Hawthorn Hill
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Up On Hawthorn Hill: Connel Creek litter is a disgrace
Because several of the back roads that I like to walk are not plowed during the winter, walking them until now has been impossible.
- Hawthorn Hill: Reflections Several days ago the health care bill passed. I am glad that it did. It is certainly not a perfect bill and there are aspects of it, especially such shenanigans as the ``Cornhusker Kickback,’’ that rankle. But anyone familiar with any political process, be it village or national politics, knows that in order to get anything done deals are made, compromises are forged, and lofty aspirations often fall prey to more modest, politically achievable results.
- Hawthorn Hill: Cutting back This is a cutting back year for us up here on the hill. The universe may be expanding, but down here on planet earth there is an insistent inner voice that says, like it or not old man, the time has come to stop creating more work for yourself no matter how much you enjoy the fruits of your self-inflicted labors. One of winter’s perennial tricks is casting a veil of forgetfulness over the previous year’s labors. In the past, I would look out my study window about this time of year and imagine all kinds of new projects.
- Up on Hawthorn Hill: He must be at least 100! If beauty is in the eyes of the beholder then it appears that estimates of an individual’s age operate in the same manner.
- Hawthorn Hill: Prefers listening over talking It is no secret to my closest friends that I am not much of a conversationalist. Perhaps I am a reaction to a mother who loved conversation and ranked it right up there with other forms of expression that she revered: theater and art. Ironically, so long as I can stay awake, and no matter how vibrant any conversation might be, my preference has always been for listening.
- Hawthorn Hill: Handed down memories of dad This essay will appear one day after my father’s birthday. I do not have much that is concrete to hang on to since he died when I was two and a half, sixty-three years ago.
- Hawthorn Hill: Issues and the arguments that follow All too often we mire ourselves in unnecessary arguments and debates. There is of course a certain intellectual enjoyment that comes with that particular territory. I admit that there are times when I delight in arguing in defense of an opposing viewpoint just for the pleasure of the game.
- Hawthorn Hill: We’re experiencing chicken mania I have discovered that chickens do quite a bit more than drop eggs. They have other virtues as well. I suspect for those who have raised chickens the novelty has worn off a bit. But for me the experience is new enough that every day seems to present us with interesting occurrences.
- Hawthorn Hill: Keeping things straight, plumb and true Some time ago Scott Russell Sanders wrote a beautiful essay entitled ``The Inheritance of Tools.’’ In it he tells of how his father taught him carpentry and the proper use and care of tools. It is an essay filled with lovely and poignant moments. What I remember most often is his father’s advice with respect to building anything.
- Hawthorn Hill: Woes lead to hopelessness Perhaps it is the dreariness of the day that causes me to have these feelings not so much of despair, but of hopelessness. I looked out my study window a few moments ago and saw that our six remaining chickens are having a great time pecking at the decaying pine logs stacked in a long row to the left of the hen house.
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Up On Hawthorn Hill: Connel Creek litter is a disgrace
