during the night. Jinx is keeping a close eye on the weather forecast, as snow is one of his great joys in life. He enjoys speeding along the ground like a spotted rocket, nose barely above terra firma, mouth slightly ajar and scooping up loads of the stuff. He stops occasionally to…