first snow

Today it started snowing around mid-morning or so. It has been snowing slowly, all day. It is starting to accumulate, but they are not calling for much. It was a good day to stay inside and weave. The small shawl pictured above was one of the pieces that I worked on today. I wove it from some of the yarn that I purchased from Autumn House Farm, at the Rhinebeck Festival. I like it well enough to go ahead and weave a bigger shawl from the same yarn. On days like today, I am glad to sit by the stove and let the warm glow of the coal soak into my bones! I spent a portion of the afternoon spinning by the stove. It was a cozy day.

I also had a nice surprise visit from my "farmer friends" who live down the river from me. They came bearing gifts in the form of pork. Not just any pork, these were their own "milk-fed" pigs. Seriously, I was there when they would mix up the milk and feed them! I have not tasted any of it yet, but I am sure it will be very good. I am grateful that they would share their efforts with us. They got two piglets and raised them this past summer. It is nice to have good meat, to know where it came from, and what it was fed. They also raised and butchered a pair of turkeys...and they are on their way to the Thanksgiving Table. I tip my hat to them for doing all the hard work themselves. If I had to raise and butcher my food, I am afraid I would become a vegan! I really think it is wonderful to raise your own food, it is just very difficult for me to get past that whole "you are eating what you nurtured" thing. Then again, I have a nasty rooster, who may be destined for the stew pot someday....

terrapene carolina carolina

I recently received this photo of a baby box turtle (via email) from a kindred spirit, and marveled at the size of it.

First off, I want to make it perfectly clear that no baby box turtles were harmed during the photo documentation, and the baby box turtle was released back into the wilderness (to the tune of "Born Free") from which he (or she) came....by the way, you can usually tell if it is a male box turtle by the color (red) of the eyes.

So anyway, I got to looking at this picture, and found myself thinking about this baby box turtle for days after I had received the photo. I started wondering about it...what it was doing?..(just being a turtle)...how many other little turtles hatched out with it at birth? (typically 3-8 elliptical, thin-shelled eggs)...where will they all go?...(some of them live a very long time and may spend their whole life in an area scarcely larger than a football field)...what would he eat?...(omnivorous..also known to eat poisonous mushrooms, which can kill whomever eats the flesh of a box turtle who has eaten a poisonous mushroom)...what would he do for the winter?...(dig a hole about 4 to 6" deep, at the base of a rock or log, and hibernate until the spring rains come)...how big would he get? (about 6 1/2 inches)...how long would it be before he made little turtles of his own?...(5-7 years to maturity)...as you can see, I have been reading up on box turtles.

For some reason, thinking about this little creature, whose ancestors existed about 200 million years ago, gives me a feeling of reassurance. When life seems complicated and hectic, I like to think of this little turtle...slowly, methodically going about life in its own little world..with his own little purpose...and it makes me happy to have had the chance to see something I have never seen before (even if it was just a photo in an email). I guess by now he is searching for a good place to spend the winter (if something has not eaten him yet...like skunks, foxes, raccoons, crows, snakes, owls, and hawks, coyotes, or a wild hog).