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 […]

The mellow yellow glow from empty sunlit seed-heads glistening over a dense, light-green, chest-high timothy field makes it all the more beautiful to watch Chubby doing what Springer Spaniels are bred to do — locate and flush bird or beast with blissful enthusiasm from tangled cover. The furious sight and sound of thrashing brush highlighted […]

Observation and evaluation, that’s what it comes down to with me, whether hunting, exploring or just sizing up a man or situation. Take for example rating a local ballplayer. Yeah, the numbers can help, but not so much as actually observing the guy on the field, the way he carries himself, his mechanics, the way […]

Catalpa pollen, fawn prints, second nests and puppies: that’s where we’re headed today after an otherwise uneventful week by a careful observer in the fertile Meadows. Catalpas? Well, my itchy eyes and allergic tickles should have told me they were blooming. As kids we called them banana trees, and they bug me every year around […]