The Finger Lakes is a place of deep, lengthy winters. Known for having snow squalls straight into the month of May. But for the three winters we have lived here, each winter has been a little less snowy and the winter a little shorter. This year has been the oddest in particular. While we've had…
I've often used this website to write observances about nature but in recent years, it's become a journal of sorts. This is one of those posts. More and more I witness people bewildered by the length of the month January. "How is it still January?" they say. "This day has felt like a week." "I…
And so the old year died... There are certainly man year-end posts after Christmas in late December but I feel they aren't as frequent in the first week of January. I prefer to make my hopes and dreams for the new year known in the new year, it feels more possible once you have the…
Continue reading ➞ Bidding the Old Goodbye and Crafting Goals for the Future
The first story I wrote, I was probably about seven. I found a copy of it ages ago, five pages complete with poorly drawn art and a sentence or two on each page. It was about a princess who followed her cat out of the castle and discovered the cat had kittens, and it's the…
And so the snow began to fall and drift to the brown grass, covering it in a winter's blanket. We have been lucky to have a few good snows during the last few months and plenty of cold weather, but it still has remained relatively mild compared to previous winters. Now it is March and…
It is a typical gray November day. The air is bitter and heavy with woodsmoke, the ground having just melted away the last of the heavy frost, and sweaters are now the normal every day wardrobe. In the past few weeks, I have found myself with holiday burnout before the holidays have even truly begun.…
Technically, winter doesn't begin until the end of December, but in the Finger Lakes it's hard to deny that there's a certain chill to the air that is very reminiscent to winter. And so, for the last three years I've found myself humming Christmas songs* and joyfully walking in snowfall in November. *It should be…
Summer, oh summer. I'm writing this in mid-October. The fact that we are well into autumn is not lost on me, but that memo has been missed by Mother Nature. It took over two weeks of diving head on into October for the weather to finally, finally become autumnal. Cool, crisp, woodsmoke in the air.…
My therapist told me to turn off my phone. “Three days, don’t use it unless absolutely necessary for three days,” she said toward the end of our weekly session. “See how you are feeling by Monday.” I had taken social media breaks before and found it abundantly helpful for my ever-present anxiety, but I always…
A few years ago I was in therapy for anxiety, and I'm in therapy again, and an area we worked on was getting myself to take into full consideration the present. To be more mindful in my day-to-day activities so that I would not be as crippled with anxiety over possibilities in the future. It…
The last I wrote was in April and per usual, the warmer weather drew me outdoors and away from indoor focuses. Gone were journals, left behind were crochet projects, and forgotten were embroideries. We finished the last of our jarred goods from last year's harvest and the snow finally melted. Environmentally, this year is something…
Continue reading ➞ Wild & Precious Life – Mid-Spring to Early Summer 2021
January descended upon the Finger Lakes with heavy snow. One snowstorm followed another, although we truthfully didn't get many. The temperatures remained low, and the snow remained on the ground. Too high for play, we stayed indoors. When I look at the past few months, I find myself at a loss for words. How do…
Continue reading ➞ Wild & Precious Life – End of Winter/Start of Spring 2021
Erica Rose Eberhart 