Marcia Bonta

  • The Green House

    To stay or to go.  That was the dilemma we faced.  We weren’t getting any younger, and my husband Bruce could no longer maintain our mile-and-a-half, steep mountain road, ten miles of trails, barn, shed, 1865 guesthouse, 1873 main house, and garage by himself. Bruce also needed help keeping our tractor and secondhand bulldozer running. …

  • Snowbirds

    It was a fine early December day — 18 degrees with partial sunshine and a howling wind.  A new half-inch of snow covered the ground.  I counted the birds at my feeders because it was a Project FeederWatch day.  For over 20 years, two days a week from November until early April, I’ve been counting…

  • Charismatic Invertebrates

    “Dear Daddy-Long-Legs, Isn’t it funny?  I started to write to you yesterday afternoon, but as far as I got was the heading, ‘Dear Daddy-Long-Legs,’ and then I remembered I’d promised to pick some blackberries for supper, so I went off and left the sheet lying on the table, and when I came back, what do…

  • A Fruitful Year

    Some years are more fruitful than others.  Last year was one of those years.  From mid-June until mid-August I never set out for my morning walk without slipping a pint jar into my pocket.  I wanted to be prepared to pick first the low bush blueberries, then the huckleberries on the powerline right-of-way, and later,…

  • August Natives

    Joe Pye is back.  Not the Native American herbalist for whom the wildflower is named, but the gorgeous wildflower itself that towers above a sea of goldenrod in our First Field. Once we had dozens of joe-pye-weeds lifting their clusters of tiny, purple-colored blossoms above the lesser field flowers in August.  Then they disappeared.  We…

  • Little Clay Pots

    In late April, little clay pots appeared on our forested trails.  Thumb-sized and sturdy, most were circular but some were oval-shaped.  Never before had I seen such constructions.  Near some of them, I also found small holes deeper than my forefinger could penetrate.  It was as if some tribe of lilliputians had emerged from the…

  • An Enigmatic Warbler

    “Wee, wee, wee, wee, bzzz” sings my favorite yard bird.  For two months most years — mid-May to mid-July — the male cerulean warbler sings his monotonous song from dawn until dusk. The first year this happened, back in 2002, I worried that he hadn’t found a mate.  Why else would he sing on and…

  • What About Bears?

    Next to poisonous snakes, people fear encountering bears in the outdoors.  Even some of our hunter friends are bear-shy. But ever since black bears returned to our mountain, back in the 1980s, I’ve relished every experience I’ve had with them.  So far, they’ve been exciting but harmless. Last spring and summer, I saw more bears…

  • White Easter

    Easter — March 23, 2008. It is a cold 17 degrees on this earliest Easter Sunday most of us will ever celebrate. And only the oldest folks now alive have seen it this early before, those who were around in 1913. The next time Easter will fall on this date, according to The Christian Century…

  • Narnia Interlude

    In winter, it’s all about the weather, especially in February when we are liable to experience a confusing mixture of balmy, spring like days, sleet, freezing rain, and snow.  Last February 1 the predictions were so dire that all the public schools and colleges were closed. The “tick-tick” of sleet against our windows began at…

  • The Trees in Our Yard

    If someone were to ask me what my favorite tree is, I wouldn’t be able to answer.  It would be like choosing my favorite child.  Every tree species has its own special qualities, and no one is better than another is.  Take the 17 tree species that grow in our yard. When we moved here…

  • Golden Eagle Redux

    In case you’ve been wondering about the photo of me in the sidebar, here’s the story, from my November column in Pennsylvania Game News. The phone rang just as we were in the midst of eating dinner. “I’ll bet that’s Trish and she’s got an eagle,” I said. Bruce answered the phone. “You’ve got an…