What the Hayfield Had to Say

There’s something about a freshly cut hayfield that makes me slow down and look.

Maybe it’s the contrast—the tall grass still waiting on one side and the freshly cut field stretching out behind the tractor on the other. Or maybe it’s because scenes like this are so much a part of life here in the Northeast Kingdom that they can easily become background scenery.

But sometimes the familiar things have something to say.

This particular hayfield got me thinking about an old saying: Make hay while the sun shines.

That thought became the starting point for my latest column in the North Star Monthly, “Old Vermont Wisdom: Knowing Which Season You’re Actually In.”

We usually take that old saying to mean that we should work hard while we have the opportunity. And there’s certainly truth in that. But living in a place as seasonal as the Northeast Kingdom adds another dimension to it. 

That’s what I explore in this month’s North Star Monthly column, through hayfields, local businesses, Vermont winters, and some of the old wisdom that comes from living in a place where the seasons still have a lot to say.

Read “Old Vermont Wisdom: Knowing Which Season You’re Actually In” in the North Star Monthly.

Sometimes the land has something to teach us. We just have to slow down long enough to notice.