Mama said……… don’t go near that river:
“The mimosa and the weeping willows. Beautiful strong nature. It takes me a long time to fall asleep”……………………………………………………Albert Camus
“Be like a mirror, or mountain lake, that reflects whatever passes before it” ……………………………………………………………………………………Eckhart Tolle
“Lesson One: I give up”……………………..Zen Proverb
Is anyone watching these Olympics??????????
Twenty –three K new cases in Florida yesterday….is the sunshine state a third world country……………this is like holocaust denying, no?……….Vermont had a surge of 12 cases last week…. where would you rather be?…….
And, the waters shall come………The Greens are having the most rainfall summer in over 50 years……. get daily texts from the weather mongers about flash flooding…. the rivers and streams are swollen to over flow……even when the rain stops, you can hear the sound of rushing water (and, drip, drip, drip) all around……hoping it is not a harbinger of the return of the last tropical storm to destroy Vermont….
Mount Holly Daze came and went last Sunday, with the sun coming out to shine over the Star Lake Algae……had a good schvitz plying the massive grill for three plus hours, whilst the folk tugged of war, and the band played on….
The Queen, aka Jenn Appleseed, is in the daily process of obliterating the property tree line…. she has discovered the chainsaw……removing all kinds of old growth trees and stumps to plant her pilfered pines and arborvitaes………she spent one whole day out in thunderstorms cuttin’, diggin’ up and plantin’…. arrived back in looking like a drowned kitty……mountain makeover?……..
Vermont music….is like nowhere else…..headed over a few ranges on Thursday to check out a little live in the meadow…….over to Middletown Springs (where people once went to take the waters)…..for a little postmodern Celtic swing from a young troupe of hipsters…..the band set up in front of an abandoned train car…sun setting behind them….pizza wafting out of the portable bake overs…..and dozens of Birkenstock shorn lads and lasses…..just about perfect…..snuck in a stop on the drive home at the West Rutland snack bar for fresh whole bellies and hand cut fries….Papi’s night out…..A friend of mine from folk club had offered to drive over together, (a car?…with another non-related human?) when I discovered he is not vaxxed (hard to find one of those here in the Greens)…..so declined petri dish of car ride there and back….is this the new conundrum of our times?
Thursday was our weekly day out….and followed up on a tip…. down through Londonderry and over to the hamlet of Wyndham……to The Fourth Corner Foundation…. another post-apocalypse, roadside attraction of master gardens and hobbit-like architectural wonders……THIS is a hidden gem….50 years of creating gardens and putting up very strange edifices……and…it was…. all ours, since no one knows this place exists…. Forgive the obsessive picture taking of flowers…though in fairness I only included about a third of the ones I took……Monet could have lived here……
On the way home, we hit the Verizon store for our bi-weekly visit to see if they can get Papi’s phone to work (not) and then on to Wallingford, where every place we tried to get dinner would not let us in….the worker shortage in Vermont restaurants is astounding….it is almost impossible to find a place to eat without a reservation…even in the smallest dives….is this our ultimate penance….shunned to an endless loop of snack bar dining ?……though “snack bars” in the Greens are a whole other species….
Luckily, none of the above applies to Chinese, who appear to have their own unending labor force……so down the hill we went last night to stock up on groceries (is it possible to spend less than $100 at the grocery anymore?) and a trip to the magic of East for fine Asian dining…week complete……
The Flatlanders are coming……The Flatlanders are coming…. today marks the first arrival of the Bunty Station boys for our annual week of Vermont music……Ohio arrivals starting tonight….and, even Prodigal Brother, Feel, arriving in a few days from Jersey……Music on the Green show on Thursday and the 20th (or so) Annual Tie-Dye Fest later this weekend with a recording session thrown in at legendary Mt. Hollywood Studios……our 43rd year of hacking away for a number of us……tune em’ up, Danno….
The tractor is still in the shop…….so it may be line- up- the- push- mowers again this week to get Festival ready……
The POND is PEAKING……and…. the phones are occasionally ringing for three to five minutes of uninterrupted service before the calls drop………another week on The Mount….
Saw our first changing leaves last night on way home……summer phasing out in the Greens??!!??
Teach your children well…………Stay Safe…. Be in touch……
Papi-San
