Columns
Life cycle of the hornworm
If you plant tomatoes, they will come. No respecter of the nightshade family, the tomato hornworm consumes tomato leaves, knows when green shoots sprout for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. No respecter of soil, overwintered moths emerge from the earth in early spring...
Road trip through America
Hello America. It’s been awhile. You haven’t heard from me for some time because I had gone out into the storm to reacquaint myself with you, trying to rediscover—or, maybe, discover for the first time—what you really are. Perhaps it was foolish, but I couldn’t help...
Open windows
I open my study window to a blessed breeze and birdsong. The ferns scorched by heat and drought whisper a rasping refrain. Memories of open windows waft in with faithful, faultless voices of robins, redwing blackbirds, mourning doves, and numerous winged creatures I...
Take a kid catchin’ and teach ’em to fish
Farm ponds provided livestock water while in the pasture. On our farm, most were muddy, had a distinct odor of cow manure, trampled shorelines and large snapping turtles. Today, with stocking programs old farm ponds have turned into a great place to introduce fishing...
Supper with Hutterites
On my return from West Virginia last month, Pauline welcomed me into her Victorian home in Newport, Kentucky. “On your way to Michigan tomorrow, will you have time to stop in Ohio for a visit with our friends the Harris family?” she asked. “Yes. I packed a dress with...
The purpose of things and people
Everything is designed with a purpose in mind. A bed for rest. A knife to slice our bread. A toaster, butter, and strawberry preserves to sweeten the day. Tongues to taste, swallow, talk and sing. Bless and curse. Fish, birds, and mammals feed on flies. Soil, rain,...
This significant summer
Come spring, we watch fat female robins and the wreath on the west pavilion post. A mama robin built a nest in the wreath’s cradle years ago to become a popular destination for breeding our state bird. A benefit of husbandry, harboring songbirds is not for the...
Healing in the leaves
And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her...
Maybe we do have an agenda
Our editor, Maria Brown, recently pulled the plug on a Facebook post which was getting out of hand. The comments were all related to our front page story on a COVID-19 outbreak which would hit the newsstand the next morning. Social media showed its shameful colors and...
When we ironed our hair
Fair-skinned, I wear a wide-brimmed hat, long-sleeved blouse, gloves, pants, socks, and shoes to garden. With few exceptions, style holds no sway over my clothing and coiffure when I cultivate food and flowers. Comfort and function determine my yard work wardrobe. One...
