Happy Autumn from the Green Mountains:
“ This Autumn, why do I get old? In clouds a bird.” BASHO
I have been SO delinquent in my composing- it has gotten behind me and is now overwhelming. Lots of visitors, lots of leaves, lots of Lucy…all keeping me from my assigned duties. So- this version will be a Zen of happenings- with lots of pictures because they tell a story, no? Visits from all our kids plus my niece and family from Florida left me with ridiculous amount of once in a lifetime photo ops- so I have included a substantial tasting here. If you want to see more of the photos from the two family visit- you can go to Shutterfly links below:
Kids visit- http://share.shutterfly.com/share/received/welcome.sfly?fid=a6343aa70ae3a880&sid=2CauG7RyxZMok
Florida Juban visit- http://share.shutterfly.com/share/received/welcome.sfly?fid=f0dba6dd3f463006&sid=2CauG7RyxZMpC
THE ZEN……………………………………………..
The Kids come to Vermont- how many 20-30 somethings does it take to screw in a light bulb? They came, they conquered, they went. Theme of the week established when we picked them up at Manchester airport and as they came out of terminal and I greeted them with a booming “Welcome to New England” a fellow passenger walking out with them commented “they don’t look too enthusiastic?” There was a lot of smart phone bonding, we learned Ryan wants to kill wild turkeys with his bare hands, we dragged them all over Vermont to see the foliage, Jake found out he is bigger than he thought in our low ceilinged kitchen and is the master of “selfies”, the boys are not afraid of diving into an icy Fall quarry of water, and we found that the family that Yogas together….”
The Pond- has defeated me; I am turning in my strainer and filling it with dirt…
Lucy- is growing in leaps and bounds, is a mighty traveler who goes everywhere with us, hikes for miles with her short little legs, hates water but likes Kayaks, had her first ham bone and then shit for four days straight all over the house, and cannot go anywhere without the paparazzi chasing her (and me!) . We were on a fall outing and waiting outside Singletons’ wonderful store in Proctorville for Jenn to bring us breakfast sandwiches- when a truck full of deer hunters pulled up with carcasses on the roof and deer blood all over them….Lucy thought this might be a sign from Heaven and behaved accordingly- trying to get the deer off the roof and the clothes off the hunters….
The Jubans visit from Florida…if you don’t know what a Juban is-you’ll have to look it up. Likes: shopping, the Vermont Country Store (we had to drag them out), fried food and sugar (Lena), unlimited pictures of my great niece- 17 year old Lena, who dresses for the part multiple times daily, being out of Florida, autumn leaves, any place that looks like Asheville.
Dislikes: interrupted shopping, wheat grass and outdoors (except Omelio), cold houses, my driving. They were here on Columbus Day weekend- so activities were boundless and they got to go to our local Cider Days Festival , in Belmont, see the 200 year old Cider press in action, shop and watch me play a set of music on the green in frigid morning temps. We made our first ever trip to a Mickey D drive through to get Lena the requisite chicken tenders and fries (I believe this is a misdemeanor in Vermont)…a whirlwind of three days.
Autumn is HERE- we have been chasing THE PEAK for over three weeks- as it shifts around the state- a tradition amongst the mountain folk. We are way past foliage peak here- but still looking. Spent a couple of nights in the Islands two weeks ago (yes- there are Islands in Vermont- see the sunsets) and last week in the Adirondacks (we found Frank Zappa to be alive). Lucy likes staying in strange places with strange eating to be had. This week will be our last ditch effort as we head up to the Northeast Kingdom. We’re trying to figure out where there may be foliage still (what hemisphere?) to keep the dream alive.
Plans afoot to head back to the Heartland mid-November
More Blog to come….maybe…. STU
