Walk The Line

February 26, 2024

A beautiful afternoon - way too warm for typical February but what's typical as we adapt to climate change? We walked along the borders of our property under blue skies, geese honking above on their northward migration. Both of us using trek poles on the uneven ground, over our own hills and dales, checking in with the fluttering orange surveyor's tape marking the iron stakes pounded into the ground so very many years ago.

Nestled just a foot above the ground in the brush, this engineering marvel, caught my eye.

Ground Hog Day

 It's early morning on February 2 and those hardy souls in Punxsutawney are ready for their moment in the bright glare of television lights with their beloved Phil waiting in his burrow.

That first year Arthur and his family had moved away from the beloved family farm, he spent some time in Children's Hospital in Utica, N.Y. Potter County friends and neighbors showered him with cards and letters and, seeing it was in February, Valentines too - many handmade by his former classmates in Mrs. Dewey's room at the Coudersport Elementary School.

His mother, Wanda, had saved these letters and some time later passed them on to him and, being the sentimental one he is, they went into a box into the attic.

I pulled that box out last week and this fell from one of the envelopes along with a card and letter from Aunt Margie Gooch.