Jump to content
Sign in to follow this  
  • entries
    86
  • comments
    7
  • views
    3,547

About this blog

by Carol Bossard

Entries in this blog

A Little Love And A Few Flowers

A Little Love And A Few Flowers

It is only the sixth day of this new month, but Valentine’s Day is only a week away.  Do you remember the lacy-decorated box on the teacher’s desk, made to hold valentine cards?  Do you remember those packets of little valentines, about 20 of them /box, we exchanged with each other?  Valentine’s Day still can be a fun time that brightens our winter and gives us another chance to spread a little love around.  One of my favorite poems for this occasion is by Robert Louis Stevenson:*  “I will make

Carol Bossard

Carol Bossard

Tracking January's Changes

Tracking January's Changes

Note: This column was originally intended to be posted January 23rd however I'm just getting to it now. My apologies for the delay -Chris Here we are, past mid-January. With each fresh snowfall, our lawn is crisscrossed with tracks; cat, deer, rabbits, mice, and possum. There was one slightly larger track that featured long claws, and a dragging tail.  I’m thinking it might be a fisher. I am envisioning nightly, wild, wild-life parties after our lights are out. Perhaps Fauns, Ents and

Carol Bossard

Carol Bossard

Brrrr! It's January!

Brrrr! It's January!

“The snow had begun in the gloaming, and busily all the night had been heaping field and highway with a silence deep and white.  Every pine and fir and hemlock wore ermine too dear for an earl, and the poorest twig in the elm tree was ridged inch-deep with pearl.”* And so, the cycle begins again. Winter has arrived, and will undoubtedly outstay its welcome, before our portion of the earth slowly finds spring. Just as we are enjoying spring, summer will suddenly pounce upon us, with all its

Carol Bossard

Carol Bossard

The Day After

The Day After

Scattered scraps of Christmas wrap, curling ribbons and partially-burned candles, mark this morning, as I send greetings out for a continued good Christmas season (it is Christmas until Twelfth Night January 6th), a Blessed Chanukah season a Happy Boxing Day, and a joyous Kwanzaa festival. All of those make up today. Also, our granddaughters and family are here for a few days, and life is good.  After a leisurely, get-it-yourself breakfast, I’m sitting at the computer, looking out at a wintery l

Carol Bossard

Carol Bossard

Lightening Life And Lighting Life

Lightening Life And Lighting Life

Are you sitting with your feet up, listening to lovely music and enjoying the day? Relishing the season of Advent? Perhaps not; for many, ‘tis the season of constant rushing around, and endless “to-do” lists.   For at least fifty years, I’ve been trying to bring more serenity into my very own holiday chaos, sometimes succeeding for a bit, but the rushing around always catches me at some point, tossing me hither and leaving my mind yon and a-whirl!  I find myself overwhelmed by the metaphorical w

Carol Bossard

Carol Bossard

Sensing November

Sensing November

“Something told the wild geese it was time to go. Though the fields lay golden, something whispered ‘SNOW”! Leaves were green and stirring, berries luster-glossed. But beneath warm feathers, something cautioned ‘FROST!’ All the sagging orchards steamed with amber spice, but each wild breast stiffened at remembered ice. Something told the wild geese it was time to fly ---summer sun was on their wings, winter in their cry.”* There is something about hearing geese fly over, especially at night

Carol Bossard

Carol Bossard

Boo-oo-oo! Shiver! Shake!

Boo-oo-oo! Shiver! Shake!

Every year, I’ve written about Halloween, but never had the opportunity to send out an essay ON Halloween. As you know, this is a popular, and controversial,day. The word comes from the Celtic “Samhain” (pronounced Sa-ween). It was the Harvest festival and beginning of the new year in Ireland and surrounding regions; sort of like New Year’s Eve for us. The belief, at that time, was that on Samhain, the “curtain” between the here and the hereafter was very thin. Uneasy or angry souls could come b

Carol Bossard

Carol Bossard

Catching Up Mid-Month

Catching Up Mid-Month

These first two weeks of October have flown by,  as have most days and months, to my over-busy mind. Suddenly we need a fire in the wood stove on chilly mornings. The plants that I will attempt to overwinter are inside now and the garden looks relieved that fall has come and it can sleep until spring. If you could get an opinion from my garden, I’m quite sure it would relate a sad story about being neglected; that the summer was tough, the weeds grew tall, September brought little rain, and it i

Carol Bossard

Carol Bossard

Dancing Into Fall!

Dancing Into Fall!

October can be the quintessential autumn month full of sunshine, changing foliage and mellow breezes, or, it can rain, blow, and even, very occasionally, snow. Kerm used to schedule a multi-county 4-H horse show on Columbus Day weekend, and several times, there was rain and twice, there was snow. And there have been a few snowy Halloweens. We’ll hope for a sunny and mellow October this year; we have a couple of road trips in mind, and want really good weather. Then too, family will be coming to

Carol Bossard

Carol Bossard

September 1964 And September 2024

September 1964 And September 2024

Ah, September!!  Time for a few verses from my favorite autumn poem by Helen Hunt Jackson*.  I hope you enjoy its annual appearance too. The golden rod is yellow, the corn is turning brown; the trees in apple orchards, with fruit are bending down. The gentian’s bluest fringes are curling in the sun; in dusty pods, the milkweed its hidden silk has spun. The sedges flaunt their harvest in every meadow nook, and asters by the brookside make asters in the brook.  From dewy lanes at morning the

Carol Bossard

Carol Bossard

Summer Countdown

Summer Countdown

Late summer is a mélange of ripening aromas, dog-days heat, and lawns growing several inches per day. My Clethra shrub is in full bloom and very fragrant, along with clumps of phlox; both having a sweet and wholesome smell.  Yesterday, our road to an appointment was lined, on both sides, with corn fields. Growing, maturing corn has a distinctive perfume, a bit musky and just slightly sweet; it seems to be the signature scent of late August. Summer is calling us to enjoy while we have the chance.

Carol Bossard

Carol Bossard

The Golden Stairs

The Golden Stairs

August is named for Caesar Augustus, and it’s also my birth month. The green peridot is the gem for the month. These are stones found in some lava deposits and stand for history and strength.   Brown-eyed Susans are the month’s flower according to Native American lore, and I prefer those to the gladiolus usually attributed to August. Gladiolus are stately, colorful and lovely, but the wilder, cheerier brown-eyed Susans seem to fit me better.  This August has two full moons; the sturgeon moon and

Carol Bossard

Carol Bossard

Holding On

Holding On

Now are “Those Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer” *that Nat King Cole used to sing about.   The lakes; Seneca and Cayuga, Juanita and Lomoka, are sparkling, the temperatures are balmy. Thunder storms come through frequently, often bringing considerable damage with them, via wind and hail but also clearing the air. Soon tomatoes will be ripe in our garden and sweet corn (not in our garden) ready to eat on the cob, freeze or put into corn fritters. One of my sisters-in-law made delectable corn frit

Carol Bossard

Carol Bossard

Taking A Break

Taking A Break

Oh, what a beautiful morning, oh, what a beautiful day…” Such a happy song from “Oklahoma,” and so appropriate for a lovely July morning. It might be lovelier were the temperature ten degrees lower, and no storms were lingering, but that’s summer. Being mindfully grateful is an intelligent way to begin a day, even knowing that there’s every possibility our plans will move unexpectedly from Plan A to Plan Q before the day is over!  In later years, it has become sort of entertaining to

Carol Bossard

Carol Bossard

Traveling Through Summer

Traveling Through Summer

“Thirty days hath September, April, June and November….”  And the 30th of June is coming right up! Foliage is fully out making good hiding places for birds and small creatures. I see chipmunks slipping beneath the comfrey leaves and a rabbit skirting the current bushes. Mysterious paths are evident in the grass, where a skunk or squirrel has traveled to the sunflower seeds. We are just one week from Independence Day ---- July 4th.   The Solstice is past, so summer is here in all its fullness. We

Carol Bossard

Carol Bossard

Choices

Choices

We are nearing the summer Solstice, the time of the longest daylight, directly after which we begin to experience diminishing the light once again. We are also nearing the mysterious Mid-summer Night’s Eve, a time of legend; pixies, fauns, and faeries. Each year seems to speed by like someone on rollerblades; no sooner do I write about the Summer Solstice, than I’m pulling out the Halloween pumpkins and the light is fading at 4 PM. My perception of life flying by, is why making each day fully-li

Carol Bossard

Carol Bossard

War, Peace, And Family

War, Peace, And Family

Three essays on May might well be overkill, fine month that it is, were it not for Memorial Day, the day of remembrance and celebration, just past, but still current. There are enough reasons to extend the celebration for several days; parades, the annual PBS Memorial Day programming, family picnics and visiting family graves.  There is the traditional switch to white shoes and clothing if anyone bothers to follow such customs nowadays. And since Memorial Day brings thoughts about family, about

Carol Bossard

Carol Bossard

The Camelot Time Of Year

The Camelot Time Of Year

What lush, thoroughly-enjoyable days we are in. Who wouldn’t like May? Birds are everywhere; scarlet cardinals are flying through purple lilacs and the colors don’t clash at all! Dogwood blossoms make white clouds against the dark spruce trees. In the musical, Camelot, they sing: “Tra la, it’s May! The lusty month of May! The lovely month when ev’ryone goes blissfully a-stray…..”*  I’m not sure about the astray part, but it is surely easy to feel blissful right now. The month’s name came from Ma

Carol Bossard

Carol Bossard

The Wonderful Month Of May

The Wonderful Month Of May

One day post-May Day. May Day or “Carrying little bouquets of flowers to the neighbors Day," which no one does anymore.  I’ve written before about making little paper baskets, filling them with early flowers and hanging them on a neighbor’s door knob. It is such fun at age 7 or 8, to be sneaky and kind at the same time. The Victor-area didn’t always have a large variety of flowers in bloom on May 1st, so we had to make do with daffodils, grape hyacinths and dandelions. Our closest neighbor was a

Carol Bossard

Carol Bossard

Changes

Changes

It was odd... this winter, just past, of 2023 and 2024. And, spring seems reluctant to stand firm. Winter keeps making dashes back with a little graupel here and a snowflake there, as if to make up for its earlier lethargy.  We are usually safe from deep snow by mid-April, but one never knows. Early in March, warm weather brought out the snowdrops and winter aconite.  Potted Easter flowers have gotten me through to now, when my daffodils and hyacinths are beginning to open and bring more life to

Carol Bossard

Carol Bossard

The Coming Of The Green

The Coming Of The Green

Easter parades are over; a total solar eclipse before us. Birds are returning. I heard, in late February, that a friend had seen two bears, locally, and another friend mentioned the return of her bluebirds.  The bluebirds were a welcome sign, but we hoped the bears would stay away until May. However, one or two have already come by, briefly, and so we will soon be moving the big seed cans into our storage shed.  This means some inconvenience for me --- up our hilly lawn and around to the back of

Carol Bossard

Carol Bossard

Marching... In And Out

Marching... In And Out

“It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold;   When it is summer in the light and winter in the shade….”  Charles Dickens TA-Da!!!  It is just past the Vernal Equinox and in my part of the world, Spring is here -- on the calendar as well as in reality! Spring, in Zones 4 and 5 can be quite liberally seasoned with big snowflakes, and chilly March winds, as has happened this week. We have, in some years, even experienced a blizzard in mid-April

Carol Bossard

Carol Bossard

The Sky Is Falling

The Sky Is Falling

Does anyone remember, back in your childhood, the tale of “Chicken Little”, who panicked from what he experienced in his limited little world, and ran to tell everyone that the sky was falling?    Of course, the sky remained right where it was supposed to be. Today, something similar happens regularly; on the evening news, on our phones, on Facebook, in conversations.  The tone of the message from all channels and media, is that the sky is falling again and again.  We hear opinions and projectio

Carol Bossard

Carol Bossard

Yo-Yoing February

Yo-Yoing February

Due to that recent warm spell, my enthusiastic little crocus bulbs are putting forth green shoots. And this week, we have another warm day or two to encourage them. Has anyone seen skunk cabbage peeking out of swamps yet? My former drive to work took me through swampy areas, so I always noticed those green-y/ purple-y, pointed, smelly leaves. You wouldn’t want them in a bouquet, but they are a visible sign of spring.  Spring, on the calendar, is about a month away. But Easter is early this year

Carol Bossard

Carol Bossard

A Heart Full Of February

A Heart Full Of February

February is sort of a transition month.  We may still get snow, sleet, and freezing rain but, there is some snow melt, and daylight becomes darkness, later and later. Somewhere out in the snowy woods, high up in a tree, a mama owl is sitting on eggs, warming them with her fluffy self.  And squirrels, having found mates, are aggressively defending their territories.   Hal Borland*, renowned naturalist, said: “In February, snow will actually melt in very cold weather; evaporating without going thr

Carol Bossard

Carol Bossard

Sign in to follow this  
×
×
  • Create New...