While planting the vegetable garden last May, I heard a repeated bird song emanating from the adjacent raspberry patch: “Pleased, pleased, pleased to MEETCHA.” Finally, the small songster perched near the tip of a raspberry cane, its tail cocked. The bird’s yellow crown, black mask, olive back with black streaks, and white breast with rusty…

  For 25 years beginning in 1975 the month of May meant the beginning of camping season for my husband, Peter, and me. We had a permanent site at Belview Campground in Barton, Vermont. Crystal Lake was so close that we just walked through a field and we were there. I was reminded of my…

Stars, They twinkle, They shine, When it is dark, Late at night, You’ll see something, Something quite beautiful, An endless skyway of stars, You could be a star, Beautiful as a team, Beautiful by yourself, You can shine, Beautiful and bright, Be yourself, You do you, A star is beautiful and so are you.

  This week brings a new astrological landscape which is set to shift priorities, plans and dreams. The question begs, what does abundance mean to you? How do you define wealth? Have you even taken the time to figure out what kind of life you actually want to lead? Are you living with meaning and…

This week brings a new astrological landscape which is set to shift priorities, plans and dreams. The question begs, what does abundance mean to you? How do you define wealth? Have you even taken the time to figure out what kind of life you actually want to lead? Are you living with meaning and purpose?…

By Julia Purdy Book-burning is always an interesting subject to anyone with any curiosity about history. Hints have filtered down to us about book-burning under Germany’s Third Reich and the destruction of the ancient library at  Alexandria, Egypt. Sometimes pop culture deals with the topic, as in Ray Bradbury’s 1953 novel, “Fahrenheit 451,” which posits…

By Julia Purdy Sleepy Whipple Hollow Road in Pittsford was reduced to one lane as a crowd gathered for the rededication of a roadside monument on Sunday May 7, marking the place where the Crown Point military road of 1759 passed along a small valley on the way to Lake Champlain.  Speakers included Barry Griffith,…

  We shuffle across the top, avoiding the crux of the mound. Instead, we slide around. Looking down at the luscious field below, still we slide around. Not for any particular reason, but perhaps merely to avoid beginning rather than simply diving right in. It’s too awesome to be there, at the start, looking down…

I got out of work the other night and had nothing to do, so I decided to walk nine holes. Luckily, it was the perfect scenario: spring was in full bloom, the temperature was stable, and the course appeared empty.  I walked up to the first tee and did a few stretches and then proceeded…

Hear ye, hear ye! The queens have emerged! We’re talking about bumble bees (genus Bombus). For several weeks each spring, any bumble bee you see is a queen – and very hard at work. She must construct her kingdom. Her mother (the previous queen), and most of her siblings will have perished. Unlike honey bees,…

Sugary water, Dripping, Dripping. Slowly filling up the buckets. Maple sap boiling, Until at last, Sugary syrup, Slowly moving. Delicious, Dripping on your pancakes. Maple sugar fills your mouth with joy. Pure Vermont, Pure love, Pure maple syrup. Maple is love because it’s made with teamwork, Everything’s better when you work as a team.

We all have our limits with certain things. Some people might call those boundaries. I like to call them non-negotiables. Try as we might to be fluid and flexible or in some instances, appear nonchalant, things can get under one’s skin. Something you once saw from a logical standpoint may now feel sensitive or emotional…

Rivers, Flowing, Gliding,  Hear the water peacefully flow over the rocks, Gliding down stream, Softly, Peacefully. If you listen close enough, you’ll hear a sound, like no other sound before: Kindness.  Keep in the hear of the river, kindness. It’s a sound that needs to be heard more.  Open your heart and deep inside you’ll…

When they say that life was slower “back in the day” they are probably right! It was slower because it took longer to do everything. I was thinking of that the other day when I warmed up lunch in the microwave. Back in the '50s my mother would put a casserole dish containing leftovers from…

I have always loved watching the first flowers of the year pop out of the ground and slowly, ever so slowly, make their way from infant hood into greenery, budding and then finally into the beauty that they have been concealing. My mom feels the same way about butterflies, but I love perennials. I get…