A Bloy and his Blog

I’ve been fond of Emmylou Harris‘s music since the early 1980′s. I started out a casual fan, but the intensity of my fandom grew along with the music she was making. When her 1995 masterpiece Wrecking Ball came out, I was a seriously hooked. Through all that time, I never had the oppotunity to hear Emmylou Harris perform live. But that finally changed last night, when I attended her outstanding show at Madison’s Overture Center.

Emmylou Harris’ set began somewhat subdued. Early on she played one of my favorites of the night, the hauntingly beautiful “Red Dirt Girl.” That tone continued with a cover of Lucinda Willams’ “Sweet Old World” and the somber waltz “I Miss the Mississippi and You.”

read the rest of: Emmylou Harris and her Red Dirt Boys

read the rest of: Prairie grass

While hiking at a local park last weekend, I came across all kinds of milkweed plants. Most were spreading their seeds before the winter sets in.

read the rest of: Milkweed

One of my shrubs (that I didn’t hack way down last week) has a lot of berries on it.

I wonder… what kind of plant is it? Are the berries edible?

read the rest of: Autumn berries

One of the things I was a little concerned about when I bought my house last March, was the fact that I’d have to do yard work.

Since I moved away from my parent’s house many years ago, I’ve been living in apartments and condominiums where all that was done for me. But the idea of sharing walls with other people (especially bad neighbors) was something I was growing pretty tired of. That was actually one of the major reasons I moved last spring.

read the rest of: On yard work