Farm Life Local

Red, White and Blue – Barns, Snow and Skies

Everything has been stored away – tractors, farm implements, geotextile tarps. What really needs protecting from winter’s rigours has found a spot in a barn or a greenhouse. Otherwise, it will have to weather winter, as we do not yet have enough space for all the farm equipment we have accumulated over the years. While I won’t wax poetic on the whys and wherefores, here you have it: the farmer is a hoarder of metal and wood, nets and screws.  By default, by inclination, by prevention – because one never knows…even though what one never knows rarely happens. In any event, a tool and tractor shed is on the drawing board for 2017…

Tracteurs remisés - Tractor storage

With no time to walk the woods during summer months, this farmer eagerly awaits the first real snowfall to hike the nearby Sutton mountain range. Back from a picture-worthy trek – I’ve included a couple as teasers – I can assure you that it’s an immensely rewarding hike, provided one is in moderately good shape and seized by a spirit of adventure. And while the leafless trees at the mountain’s base seem spindly and without much interest, as one climbs, they are quickly replaced by magnificent, snow-laden conifers, trees that a single occurrence of freezing rain alternately lays bare or crystallizes in a frigid landscape. It is in this eerily beautiful but frozen state that we found the forest yesterday, under icy cover, along crushed-snow trails marked by the footprints of fellow hikers, a fairy tale vision dispelling the brutal cold. We’re looking forward to more hikes to come: winter has only just begun.

Mes beaux sapins

Arlington Gardens wishes you a wonderful winter season and health, wealth and happiness in 2017. We look forward to seeing you in the spring.