Autumn!!!!!!…….Comes to the Greens

Obla- dee –obla-doh…..life goes on……….and Sunday greetings to all:

“I ain’t the kind who gives up, but I’m so tired of rain…Lord, I’m just an orphan of the storm”………………………………………Tom Petty

“There ain’t no answer. There ain’t gonna be no answer. There never has been an answer. There’s the answer.”……..Gertrude Stein

“Add cholesterol,
overcook, then serve with bread
recipe revealed”…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….Haikus for Jews

It’s been a busy, busy week in our hometown….and further abound in the mountains…..hence the volume of photographic narrative…Stu cannot resist snapping the mélange of colors.

We started last Sunday by taking a dirt road ride up to the hills of nearby Shrewsbury to the Reinbow Riding Center, for a BBQ to thank the volunteers and musicians who helped out at their fundraiser in August….lots of kids and horses and burgers (not related to horses ) and could not resist stalking and snapping all the kids for photos (I did not wear a raincoat for this). From there it was down to Belmont, to the community center, for the opening of the 2019 calendar contest (you may remember that Stu’s shot of the sunset shrouded bikers was featured on the back cover of the 2018 calendar (available for $20 American)…..my photo submission for this year is amongst 80 or so, and once again, was denied any prize at the ceremony…my strikingly absurd photo of a farmers’ Sunday day off apparently did not measure up to the prize winning shots of purple flowers and butterflies (no sore losing here)

Anyhow…I digress….the week has been a whirlwind since then, which is quite well chronicled in the abundance of photos….so I will once again promise (though not be held to it) to keep my narrative to highlight minimum…..

We took off on Tuesday, after a Monday day of mowing an recuperation, for the second week of Fall outings (read…leaf peeping)…off to the northern Adirondacks for an overnight…where we had the first evidence of a glistening autumn foliage..…complete with a night in at the Innsbruck Inn (not nearly as glamourous as it sounds) in Lake Placid and a visit to the fading Olympic splendor of that era. Unfortunately they would not allow us to join the practicing Jamaicans on the bobsled run. Part of our trip was absorbed with Jenn’s fascination with all things pick-up truck….so we analyzed every single truck we saw…..I am now learning that what we need to find is a non-garish, only slightly extended cab, 4×4 (not sure what that means yet) that has a shitload of payload…….

We returned Tuesday night to clean up cat shit and vomit and then spent a busy day on Thursday preparing for the BIG weekend, before heading up Route 100 to lovely quaint Randolph to see the legendary David Bromberg Band at the Chandler Center for the Arts. We discovered a quirky Thai restaurant in a big old house on the hill for quick dinner, and then had the great fortune to hear one of the greatly undervalued musicians of our time- back in the groove after 20 year hiatus to make violins…and it was Magic. The small theater was filed to capacity with stoned white-hairs ( I’m sure Jenn was the youngest person there) and the old times were BIG fans and you could hear a pin drop when the five piece band stood at the tip of the stage and played lovely soft acoustic songs. The drive up there was marked by astounding fall colors in the fading afternoon light….and the full moon- lit night provided deep shadowy hues coming home in the dark…..can you say Autumn in Vermont?

So, then came Friday….which meant the official start of our beloved Cider Daze weekend here in the little hamlet in the mountains…..when herds come to our little town green to see apples pressed into cider on our 200 year old cider press, and generally cavort and shop till they drop amongst the fallen leaves. We had a series of one night guests for the holiday weekend (Columbus Day weekend is the biggest holiday of the year in the mountains)…..all Boston emigres in search of color and quaint…and we have now become zealots of over commitment to the towns gala activities…Jenn has now accepted the role as the reigning QUEEN of the local community association…so I have not seen her in the last 72 hours, as she held court at the DAZE. Friday night was Festival set up and band practice for our set on Saturday. Saturday morning we sent the Bostonites back to the Hub, greeted new ones, cleaned the house, volunteered at the Green, played a set of music with a rag tag bunch of endlessly out of tune musician friends, then ran over to volunteer/ work the annual roast beef supper….where I spent the night unsuccessfully lobbying Jenn to get first dibs for my tables, as she controlled the distribution of the dripping red beef platters and fixins..…and eventually wandered home in a stupor after the final leaf peepers had gone back to their BandB domains. Once again, they have tried to exile me from serving at the dinner, because I wind up serving everyone else’s assigned tables, and can’t seem to pass up a plate that needs refilled or removed, while collecting free glasses of wine from my grateful patrons…which only leads me to more table hogging….

So, now it Sunday ..AGAIN, mind you…and Jenn is off again doing her Royal duties, while I lick my wounds, write this missive, and have exacting political conversations with our last exiting guests, a pair of 16 or 17 year olds it seems…but cute, in a nerdy, biotech sort of way….

So…I once again filled a bunch more pages with stuff you probably could not care less about…but who really cares, anyway…and now it is time to go check out the mostly empty POND…and prepare for another hectic week of travel, autumn leaves, watchin’ Lucy get humped by strange dogs, avoiding tourists…….an enjoying the glory of this season.

Peace out ma familia,

Father Stu