Category Archives: Columns

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

The Legend Grows

The tulip magnolia is back, and so is that “solitary Indian” camped at the edge of town. First, the magnolia, though, which literally weathered the storm and is now in full bloom, just around the corner from the umbrella table and chairs we put out front for a change, hidden between the main block and […]

Spring Things

The greening of spring can envelop a man with inspiration — a young manured rye field underfoot stretching out in rich, vibrant green to a faraway budding border of faint pastels, high and low, some reds and browns daubed in, the streams at a swollen mumble, soothing from afar, as birds flitter about the beaver […]

Streamside Rebuke

Peter Mallett can be a feisty devil, which comes as no surprise to me after years of entertaining phone conversations. Yes, affable Pete Mallet — president and founder of the Millers River Fishermen’s Association — is a man of principle, not a bit timid about voicing an opinion on important matters, particularly hunting and fishing, […]

Indian Pond

Where to start? That’s the problem today facing me. I know where I’m headed, just am not sure how to get there. Hmmmm? Bear with me. Plus, due to a spring freshet of info overflow, I must run a rare outdoors notebook inside. First, though, I probably ought to begin with what got me started […]

Clockwork

It’s Wednesday morning, column day, and nothing seems to be going right, even choosing a topic difficult. One of those days, I suppose. Always dangerous. Never know where a man might wander on a warm spring day. As for my unexpected issues, well, I imagine you all know the drill. First you go out fiddlehead […]

Food For Thought

Kids and customers, a call from a friend and completion of an old novel about a familiar subject, plus matters related to all of the above — that’s what I’m thinking about as I sit here today; Worm Moon waning; brown, brittle leaves, feeble remnants of fall, tumbling, hopping and tumbling again in blustery winter […]

Under The Lens

You built your tower strong and tall, can’t you see it’s got to fall someday? Townes Van Zandt “Tower Song”  Spring is the time of sprouts and seedlings, buds and leaves, floods and flowers, growth and nest-building — the soggy, saturated season that stirs thoughts I don’t other months entertain. Honestly, this tiptoe introspection only […]

Cougar Classrooms

Hmmmm? Isn’t it interesting, maybe even humorous how topics with furry legs and big teeth linger? Yes, here I sit — still studying ritualistic landscapes and sacred burial grounds of our ancient indigenous tribes, with a current focus on sites called Wissatinnewag and Peskeomskut, where Northeastern Indians congregated in peace and harmony each spring to […]

Change Is Near

Two songs: one upbeat, joyous, the fiddle and mandolin giggling; the other foreboding, threatening, the tall stand-up base groaning in distress. I have hesitated for some time to jump into the gun-control fray, but will go there today; for what, I do not know. What do I have to gain? So, first, the happy tune […]

Old Stompin’ Grounds

How difficult it is to describe what came over me right after hooking a hard right at the North Pleasant Street rotary onto Governors Drive, heading for Commonwealth Avenue, the UMass Parking Garage and an afternoon lecture at Bartlett 61. Yes, tough indeed to describe, uncomfortable, too. The place just isn’t for me. Never was […]

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