So . . . last month, one late afternoon, I stepped into one of my big chicken coops to refill their water. There's a little white bantam rooster in there who loves to attack me, and while I was busy with the water and keeping an eye on him, one of my hens slipped out of the coop. This would not be a big deal except that Jazzy, one of the mastiffs, was outside with me, and a couple of years ago she … [Read more...]

I do love spring--my trees come back to life, the oaks gleam with yellow-gold new leaves, and I stand outside and recite "Nothing gold can stay," the poem by Robert Frost. That tradition began when I was in high school. Every year Mrs. Williams would lead us out to a second story balcony beneath a sprawling live oak, where she'd recite the poem and we'd marvel that Nature's first green really is … [Read more...]