Hello. Welcome to my domain
"Domain" is such an important word here on the Internet. It smacks of sovereignty—a place over which I have control. We've used "domain" to indicate possession of place long before we could visit one another in virtual places. Domain, as in, entitlement to inhabit.
The definition of domain that resonates with me is this one: “a realm or range of personal knowledge, responsibility.”
What do I already know about this place—a specific land that yes, I own—but also, a place that is in relationship to the fields, forests, barns, houses, animals, people, and the hill towns that surround it?
For one, I know about the weather. Historically, it can flash snow in April and even May here. Once in my memory, it rained the entire month of July. It can snow again as early as October. Whatever the regional forecast may be in the Upper Hudson Valley, I have come to know that it will be more dramatic here. This place has its own micro-climate, and reminds us frequently.
I know a little bit about what grows here and inhabits the place. At least 60 turkey vultures live in this vicinity. I counted them “kettling”—circling upward, riding the thermal draft—before migrating a couple of years ago. It was magnificent.
Fisher cats have surged back in the ten years I’ve spent time here. They're the only consistent predators of porcupines because they attack their faces, and know to flip them on their backs and eventually eviscerate them. We also have bears, coyotes, bobcats; I’ve seen all three within a five-mile radius of town.
Chanterelles populate our woods, including some rare black ones. There are hidden—and not so hidden—slopes of wild leeks, or ramps, in spring.
White birch trees don't like it hot in the summer, so don't plant them or look for them on a southern slope, but they grow well on a northern exposure, or sometimes eastern.
Wild nettles are all around us here in the spring, if we just look, but must be harvested before flowering.
These are some things I know about this place.
What will I learn as I tend it more closely?
This is the project. Tend this domain. Treat it with respect and ask of it what it can comfortably give. Learn from this process. Cultivate personal knowledge in ways that honor and keep it. Share and celebrate this knowledge.
