August 20, 2010 6:50 am
I was hiking Tuesday morning when my sister Mindy called to tell me Dad had passed on.
I’m still processing this. I’ve pored over his lifetime in photos, written three essays and I’m working on two obituaries. I phoned his home, and heard his voice on the answering machine. It was oddly comforting, like watching a classic movie or concert footage of a deceased performer.
I knew Dad’s time was near. I wanted him to check out before post-polio claimed his mobility and his dignity. I’ve forgiven him for not buying me a horse when we lived on a working farm. I will always be grateful that he was the definition of “resourceful.”
While I’ll miss him, I am so glad that he did not have to endure the worst of post-polio syndrome. His mind remained razor sharp to the end, but polio robbed him of mobility first when he was a teenager, and later just as he was about to embrace retirement.
My Dad’s mantra was “everything happens for the best.” Despite his positive focus, polio was a fact of his life. While polio presented specific choices and obstacles, it never defined Bill Fogelman, who saw opportunity in every situation.
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July 9, 2010 8:52 am
This is one of the few local areas that has had no rain – yet. I hope the scorched earth gets some relief. Mushrooms are nowhere to be found. They depend on moisture to fruit. The recently ripe, succulent berries are becoming dry and hard – not like dried fruit – more like pebbles.
Just before this heat wave I tried to transplant Black-eyed Susans (Rudbeckia hirta). I don’t know if this drought will wipe out all the water I had given them before the thermometer outside my window read 40-degrees Celsius, (104-degrees Farenheit). I don’t remember any day getting as hot as that since I arrived on the planet.
Meanwhile a Cooper’s Hawk is teaching her fledglings to hunt. The blue jay is tormenting the motionless hawk by pointing out its location to all the other birds.
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June 26, 2010 6:58 am
This is what I see when I walk into my yard.
In a couple of hours I’ll be leading a mushroom walk.
I cannot get a decent photograph of the spherical spider-web in the rain barrel on my deck. There’s about an inch of water in the barrel and above it, this glimmering globe of silky fiber woven into a geodesic dome, with a beautiful spider in the center. It’s really magical.
I spent last night watching day give way to night as fireflies glimmered and katydids sang on a perfect summer night. A light breeze kept the biting insects at bay. I like the way the gray values of the sky and the leaves change, like watching a painting come to life.
As night gave way to this morning, accompanied by the wake-up songs of robins, cardinals and avian summer visitors, the shadows revealed each individual leaf and the ashes, maples and oaks became distinct again. Vibrant day-lilies reach toward the sky and nestled in the thorny brush, those little wild berry jewels glisten in sunlight.
If I eat roadkill at this time of year, I have to watch the animal get hit. I had such an opportunity two days ago. A fat, but not quite fast enough woodchuck got caught in the wheels of a mommy-mobile. (more…)
June 17, 2010 3:16 am
I’m really proud to be included with people I respect and even more delighted to have these last words in Wayne Hall’s Times Herald Record column:
“The fact that the animals make it this far is a testament because the odds are very daunting,” says Highland Mills wildlife expert JJ Murphy of www.writerbynature.com. Still, she adds, spring is “a lovely time of birth and renewal.”
It feels good to be affirmed.
Living in the 21st Century, it’s easy to forget that, when dealing with the essential issue of survival, so much depends on luck and skill.
The days are still getting longer and at least I do not need a car to embrace woods time. That’s a good thing, since the $2000 I spent to fix up my now dead car is more than what the insurance company thinks the car is worth. As for the injuries I sustained, at least I have access to health care. In a survival situation, I’d be in very big trouble.
I am truly blessed as baby animals, having no idea what kind of critter I am, get closer than they should. Sometimes I get a great photo. Sometimes I just focus on the moment. I am deeply grateful to live in an area yet undevastated by human greed and incompetence.
I have a place to pray and meditate. I hope my prayers are heard.
June 6, 2010 5:27 am
As I drove westbound on Route 17K, a car emerged from a side street and hit my passenger side with enough force for my airbag to punch and scald my face, chest and arms. I’ll need to be examined again, once the swelling subsides, to determine if anything is broken.
It’s weird enough suffering a blow to the head. Now I get to travel through a bizarre tangle of corporate double-speak.
If “sleight of tongue” is the language of auto insurance companies, then I’ll learn that language. I cannot undo what happened. Much of my writing skill is now devoted to keeping a log of which script-babbling rep I spoke to and when.
Then there’s Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum. Yes they did. No they didn’t.
And the Smokescreens of Oz – your online tracking information – but there’s never any information posted, because no one seems to be able to copy/paste text.
I am trying to make sense of a senseless bureaucracy while unable to see (my glasses were smashed), eat anything but yogurt, turn my head, or relax in a hammock.
Now I just have to decide whether I’m angry or if I have the skill to find humor in this unwelcome situation.
It’s probably not a bad idea to have a verbal cattle prod and a verbal blow torch in my arsenal. But those are tools of last resort. I want a name and email contact information first.
Comedy is the result of tragedy plus time.
I’ll read my writing out loud before hitting the SEND button. There’s rage-filled venting and then there’s that deep, smoldering, adrenaline-fueled anger at insult heaped upon injury. I may be tiny, but I have command of the English language and the motivation to resolve this knock-out punch.
I wonder if those fairy tales of ogres demanding answers to weird riddles were metaphors for just this kind of interpersonal interaction in the days when walking was the main mode of transportation.
For now, there are doctor appointments to determine how seriously I am injured, endless tree-consuming paper forms to fill for these destructive corporate thugs, and the wild goose chase of collecting medical records.
Shadbush season is early this year and I have maybe a week to get that done, assuming I’m only bruised and battered. The farm’s abundant harvest is kicking in and I’m not sure I can handle that heavy work load. I’ll miss that connection if I have to undergo physical therapy.
But one step at a time. I’m not road kill yet.
May 28, 2010 6:26 pm
Years ago, when I began observing the natural world while hidden in a blind, I used to set out bird seed, which attracted more than birds. The squirrels would typically startle the birds and then ravage the feeders.
It took me a very long time to realize that a naturalist cannot interfere. Every time I tried to discourage the squirrel “invaders” I created my own physical and mental obstacles to blending in and really seeing, not just observing.
Over time the actual squirrels have become a metaphor for writer’s block. (more…)
April 22, 2010 7:12 am
As I write this, the forsythia, daffodils and lilacs are simultaneously in bloom. It’s beautiful, but a sign that things are not right. I’m old enough to remember the first Earth Day. Back then, I believed that regardless of political affiliation, everyone realized that clean air and water was a top priority. Some things cannot be legislated or budgeted.
I’m not sure how or where to dredge up a hopeful attitude as I watch the devastation around me. Here in New York State, some misguided official published a list of NY State Parks scheduled to close, due to lack of funds.
The chainsaw devastation in the area parks is overwhelming. Some guy was building a camp on a sunny Sunday afternoon in Schunemunk State Park, with no fear that any ranger would confiscate his chainsaw. He’s already hauled in a woodstove and fuel. I guess NY State thinks it will be cheaper to put out the impending forest fire than to pay the one part time ranger his pittance of a salary. (more…)
February 28, 2010 7:15 am
The snow is waist deep. I’ve been snowed in since Thursday. It’s fun and at the same time, scary. What’s up with that? When did I become afraid of nature?
The dense heavy snow is good for making a quinzee. But considering I spent close to four hours moving enough snow away from my door to squeeze outside, I’m inclined to save my energy. My neighbors and I may be pecking at this with shovels until May.
My car is under this snow somewhere. The snow plow guy is not avoiding me. He needs to come back with a bucket loader. This rural driveway is too challenging for a suburban truck & plow. (more…)
January 28, 2010 8:49 am
Heavy rain washed away the snow, exposing some interesting features of the rock surface of area mountains. This morning’s snow is laying down a fresh palette for wildlife tracks.
As for the rocks, when I saw this, I wondered if it had been split by temperature extremes:
But what really happened is that the tooth-like calcium deposit was not solid like this rock:
Moisture filled in between the gaps of the calicium “teeth” of the first rock.
I’ve spent a great deal of time hiking two mountains located less than 10 miles from each other which are composed of different geological materials. One is conglomerate rock with distinct vegetation and evidence of glacial movement.
The bedrock on the other mountain is precambrian gneiss outcroppings with mica and feldspar inclusions along with embedded microcrystalline quartz.
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December 23, 2009 7:53 am
There are few things that would lure me out of the woods when conditions are perfect for both cross-country skiing and tracking. Cookies made from acorn flour and dipped in chocolate and black walnuts – I never had a chance.
Baking does not come naturally to me, so I appreciate the mastery of fellow forager Jim Capossela. I don’t know him well enough to even hint that I’d like the recipe.
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