Noah Reibel reports that the Independent is folding, or rather, being folded.  You can read more about it in the Register Star.  Noah notes, “This heartbreaking news …  should be a lesson to small papers who sell to corporate owners.”  I’m really going to miss the local coverage.  Anyone who knows the editor Parry may wish to send him a note.

Thanks for Valerie for suggesting Local 111 as a great restaurant possibility.  I haven’t been there, but it’s right nearby in Philmont, and the menu looks great: Warm chicory salad with bacon, squash and beets, date cake with sherry zabaglione and cranberry caramel, and even fish and chips – yum!  They’re also open for breakfast and their website lists daily specials.

While you’re over in Philmont, a hop and skip will take you to High Falls, managed by the hardworking people at the Columbia Land Conservancy.  Maybe it’s no Bash Bish, but it’s a wonderful place for a hike, maybe to work up an appetite before dinner.

It actually hit -10 degrees last night.  We burned some of the aspen that fell down in the storm earlier this year — it popped like nobody’s business, but it burned hot.

There are coyotes howling and tracks in the snow everywhere: deer, coyote, rabbit, squirrel… here are a couple of pictures from down by the barn:

The fringed gentians are blooming!  This lovely late-season flower is listed as endangered throughout most of its range, but in New York State it’s “exploitably vulnerable.”  Haven’t we all felt that way at times?  Check out the photo (by me) and poem (by William Cullen Bryant), below:

To the Fringed Gentian.

THOU blossom bright with autumn dew,
And coloured with the heaven’s own blue,
That openest when the quiet light
Succeeds the keen and frosty night.

Thou comest not when violets lean
O’er wandering brooks and springs unseen,
Or columbines, in purple dressed,
Nod o’er the ground-bird’s hidden nest.

Thou waitest late and com’st alone,
When woods are bare and birds are flown,
And frosts and shortening days portend
The aged year is near his end.

Then doth thy sweet and quiet eye
Look through its fringes to the sky,
Blue—blue—as if that sky let fall
A flower from its cerulean wall.

I would that thus, when I shall see
The hour of death draw near to me,
Hope, blossoming within my heart,
May look to heaven as I depart.

For anyone who hasn’t been up to visit recently, Jim Chambers has been busy down on the farm.  He’s selling organic tomatoes, garlic, great cukes, corn, and an assortment of peppers (the poblanos have a real kick) — and all within walking distance of the pond!  He’s also converted Brennan’s old house to solar energy, and spent much of last week decorating the field across the road:

Eva Thaddeus just wrote to let me know that the New Mexico Public Education Commission today unanimously approved the charter of the Cien Aguas International School, a bilingual charter school in New Mexico.  She’s one of the founders, and they’re planning to open in August 2009.  Congratulations, Eva!  It will be a busy year.

For those of you who want details (and I know you’re out there), you can read the full 116 page charter application online.  It looks like it’s going to be a great school:

http://www.ped.state.nm.us/charter/dl09/applications/CienAguasInternationalSchool.pdf