(The Mayflower at anchor, 1620). No blast this morning, unless it is the faint echo of something that happened four hundred years ago on a creaky sailing ship in a chill New England fall. The Mayflower. The Compact that identified a company of free people doing something new. Not like that 1619 nonsense designed to […]

God, I never thought we would see a spectacle like this. In the aftermath of the strange election, we are seeing court challenges orchestrated through state courts and federal benches. It is exciting to watch this play out! It is a new form of Democracy, right here in America. The media coronation of the new […]

Gentle Readers, Some thoughts from a pal on the 11th… Armistice November 11th is now referred to as Veteran’s Day. But it’s worth remembering that it all began as Armistice Day, on the first anniversary of the Armistice of November 11th, 1918, which brought to a close the horrible spectacle of World War I. The […]

After a glorious week of Autumnal beauty, we are back to rain on a special day. I doubt that many schools teach the hypnotic old line about ending the biggest and most destructive conflict in human history. Well, at least until the next one happened. But the thing about The Great War was that it […]

Editor’s Note: It is still the remarkable first week in November here in the present. This popped up in the old files as a sample of what used to be a normal part of the work day. It was useful to help remind me that things are always a little complicated in The Swamp. Here […]

(Rome’s first Emperor, Augustus (63 BCE – 14 AD), ruled for over 40 years; expanding territory and establishing many institutions, systems and customs that would endure for hundreds of years). What a week. What a year! I stepped out on the back deck to inhale my first lung of Marlboro tars this morning and saw […]

( Screenshot from the Hollywood production of The Mouse. I think they had a big cannon, too!) That may be the only partly political note in this- the reference to the old musical comedy millions of us in the Boomer generation recall from middle-school dramatics. It was one of those shows that featured great costumes, […]

Sorry- this is rushed and a bit late. I am election addled. I don’t know about you, but I took my opinions to bed early. I thought it unlikely we would have a new presidential designee before morning, and that was confirmed through the hours I twisted my quilt around me and dreamed of a […]

Willow Halloween Party 2013 Oh, OK. So we were sitting on the back deck overlooking the pastures. The raging waters of the recent hurricane remnant have retreated. I wondered if there was anything to give out, just in case tricker-treaters showed up at Refuge Farm. The general consensus was that none had been observed in […]

(This is not the water in our boundary stream. It is, as many things in this strange year, an accurate depiction of something else, even if not factually correct. The sentiment is completely accurate in this digital capture, even though it is not as loud). I can’t see whitewater rushing down the narrow gulley that […]