Bonjour Mes Amis:
“We live in a rainbow of chaos”……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..Paul Cezanne
“I live, which is the main point”……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….Heinrich Heine
“Enlightenment is when a wave realizes it is the ocean”………………………………………………………………………..Thigh Nhat Hanh
“Il n’y a pas de verités moyennes”…………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Georges Bernanos
Recovery week…..The Band all hit the road last Sunday morning, except for The Nave, who stayed around an extra night for rest and for cleanup day. After a pretty smooth clean up morning , we picked up the Jewish Fish Monger and went down the pike to the Weston theater, to see their offering of “Always Patsy Cline”….extraordinary….the young aspiring aspiring Broadway actress who played Patsy, was unreal…a doppelganger in every way…must have been studying Patsy for years….gonna be a star this one…Broadway lite….what a gift to have 20 minutes away….from there to Sunday red-gravy dinner at Sal’s in Wallingford (where the red gravy dishes are good, but hard to distinguish one from the other) ….and then we all crashed….the Nave off on Monday morning and we to the couch for the afternoon…what a week-played music seven straight nights……and caroused ala 1978…how lucky can we be to do this after 40 plus years…have next year’s dates set already for the band return…which will provide a good 50 weeks of needed recovery….
Transitioning….had our first of three majestic Harvest moons this week….and the beginnings of the Mid-August start of foliage appearing on the mountain roads…to say the summer is short in Vermont may be the understatement of the year….time to get out the fall ensembles…..no rain to speak of for about a month, after the two month monsoon season in late spring…which has left a lot of brown grass and rapidly emptying Pond (no picture, too depressing)….but it remains crystal clear-….without any kayak- straining by Stu……
Definitely catch up week here in the Mount….cleaning the house, back to reading and catching up on our serial TV watching (finished the third overwhelming season of Handmaid’s Tale and started the absurd “Corner Gas” on Amazon- (Seinfeld in Saskatchewan?), finally got to the stores to re-provision and the Queen was aback to managing Mt. Holly (she is now the President-elect of the Community Association and the Bull Goose Looney of the therapeutic riding school)…got back to the gym this week (ugghhh) after a ten day hiatus…and basked in the mostly perfect late summer weather….Wednesday night, after shopping run to Rutland, we stopped for dinner at the Swiss Wallingford Inn….can you say Schnitzel to die for?…..and ran into our father and sons plumbers and the whole family celebrating forty something wedding anniversary….the cantankerous plumber (and our sewage savior), who has never before smiled, greeted us like long lost Miscpucha…hugging and grasping, like we were the lost flatlander part of the family….amazing what the context of shared meal can do….
Thursday was a planned outing day to visit the Quebecois….left early with our friends Peter and Penny (the erstwhile Russian spy and the town- hero school teacher) for the three hour jaunt to the tiny hamlet of Frelighsburg in southern Quebec. Only five minutes north of the remote border crossing at Franklin, Vt.….you find yourself plopped down in the heart of the French countryside…another world… of little English, all signs in French, small bistros and Parisian chocolatiers….not Kansas anymore…seems to get a lot quieter once across the border….had long ,classic French Table de Hote luncheon on the patio of a little bistro, with the small river rushing by beneath our table…and spent the afternoon drifting around the area and stopping in small french shops (organique, biologique, ou est le dispensarie?)…picture perfect 72 degree sunny day for our quick trip to get Europe fix….perfection of the day only spoiled slightly by the Gestapo-like experience at customs when crossing the border back to the US (the Canadian side do not really care, it seems)…do these guys have to train to develop their rudeness quotient? Is there a prescribed amount of time they are required to make you sit there before making eye contact? What is the correct answer to the query of whether you have any hemp products….hit the cute little burgh of Bristol, on way home for local pizza joint dinner at sunset. A delightful excursion…and did I mention the chocolates???????
And, finally, yesterday was the annual Summer Palooza benefit for the Rainbow Riders therapeutic riding program- organized by our official team hair stylist, mostly- British Tracy. The Queen held court at the tie- dye tent all day and I wandered over late afternoon to play a set of tunes with my local cronies…..before the deluge arrived around 6 pm…returned home soaked after huddling under our tiny musicians tent and gobbling dogs and burgers in the rain….followed by a sampling of each of the 43 desserts made by the volunteers….my instruments are still drying out this morning…but it’s another fine day destined for a dirt road walk and traditional Sunday night trip to our beloved East….
Off this week to the great Midwest for work….but will bring Sabu along with my pen…just in case….
Au Revoir,
M. Stuard
