The solar clothes dryer. Usually so efficient.Not today. The view from the henhouse door.Isn't it pretty? White lilacs. Not as pretty as Beauty of Moscow. No barbecues on the piazza today.Am I bitter? Who would say so?

After a night and day of snow and freezing rain, we had a brief respite. Then it began to snow again. Two more inches of fine cold snow. I had to leave at dawn today for a Library and Legislators breakfast and almost didn't make it because the nighttime winds had frozen the car doors shut. Much gnashing of teeth later I got the passsenger door open, climbed over the gear shift and pretzeled myself into the car.…

We think a lot about 'critters' here at the End of the Road. We hear coyotes at night - and at noon when they respond to the noon whistle at the firehouse, bears, deer (grrrrrr) and fisher cats who once killed 60 month old chicks. Recently, there have been owls. Different owls watching over different houses, even an owl sitting on the recycle metal bin at the Transfer Station. Last week I woke in the night and looked…

Since I took this photo of Krishna, chest deep in snow, early in the week we have had more snow. More wind. And more snow. Krishna is now neck deep in the white stuff, and snow shoes are required to get out to the hen house. However, the sun is bright. The days are a bit longer. Our bedroom is bright by 6:45 am and getting up is easier and easier. The weather man even forcasts temperatures of…

The lunar eclipse was very clear up here on our Massachusetts hill. We have perfect conditions for star - and moon - gazing because there is no light pollution. The skies are dark, but brilliant with a splash of the Milky Way and the host of heroes and gods from the Greek and Roman mythologies including Selene, the goddess of the moon whose chariot is pulled by two white cows whose horns are symbols of the crescent moon.Of…

Over the past 24 hours another five inches of snow has fallen already blanketed fields. The snow has fallen wet and deep, laying heavily on the pine trees, and even on each twiggy branch of the bent birches, like lace tutus on bowing ballerinas. Snow began falling again this morning on my way home from church. The wind picked up, blowing snow across the road, and knocking it off the trees. Between the falling and blowing snow, and…

You can get alfalfa sprouts at every salad bar, and you can even buy them in little plastic boxes at the supermarket. If you spout seeds at home you can use a mix of flavorful seeds - radish, broccoli, clover, lentil and others inaddition to alfalfa.I used to have some plastic screened lids that were intended to be used on canning jars for sprouting, but I have been told that in order to give sprouting seeds proper air…

The Wolf Moon, the January full moon, shone over our house this week. According to country wisdom you should still have half your firewood left when the Wolf Moon is full. We do! The wood pile is ornamented with snow and ice, but there is plenty to get us through the winter, and those cool, damp spring evenings.The freezer also contains a good ration of our blueberries and strawberries, as well as the chickens that we raise for…

The United States Postal Service honored pollinators this year with a beautiful set of stamps showing bees, butterflies, bats and hummingbirds going about their vital duty, turning lovely flowers into seeds, fruits, berries and vegetables. Of course, those are just a few of the pollinators that play such an essential part in providing food for us humans and other animals. Did you know that bats alone pollinate more than 300 kinds of plants that humans use?I was browsing…

My friend, B J Roche says she is too busy to blog, but she maintains a website for her journalism students at the University of Massachusetts, and all the rest of us who want to read what she has to say in a whole variety of publications including the Boston Globe and Commonwealth Magazine. However, she is not strictly speaking the truth. Her website includes a link to her chicken blog, The Chicken Whisperer, "because let's face it,…