Possumhaw: Immigration or importation

This is not your pretty little innocuous storybook ladybug — not at all.

Possumhaw: Some things never change

“Men and fish are a lot alike. Both get into trouble when they open their mouth.”

Author unknown

Possumhaw: A daffodil a day

Down came four inches of rain and up sprang dozens upon dozens of green daffodil foliage. Daffodils being as much a harbinger of spring as the red-breasted robin scavenging across the muddy ground hoping for a hearty breakfast of earthworm.

Possumhaw: Down home on the farm

Last week talking to R.C., he described what he’d like to do in retirement.

“Have a little farm,” he said. “Maybe some chickens, some goats; a dog, some cats. I’m not a real cat person, but they seem to like me.

Possumhaw: Tapping into good health

With all the flu going around Sam and I have taken some small measures to increase our chances of not getting sick. Vitamin C supplements are dropped into a glass of water like the “Fizzies” of the 1950s.

Possumhaw: How to be safe and warm

It was a cold evening last week when I headed upstairs. The kittens were bedded and all the outside animals, plants, and structures were adequately heated. That’s when I smelled something like wires burning.

Possumhaw: When it’s cold outside

Half-eaten acorns lay scattered below the oak trees. We’ve often complained the squirrels were wasteful not eating the whole acorn nor burying the acorn for another day.

Possumhaw: Something stinks in the Prairie

The Prairie is home to a multitude of critters. Some we embrace, some we tolerate, and some, well, are simply intolerable.

Possumhaw: Deep freeze in the Prairie

The ice princess settled on the Prairie last week. Right off the bat the small pond froze, the one where deer visit, bowing their heads to drink. The goldfish pond froze over as well. Periodically it took a hammer to crack the thick ice to let some air in. After the first day, we covered the pond during the night and cracked ice during the day.

Possumhaw: Wild and wonder-filled

Sam rose early and went downstairs to start the coffeemaker. It has a timer to start itself, but being retired you never know what time you may rise.

Possumhaw: When more really is more

Now that Christmas has passed, shopping is done and all the Christmas goodies consumed, it’s time to decide if you’ll make a 2018 New Year’s Resolution.

Possumhaw: Star of wonder, star of night

Last week’s meteor shower was all the talk at Robert’s Apothecary.

Possumhaw: A Christmas tree and two small gifts

Ah, the sights and sounds of Christmas. Through darkened windows trees alight houses outlined with twinkling lights and some with a yard full of gigantic inflatables.

Possumhaw: Wait, watch and whisper

It was late in the afternoon when Sam and I made our way to the deer stand.

Possumhaw: Don’t stop believing

The winds blew in from the southwest, taking plenty of leaves with them. Just when you think you have the porch swept clean, here they come again. The Japanese persimmons hang on a leafless tree. The fruit has a transparency to it, left behind by the early morning frost.

Possumhaw: Life is so very, very good

“Our house is a very, very, very fine house, with two cats in the yard. Life used to be so hard. Now everything is easy ’cause of you.”

Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young

Possumhaw: What a wonderful day

In the dark of night, I walked toward my room at the Eola Hotel in Natchez. My brother, his wife and I had just dined with a multitude of kinfolk when a vivacious cousin, actually first cousin once removed, hollered out, “Hey y’all. There’s a singer playing at the bar ’round the corner; I heard her last night. Let’s go.”

Possumhaw: Ode to Romeo

The farmer and his wife were walking the Riverwalk when the farmer called out, “You still have Romeo?”

Possumhaw: Use it or lose it

It was another one of those dreamy days with the sun and wind coming through the leaves and causing a dancing pattern across the tile floor. The temperature was 50 degrees, heralding the coming of fall.

Possumhaw: Meditations on home

There are few opportunities I love more than being quiet at home — sometimes if only for a short time, maybe doing nothing at all but staring into space or out the window and thinking all those thoughts that, in the busyness of a day or week, I’ve had no time to think.