From Elayne Dix:

When my husband and I found our property, we felt like we were in heaven. The quiet, the smells (especially early morning), the birds! There was a pond nearby where a bullfrog ruled at dusk. Amazement at all the creatures sharing the land.

Craryville was quieter 40-plus years ago. We lived on a road where there was hardly any traffic. I walked over Birch Hill Road to shop on Route 23. That would take half a day, because there was a group of birches swaying, the mooing cows, and, at the top of that road, a glimpse of the pond that could only be seen with imagination, since there was no clearing. It was thrilling to come upon the big old oak nodding over the stream and the bumpy, tremulous little wooden bridge.

We came here for these gifts. Our neighborhoods in the city had undergone changes, and we were busy within that noisy bubble with jobs and family responsibilities.

Looking back over my considerable decades, I realize the city was always changing. And often fast. Sometimes, overnight, a favorite building or business is gone.

But country areas change more slowly. The seasons are the obvious markers. But in reality, farms go out of business and multifamily homes are built. A stream dries up, vegetation and animal life change, so a road is added.

Zoning accommodates a new business. A new school campus goes up, thankfully providing education, sports, a library for current and future generations. But a lovely field is taken. Where are those deer we watched at sunset? That bullfrog?

The hills and woods in Craryville will change. The urgent new story is climate crisis — and our responsibility to act in the best interests of our grandchildren. There will be beauty and life left in the fields. It will be shared with the structures we know will produce cleaner power.

I understand the feelings of loss. To some degree, with that feeling, we have all experienced changes. There will be noise, dust, interference. For some, it'll be far worse than for others. Then it will be over. And the green will fill in.