My Country Life

Benny came to me on October 17, 2015, from Southeast Corgi Rescue (SECR), with an estimated age of 8-10 years. He passed on March 1, 2024.   Benny had been slowing down for a while – to be expected at 16-plus years old. Until mid-January, his appetite was strong; his mobility had declined some but remained sufficient. He slept a lot, ate well, and enjoyed his life. I bought a ranch-style house for us in 2022 when we moved from Atlanta to Athens. It was the perfect house for Benny. He thrived here, and it was easier for me too because he needed only occasional assistance getting around. My Atlanta condo was up a flight of stairs, and Benny could no longer handle those stairs. By the time I sold the condo, I was carrying him up and down several times a day. It was hard on both of us, so we were happy to be in a house that suited us better.   In early January this year, we made our last trip to Jekyll Island. I wondered if it would be his last, but hoped he had another one in hi...

Carolina Sandhills National Wildlife Refuge Photo by Jack D. Culpepper Jack D. Culpepper March 2, 1959 - April 21, 2018 Eulogy by J.D. Bricken Wildlife Refuge Manager Pee Dee National Wildlife Refuge Jack the Forester Jack served as the forester for Carolina Sandhills National Wildlife Refuge and Pee Dee National WildlifeRefuge , and I had the opportunity to work with him for 11 years. Jack loved his job. Not only did he care about the forest as a whole, but he seemed to care about each tree. He oversaw the timber harvest of thousands of acres at the Sandhills refuge and hundreds of acres at the Pee Dee refuge. His strategy for thinning timber was always based on the overall health of the forest and improving the habitat for wildlife.  photo credit: unknown Jack the Forest Ecologist photo by Cliff Berger/USFWS When Jack first came to help at Pee Dee NWR, we were eager to harvest several tracts of timber...

I first saw a picture of Benny–then called Mendell–on the Carolina Corgi Rescue FaceBook page on July 16, 2015. I felt an immediate connection with the sweet puppy staring back at me, but it was too soon. Melvin had just passed away on June 29 , and Mendell was clearly a senior dog with some health issues. So I looked away. I thought of him over the coming days, but each time I put him out of my mind. When the time is right, the right dog will come along, I told myself. I spent the rest of the summer missing Melvin and trying to enjoy my new freedom. Melvin had required extra attention the last year or so of his life, so why not take a break from the responsibility? It’s so much easier and less expensive to live life without a dog. No more vet bills. No more carrying Melvin up and down stairs that he could no longer navigate. No more planning my day and week around my geriatric dog. Yes, that made so much sense. But my heart ached. I missed Melvin. By mid-September I decided to...

June 29, 2015 I said goodbye to dear Melvin yesterday, on his 16th birthday. A noticeable decline began last week while we were in Atlanta and continued through the weekend. By Sunday night I knew it was likely time to let him go. Monday morning confirmed my fears. How perfect that perfect-Melvin should leave this world on the same day he entered it. We spent the day together. In the morning we sat on the porch of the cabin. He mostly slept while I looked through the hundreds of pictures I've taken of him through the years. In the afternoon we visited my mom, my sister, and all his dog friends. I adopted Melvin when he was a year old. Fifteen years he's been with me. He was with me when I turned 40, then 50. He was with me when I bought the land and the first time I camped on it. He was with me for every construction weekend while we built the cabin. He walked the path to Mama's house countless times. He was a great traveler and made the transition between country lif...

I love this picture. I took it last February during a snow at the cabin. The picture captures only five, but there were dozens of cardinals outside my window, in the trees and on the ground—red jewels adorning the snow-covered woods. There’s no snow here now. Just soggy gray skies with the hope of clearing later today. I’ve been thinking about my hopes for the coming year. I won't bore you with the details of my 2015 goals. Suffice it to say that a renewed commitment to good health is at the top of my list, along with the continued pursuit of simplicity and avoidance of excessive consumerism, allowing time in my life for what matters most to me–family, friends, animals (especially dogs), and nature. Wishing you all a happy 2015—a year full of love, joy, peace and good health.

Merry Christmas, family and friends. I love creating my Christmas card every year -- selecting a favorite photograph or two, creating the card, crafting the message, and addressing each one. Signed, sealed and stamped with love – it's a Christmas wish, from my heart to yours. Whether taped to the fridge or the mantel, or simply tossed in a pile on the desk, a card sent the old fashioned way is sweetest. But it ain't happening for me this year! Here's the card I created in early November, just before I grabbed the tail of a tornado.

I was feelin' crafty over the weekend and made this sweet little wreath from muscadine vines that grow wild on my property. I spray-painted it white and added a burlap ribbon. LOVE IT! My sister has a small interiors shop in a nearby antique store, and I decided to make a few wreaths for her shop. I had so much fun! Creating the wreaths inspired me to write for my blog again. It's been a long time since I wrote just for the fun of it. Oh, I've been writing – grant proposals, white papers, market analyses, and other serious stuff. I enjoy business and medical writing, which is mostly what I do these days. I like learning about a new subject and find it very satisfying when I deliver a manuscript that meets a client's needs. But I'm experiencing a bit of a lull right now; that's the nature of freelancing. Sometimes there is too much work; sometimes there isn't enough. Rarely is it just right. It seems that every time I have more than a day or two of unc...

Down by the creek, near where I cross every day on my walk, stands a huge sweet gum tree. For as long as I can remember, the tree has shown signs of disease – a big gaping hole at the base and fissures that extend up the trunk. Nevertheless, it reaches like a rocket, perfectly straight and taller than all the others. A while back, in the dead of winter, I noticed a raccoon had crawled inside the den at the base of the tree and died. She had probably lived there her entire life. But on this day, upon returning from her nightly hunt, exhausted, she laid down for an eternal rest. It snowed soon after, and each time I passed I thought of her. When the snow melted, I left her undisturbed and covered her with leaves and dirt.

Those daffodil bulbs that I transplanted from LaMama's last year are coming up. I had forgotten all about them, so I was delighted when I noticed the sprouts. Especially since it's the first warm, sunny day we've had in a while. A week ago I was frantically wrapping pipes and preparing for the coming winter storm; today I'm sitting on the porch, without a jacket, enjoying this tease of spring. All those people who laughed at us and how we can't handle snow aren't laughing now, are they? Of course, I was in the country for the snow so I missed out on all the craziness in Atlanta. I felt for all my Atlanta friends; I've been there for plenty of icy events over the years, and it can be really scary. Since this one hit in the middle of the day, it made it even worse. Out here in the country, it was just pretty. I stayed home, sat by the fire working, and waited for it to pass. I haven't written for this blog in a while. I've been busy with writin...

Melvin in Thanksgiving Scarf November 22, 2013 December 21 will mark the first anniversary of my move to the cabin. It seems to have flown and dragged, all at the same time. When I look back, it seems like just a flash, but when I was actually living it, time certainly did not always seem to zip by. This past year or so, from the time I was laid off in mid-2012 to now, has been a soulful mix of joy and loss, loneliness and blissful solitude, and some serious fear that occasionally turned to courage. Life presents us with challenges, and we get to see what we are made of. Last September (2012) I began a daily practice of gratitude; it helped me stay in the moment and not worry about the future. Soon I started using my iPhone to capture these moments of beauty. I posted some of my gratitude photos to Instagram and shared a few favorites here on this blog. It's fun to look back through those snapshots in gratitude. When I noticed they always left me smiling, I decided to compil...

White Oak It’s a beautiful fall morning here at the cabin. Cold, clear with a little wind and perpetual leaf drop. The tulip poplars, sweet gums, maples, dogwoods, cherries and most of the hickories are bare. A variety of oaks, elms and beech trees provide the late season color. The white oak is the predominant tree here, and it’s in peak color right now—a striking burnt orange canopy. The water oaks are golden and dropping leaves fast. The southern red oaks and the post oaks have just a few crinkly brown leaves remaining and will soon join the ranks of winter. The elms and beech trees are covered in yellow, and I can still see a hint of green in their foliage. Interestingly, the beech leaves won’t drop until next spring; they will turn a light tan and remain attached all winter until bud-break. I can’t see the sour woods from where I sit. Maybe I’ll pay them a visit on my walk this morning and savor these last days of fall.

Yellow Hibiscus at Jekyll Island last week. Learning to appreciate and write poetry at 50-plus is proving to be a fun challenge. I shared my poem to a deceased person (this week’s assignment) with the class last night. You can read it here . I like my poem, and the lady next to me told me she loved it and talked about her own father; I could tell she was sincere. (My siblings all said they liked it, but hey, what else can they say?) The teacher thought it was too straight forward and she didn’t like the ending. She didn’t like that Daddy was sitting in a recliner watching television in the end and actually suggested that I change it to something "more interesting." I think she meant something more worthwhile.  “Well, it is about my dad. We didn’t sit around reading poetry and playing the violin. He worked hard in a blue collar job all week, all his life, and he liked to sit in his recliner on Saturday afternoon sometimes. It’s a fond memory for me,” I replied, with att...

Daddy 1979 The latest assignment for my poetry class is to write a poem to a deceased person. Here's my poem to my father who passed away on June 2, 1998. I'll be sharing it in class tomorrow night.

I enjoyed my first fire of the season yesterday after returning home from a week at Jekyll Island. Cold weather arrived while I was away so the cabin was chilled to the bone. The seasoned cherry from last winter and the pond pine that Jack brought me made for easy fire-starting. Later I added some of the new "green" wood that I recently cut to create a slow-burning fire that lasted through the night.

I'm enrolled in a poetry workshop at Emory this fall. This is the first time I've given poetry any serious consideration. I'll be reading lots of poetry and writing some too. The first class was last Tuesday, and my first assignment is to write a narrative poem to share with the class this week. Following is the poem that I wrote.

Wildflower down by the creek. Looking for the good in every day is something I try to practice. I'm always happier when I take time to notice what I have sometimes called the "happy grateful bits," the sweet little things that happen around us all the time, the things that we tend to overlook in favor of all the things that irritate us or cause us to worry. You know, things like traffic, weather we don't like, the job we do or don't have, how much money we have in the bank, people who bug us, etc. But I've learned that whatever I give my attention to expands, so I choose to give my attention to the good stuff. Here are today's happy grateful bits.

Golden Rod and Beauty Berry Today I'm grateful for . . . this stunning combination of golden rod and beauty berry that I spotted right behind LaMama's house. UGA's win over LSU yesterday and texting with my brother during the game. this perfect fall weather. the opportunities for rewarding work that continue to come my way. Lamar is feeling "great" today; said he hasn't felt this good in a while.

My morning spot here at the cabin. I'm loving this fall weather. This morning I had to wrap up in a blanket again to sit on the porch, and it's about time to dig the heaters out of storage (no central heat here). Oh, and I can't wait for the first fire in the wood stove, but that may be a while.

Beauty Berry (callicarpa americana) Today I'm grateful for. . . the native beauty berries that are magnificent right now, three does that crossed my path this morning, the morning light of late September and the long shadows of fall, geese honking in the distance and a cow moo too, Melvin snoring at my feet, always having more than enough.

My brother visited last weekend, and while he was here he built a simple wooden structure to fit overtop the big fake rock that covers and protects the well-pump. This gives me good workspace where before there was just wasted, unusuable space. The big wooden counter is solid and sturdy but can be easily removed for well-pump maintenance. We used materials that I already had onsite, so I didn’t spend a dime. I love being thrifty and making use of stuff I already have.