The other evening I was clearing away a few leaves and Lois was puttering around the outside of the house. It was a lingering fall evening–the kind that gives you the sense that they are short and few and will soon be gone. She lit some candles on the porch and in the house. My […]
Bittersweet Farm Journal (Number 15) Be A Happy Person
Be A Happy Person by Ken Pierpont Sometimes life is just hard. Our natural response when things are hard is to murmur and complain, to become solemn and go through life with a wrinkled forehead. We complain that there are children’s bikes in the driveway instead of rejoicing that there are children. We murmur about […]
Autumn Air Clears My Head and Stirs My Heart
The frost was on the pumpkin this morning out on Bittersweet Farm. The leaves are letting go high in the Maples around the old house dappling the grass with beautiful yellow-gold and orange leaves. Just a few months ago I put on a jacket and sat out on the porch longing for those same leaves […]
The Bittersweet Farm Journal (Number 14) Your Default Home Setting
I returned from church this afternoon in time to take a long walk afield. It was in the high-fifties and sunny. A walk on a Michigan autumn evening is a sacramental act. The sky is October blue, the trees brushed with color. The corn is dry and brown but it’s been rainy and we are […]
Bittersweet Farm Journal (Number 13) Satisfied Hearts
We’ve been sleeping with an extra cover the bed for the last few weeks, but tonight the temperature is dipping into the mid-forties so we turned on the furnace. Down in the basement the faithful appliance goes to work and in just a couple minutes a beautiful stream of warmth fills the room to just […]
Bad for My Writing But Good for My Soul
It was one year ago today we found Bittersweet Farm. We came across it while looking at another property. When I first saw it I cried out in surprise; “Look it’s a John Sloane house.” The place remained me of the country houses painted by John Sloane, a favorite artist. Every year I would buy […]