“What we have to be is what we are” Thomas Merton
Greetings Earthlings:
It’s been an interesting week in the mountains and beyond. Stu went off to the Big Easy for most of the week in search of the perfect beignet, and found steamy hot and humid instead. Upside- no one goes to NOLA in July. Last trip for this project after three years on the ground, so hit some of my more memorable dining haunts…in ascending order of decadence and debauchery: Mister Ed’s Famous Seafood, LUKE and Emeril’s NOLA…had to get home before I exploded. One thing I realized being in NOLA’s melting pot- how much I miss black people in the lily white environs of Vermont; It’s like –what is wrong with this picture?
Got home late Thursday to be greeted by overnight Airbnb visitors. Not something I recommend after a grinding all day trip back to the mountains, but interesting NJ folks. Dave turned out to be quite the musicologist and guitar player, so once I recovered made some tunes and talked music connections deep into the night. Also got back in time to see my guitar playing buddy, Steve the Fish Monger, play on the town green with his Beatles band. Small, but mighty crowd loved the “Fabs”, and we hit a sunset from Mars on the way home…as usual in the highlands.
Did you catch the DEMS strut their stuff this week. Can we just have four more years of the Muslim, please? First picture attached is actually a copy of an editorial from the conservative Rutland Herald. You should read it and then plan to move to Canada soon. You can also catch Max the Prodigal, emulating the Dead Again, at end of photo attachments.
Being gone most of the week and getting home only to get ready to leave for two weeks in the heartland, should have kept us plenty busy, but instead we have had a jam packed life in the mountains social calendar. Did a cool drive and walk up in the hills around Shrewsbury last Sunday before I left. One of the beauties of Vermont life is that you can pull your car over on almost any dirt road and it turns into a great hike…who put all these stone walls here? and where does that pure late afternoon light come from? why does Lucy love everyone? and how much more bedding will we accumulate this year?
Had to spend part of a day Friday at our new hang -out garage next to the airport (really, an airport!) and the hidden Jewish Cemetery (really, the Jews!) . It’s like going into time warp…Community Volkswagen, circa 1978, but without the wafting smells. And, then….. we have settled on our POND guy , and the beast may be tamed in August…I am formally hanging up my strainer…..
So, during the epic Garden Tour last week, we met some locals form Germany, who have led quite the unusual life of international politics and intrigue. They invited us to a pot luck dinner last night in their octagon shaped mountain retreat (from Berlin!) and we had dinner with our local prevailing group of ersatz Communists and cold war spies……Germans, Poles and Russian wannabes….the Borscht was great, the view magnificent and it felt a bit like being in a John LeCarre novel. Tonight we visit for dinner with our left wing Boston –Cape /Cod friends who periodically show up at their mountain home. Quite the hodgepodge of white Euro- American cultures in these parts, and lots of interesting insights on the mind of The Donald.
Well, I’d like to stay and chat, but got to go see if we can figure out the last of the pulley system on the sleeping barn monster and figure out how to get out of Dodge…Will be off next week while in the motherland (no one really wants a blog from central Ohio, do they?)- so more down the line.
Be well. Don’t Boo…Vote!
Ferlin’
