Category Archives: Columns

Published pieces I’ve written, primarily in The Recorder, Greenfield, Mass.

Another Fine Covert Bites The Dust

It’s pheasant season, the ringnecks are cackling and flying and life is good; yet, sadly, some of my favorite coverts — thick, thorny, productive tangles I’ve plowed through regularly for 40 years — have become inundated with unfamiliar hunters, many from far away, a relatively new development. It’s perfectly alright that “outsiders” find their way […]

Drydock Blues

I’m starting to feel guilty. The dogs know. I can sense it, see it in their step, their demeanor. Hunting season is here. They know. Problem is I’m getting off to a late start because I procrastinated on a few key matters down the stretch. Here’s the checklist: 1. Purchase hunting license (done); 2. Purchase […]

New Sheriff In Town?

More than half my cordwood’s in the shed, the Full Hunters Moon is building to a brilliant climax and green stocking trucks are rolling for Saturday’s opening day of pheasant season. Yes, the bird-hunting season is upon us and here I sit in a familiar seat, still procrastinating about purchasing my hunting license online. Imagine […]

More Paleo Patter

Does anyone else have problems getting their head around small encampments of Paleo-Indian hunters spearing to death migrating caribou funneled through a tight ravine at the base of Sugarloaf some 12,350 years ago? Yes, mind boggling indeed, yet quite real. I suppose what makes it all so unfathomable is the sad fact that the typical […]

Unearthing Issues

I’ve found that most things happen for a reason. Take, for instance, Wednesday morning’s incoming mail. Having heard the white USPS jeep pass a half-hour earlier while reading, I pulled my truck up alongside the mailbox to retrieve the mail on my way out of the yard to run the dogs. The first item to […]

Seeing Is Believing

Tiny red rose hips are aflame and alluring as cornfields brown and swamps glow their familiar purple/yellow hue with the autumnal equinox and Harvest Moon behind us, the waning half-moon reduced to a faint, ghostly mid-morning spy in the clear blue western sky. You may have noticed my absence the past two weeks. I was […]

Candid Camera

The sky was gray, swallows skimming the hayfield, flying low, their glee palpable — swooping, darting, looping, but mainly hugging the surface, devouring insects in midair. The lively activity had Chub-Chub all revved up, sprinting, bouncing, cutting left and right like a gifted NFL receiver adding to his yards-after-catch in the open field. What a […]

Omen Bruin?

Does a bear spit in the woods? You betcha! Sunken Meadow, too. As usual, I would have walked right past the large, tidy pile along the edge of a thin swamp Monday morning had it not been for the grande dame herself, Springer Spaniel Lily, 9, who on her daily ramble around the plot smelled […]

Stinkbait Cider

Fruit season is upon us along with the Full Sturgeon Moon, said to be a blue moon despite being the only full moon we’ll see this month. Why? Well, occasionally we have an extra, fourth moon during a three-month season and it and the one that follows are considered blue. That’s the situation this summer. […]

Summer Breeze

The chimney sweep’s come and gone, a half-moon shines, the marsh is turning purple and fall is in the air. Ah, what a difference a day makes. Just another miracle of the life we take for granted, a life governed by nature and wicked, greedy, cookie-cutter men pulling diabolical strings. But why dwell on the […]

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