the first of December

The first of December has arrived with a cold blowing ice storm. I awoke at three in the morning to the firs and spruce singing the song of winter . After checking the fire and being too awake to go back to bed, I read a story by Rockwell Kent. The book N. by E, is a tale of sailing to Greenland in a thirty three foot long sail boat from Newfoundland . Rockwell tells a true story of the challenges of a small boat on the huge sea. As the wind blew and the ice was hitting my window I felt that our small house here in the mountains was like a small boat sailing through the huge forest we live in. The cold winters, the wild storms, the deep silence of the wild all are the things Kate and I love the most . So as the winter falls upon us we again take time to look deep inside our lives in the great north woods.
12 01 2008 Don

Fall in the Adirondacks

The full harvest moon has already passed on by pushed by the west wind bringing fall to our home.  Leaves flying in reds and golds shower the yard and the blue sky opens up in their falling.  Migratory birds have been heading south and the forest is now filled with the sounds of the locals.

Gardens are being prepped for spring, roots dug and the last of the fresh plant medicine making completed.  As the fall moves into colder weather the forest surrounding us grows quiet as the earth prepares for winter silence.  The deep quiet fills us with a dreamtime, an inner way to reflect on the old year and the new year coming.  I am including some pictures from the Adirondacks that I took this fall.

Enjoy and take good care

Don

Adirondack October

The middle of October and we have our first artic air moving in. The wind is sharp and it is in the single numbers at night. The deer that are 10 generations with us visit the garden nightly. Any greens will be a welcome addition to their diet. Soon we put corn out for the turkeys and grouse, jays also enjoy sweet cracked corn. Today the clouds were high, moving fast and so cold with the distant sound of geese flying south. It took me a few minutes to locate the flock, see their white wings, hear the calls and enjoy snow geese from Hudson Bay. The call of the snow geese is slightly higher in pitch but a mellow sound to my ears. Winter looks early this year in the Adirondacks.