HILLSPEAKING
from The Anglican Digest 

LENT A.D. 2004

  There is nothing permanent except change. — Heraclitus, ca 513 B.C.

  Or if you prefer a more modern take on this truism, Marcus Aurelius (A.D. 121-180), put it even more succinctly: The universe changes.

  What brought the matter to mind is that when Patient Wife and I came home from a vacation, we saw that one of the magnificent old oaks that run in a line to the west of the Farm House had been cut down.  It had been dead for a year or so and needed to be cut.  Nobody here at Hillspeak knows how old that line of oaks is.  A photograph of the Farm House and the Old Residence, taken in 1914, shows the trees fully grown.

  Patient Wife and I have lived at Hillspeak for more than a quarter century and can testify that change does occur.  Over the years, we have mourned the loss of many of the fine old trees that crown Grindstone Mountain and we have seen young trees come to full growth to replace them.

  When County Road 102, then informally known as the “Hillspeak Road,” was a dirt road, we planted forsythia, Rose of Sharon, butterfly bush, Russian olive and snowball seedlings across the front of the two houses to protect us from the noise and dust of the road.  Now these have come to maturity and a hedge that averages ten to twelve feet in height perfectly screens us from the traffic that has developed over the ensuing years.

  There have been cosmetic and more substantial changes to the buildings and what, I suppose, might be called the “infrastructure” of Hillspeak.  No longer do we depend upon a spring miles away for our domestic water, and the first well and pump that replaced the spring have been relegated to supplying irrigation water while yet another well and pump provide Morningside and others potable water.

  The Farm House and Old Residence, both built from native yellow oak, are now sheathed in vinyl siding.  A second bathroom has been added to the Old Residence and the interior of the Farm House remodeled — changes that enhance the livability of both.  Where there was only one restroom in the basement of the Big Red Barn, there are now four — one on each floor.  The privy which stood behind the barn is gone — a victim of age and neglect.  With the addition of a second floor to the old Records Room, the profile of the barn has changed to that of Twin Barns.  The change was so cleverly done that nowadays visitors suppose it has always been that way.