We do Christmas differently every year, & the more honesty comes forward as to how we feel, the better we fit with the holiday…

My footing uncertain, I round the back of the barn, up one steep slope of crusted snow, aiming for patches of dirt, already cognizant that coming back down will be harder…

The one lane road used to go thru to the North Branch road, but mostly now it just goes to the Sinclair family Christmas tree farm…

Strange things happen on your birthday, so you have to stay supple…

The air in the house cools down at night, with no thermostat kicking on to moderate change…

People often ask me how long my gardening season goes…

I stepped into the woodshed a little after dawn, to sample the air & examine the snowfall. Nothing scientific; just a gut measure…

It takes a long time to cut geranium stems with a hand tool, on a cold day, if the field of flowers is vast…

The new gardening client, situated somewhere between the Adirondacks & Mt. Mansfield, was more than generous…

The first snow is expected …

We decide to drive in, as far as we can.

On our hands & knees, we bid farewell to summer …

The color moves quickly, and most is gone now…

"Straighten her out", he yelled, so I yanked at the wheel, and watched in my mirror as the tailgate approached the deck, my dyslexic mind trying to flip things correctly, to avoid a crash…

I look longingly at the last danish in the case…

I pass the town garage, and coming around the last river bend before the road cuts sharply up into fields again, I see her…

I remembered the road well, because he'd grown up nearby, & had pointed out to me exactly each wooded ravine he & his brothers used to bushwhack & ski, almost killing themselves…

My little town …

He jockeyed his tractor bucket into position over the bed of my Chevy: an inch here, and inch there, with a precision undoubtedly born from having done it wrong enough times…

Despite a sunny forecast, we were rained out at 3 pm…