On State Road between home and the post office, spring has announced itself. A bumper crop of lambs at the Whitings’ gaze at the cars driving by. Just down the road, you can’t miss the greening and blooming of lawns and shrubs, especially at Polly Hill’s arboretum. A square patch of something intensely green is thriving at Radio Farm.
The big magnolia tree in front of the Olsens’ is magnificent, in full bloom. Daffodils along the route poke their chins above the old brown leaves and twigs on the edges of the road. It restores your faith.
At home, another burst of yellow. A plump and sleek goldfinch showed up at the feeder for dinner. I haven’t seen one of those since last fall. He stayed on the little perch for a long time, eating nonstop, making up for a lean winter. I don’t know if he went south this year. Apparently that species may go a little bit south — like maybe to Pennsylvania — depending on the resources en route. It was a tough winter for everyone.
Now, at last, it is Patriot’s Day weekend, a holiday in Massachusetts for state and local government workers of all stripes. For kids, the beginning of a week off school.
Also behind us is the annual town meeting, when the citizens exhibit the purest form of democracy, face to face with the town fathers to debate and decide the next year’s budget and plans to upgrade the agenda. And the election of a select board member. Voters were particularly lucky this year, offered a choice between two fine candidates. I hope that whoever didn’t win Thursday will be back on the ballot next year.
From his windows overlooking Seth’s Pond, Jon Previant has written a novel that takes him and the reader deep into the mountains of central British Columbia. The book, Most Wanted, tells the story of Marshall, a young Iowa man in the late 1960s, early 70s, who sees his school friends’ lives destroyed in Vietnam, who listens to the Stones and Dylan. He lives briefly in the Haight in San Francisco, wanders some more and finally lands in an abandoned mill town on the Fraser River in that lonely, majestic vastness of Canada.
Marshall learns to be a logger, to restore an old cabin, to be resourceful enough to keep warm and to feed himself without benefit of nearby stores. Other Americans arrive, mostly draft dodgers, as they were called. But one, Marshall is convinced, is wanted by the FBI for murder and for bombing at an anti-war rally in Wisconsin.
The setting is cold and lonely, survival skills well documented. And the mighty Fraser River and its forest surroundings are a far cry from Seth’s Pond.
Happy birthday Friday, April 17, to Norman Lobb, Lynne Whiting and Lily Haynes. Jeremy Berlin will celebrate his birthday on Monday, April 20. On Tuesday, April 21, it is happy birthday to Joyce Albertine and Aline Honorato. And enjoy your special day Wednesday, April 22, Nancy Jephcote.
This article appears in April 17, 2026.