Author: stumberry

Good morning and “Wakey, Wakey…. hands off Snakey” (Rake):

“When fear is finished, there are no more problems to be resolved, only life to be lived” ………………………………………………………………………………………Michael Kewley

“Sudden the cold airs swing. Alone, aloud. A verse of bells take wing. And flies with the cloud.” ……………………………………………………………………………. Alice Meynell

“I’ll get the Last Train to Tulsa, right before the snow….…. if you ever need a ride there, be sure and let me know” …………………………………………………. Neil Young

Slow down, you move too fast…. gotta make the morning last……. blah, blah, blah……Feelin’ Groovy………the hoar frost arrives each morning……. the last browns and oranges hang on for dear life on almost bare trees……warmish rain turns to brittle sunshine chill……………dark, dark, darkness…… begins its ascent in middish afternoon………must be time to go……lift your wings and fly away……to the land of the corn and wheat…..time to go….

One more rainy Sunday led us out after multiple days sequestered at home……to a last drive down through the quaint villages……East Wallingford, Weston, Londonderry, Stratton…. last of the fall colors with moments of retro brilliance….on to the Kings of Sausage at Honeypie……then the ghost town walk at Hapgood Pond…where Lucy goes so bat shit crazy to be on her beloved trail, that she somehow loses her harness…..how can that happen?

Mr. O’Bleary’s Cow………lives up the road at Dennis the Drunk’s house……a pathetic, skin on bone creature that brays at the moon in midday, which really confuses Lucy………this the most recent in a yearly effort to fatten a bulimic bovine for winter food stock….by the time he has the poor Elsie slaughtered……….2-3 meals at most, my guess.

Found a new mountain car repair place………Chris is down in Clarendon and changed my oil for a third of the price of the chains…….in his little garage behind a freewheelin’’ church on a dirt road………no receipt, no tax, just a hand shake (very dirty hands) with the mountain man mechanista……

Got The Bullfrog- Pond Blues- usually more than ready to leave the oozing-out, declining, evaporating Pond behind by this time of year…. when all efforts to keep it near the brim have failed……But Not……look at that puppy……as if it had just filled up from the winter snowmelt runoff……where are the men that I used to sport with?

Friday was cold but very sunny, so off for our last drive- walk adventure…..across the great Connecticut to the “Live Free or Die”  and “We Love the Trumpster” province……mostly because the live free nutcakes are also tax free and have no six taxes……so a big ass bottle of fine bourbon for the road, at half the price….and then stop at the quirky Hungry Diner in Walpole……for last dine outside in the sunshine experience……great place, creative comfort cuisine….but when you get the bill it is always more than you thought…..finally figured out they are levying an additional tax for “livable wage for their employees’…..which I support in theory, but wonder who should pay for…..though clearly all who work there have drunk the cool aid….so guess it works..

And speaking of “lasts” …. made the trip down the hill last night to Rut-town for one more glorious Chinese extravaganza at our beloved “East” ……. went gloriously out of the box with our fist Pu-Pu Platter in a decade…. will miss our corner/window Sunday night table……. anyone care for rituals?

And speaking of lasts, number two……Having our first, last and only supper gathering of the year tonight……to bid farewell to a bunch of our closest peeps on The Mount…..The Erstwhile Russian Spy, The Worlds Most Beloved School- Marm, the empress of General Electric, The Masseuse in the Trailer, and her partner, The King of Snow Machines…….will all be here…..which means one last ridiculous housecleaning (TQ has rules about this)….and hiding all the detritus of getting packed to leave (more TQ rules)….there’ll be a whole lot of shakin’ goin’ on……

I imagine I’ll see TQ sometime before the dinner guests arrive though at the moment she is out in the countryside flirting with the Dumpmaster, dropping off at plant daycare, looking for more pine trees to randomly dig up, mulching her heart out, all over the land….and generally presiding as the town angel and Her Majesty of the Lake…………. people may not notice that I have left…. but TQ will be missed…….

So…. off Thursday for The Heartland…. Now it’s time to say goodbye to all our family…M-I-C…see ya real soon….K-E-Y…why, because we love you…………stay very well and keep in touch….might drop a Blog-Bomb or two during the winter….but who knows….

We’ll be back!

Papi-san

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Greetings Fellow Travelers:

“Let me say it again: the present moment is all you ever have” ………………………………………………………………………………………………Eckhart Tolle

“It’s a marvelous night for a Moondance” ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. Van Morrison

“I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers” ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………L. M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

It’s been a chilly, wet week here on The Mount. The leaves are almost all down; stick season is reaching full swing here in The Greens. People start to disappear in that grey time between Autumn and Ski Season. Is this a time of ending? beginning? A little bit of the loss of innocence along with the sunlight. Does anyone really embrace Daylight Savings Time?

We have begun the process of shutting down the homestead in anticipation of flying the coop on the 11^th. The tchotchkes of our lives begin to disappear from the barn, the yard, the house……. driftin’ away with the leaves. But…….one last gasp this week took us up to the shores of Lake Champlain for our annual trek to the Islands of Vermont and Grand Isle……where lo and behold, the Lake Effect provides a late lasting, stunning array of Fall bounty on the shore outside our little cottage on what should by all measures, be a Great Lake.

Rituals……gotta love them….and we have developed quite the routines over many years of traipsing around the Northeast. Does anyone really believe there are Islands in Vermont? A quick two- hour plus trip takes us from the pastoral rolling hills and dales to the hidden wonders of large bodies of waters. Had the requisite stop in Brandon at the Café Provence bakery for breakfast and sweets loading, then up and around the fair metropolis of Burlington and across the bridge to the quaint Island environment and culture that is always a bit of a mystery …. lake cultures……a fascinating way of life, no?

Goin’ home, goin’ home….by the waterside I will rest my bones……Listen to the river sing sweet songs….and, rock my soul.

The Island trips are a quiet blur with hardly anyone around and many stores and restaurants closed up…. the magical wonder of a beautiful place left behind by the tourista hordes of summer. Not really a  lot to do if you are pursuing activities: the usual jaunt to The Dunes , a few long hikes in the woods, gazing at the lake sunset through the glass cottage doors, the laps of the waves in bed at night….then there is the middle-of-nowhere, dirt road little Happy Bird Smokehouse, for their smoked chicken pot pie and spicy ribs to cook up ala cottage…..the little, but mighty, Alburg store for their bread and soup and munchies, the hipster bakery for bagels and bialys…..and the hidden orchards for the bull-goose looney of all Cider doughnuts…a world unto itself……remote charm with TV and WI-FI ….what’s not to love?

Not a lot else went on this sticky-week:

The Queen has now moved half of the mulch and most of the hay storage to the project de-la- obliterating of any yard grass.

Three year old Sloane did her first trick or treatin’ and TQ got skeletoned up to do our local Trunk or Treat………that is TRUNK with an “N” …. not an “M”.

We did a portal with Quin-Lily that expanded to five bedtime stories- at this rate we will be doing all-nighters by the time she is eight

The Dumpmaster and his crew wept openly at TQ not making the run for the third consecutive week….”is the little missus just laying’ round the house all naked?”

We both got our Moderna booster jabs on the way home from Island hopping, so ready to tackle the heartland and it minions.

The Prodigal has fully abandoned cash, and is now carrying around bags of crypto tokens.

The politically incorrect Atlanta Braves are whipping the Texas-cheaters in the Series.

The do-gooders are putting measures on town ballots around the state to tamp down the development of retail cannabis in our legal state.

When the winds come down on your one light town, can you look further on than you see? I’m an all-night singer in a rock and roll band, I’m just sittin’ on the edge of being free.

And, that, has got be all she wrote, Dear john…. just send my saddle home.

Papi of the Woods

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Allo, Allo:

Well, it’s been another slow week at Mount LeavesBeGone………………………………………the leaves slowly tumble through the hazy filtered sunlight…………………………the sticks re-emerge in the woods…………………………………I hear the train a comin’, It’s comin’ round the bend, and I ain’t seen the sunlight…. since…. I don’t know when………………nights approaching the 20s……seventy degrees a thing of the late lost summer……Gone with the Wind………how does it feel?……to be on your own……See the sap lines dot the woods like one giant spider web……people are strange….where have they gone?………….bracing for the next phase of mountain life……Kerouac, Ginsberg, Snyder, Ferlinghetti, blasting in my mind, from a million nights past…………………………think I’ll pack it in, and buy a pickup……………………………mountain time nears an end……….one last hoped- for- gasp pf Autumns’ splendor as we drift up to the Islands of Lake Champlain this week

Leaves, Leaves, Leaves……Pond, Pond, Pond……haul that bale…..Truckin’, down in New Orleans……help me, I think I’m fallin’……Ticks, ticks, ticks……spread the Doxycycline anti-Lyme miracle to bitten friends….the beasts are everywhere….look out, look out…………….the Candyman, here he comes….and he’s gone again….….Dumpmaster cries “don’t go”….or at least leave the missus…..what about all the mulch and cardboard….can the land yet become one large garden of rocks and blueberries?….sixty nine years of American Dreams……..ugghhhh…..Where are the men that I used to sport with?…..

Baseball has been berry, berry good to me……Sox have fallen to break the pioneer hearts of the great Northeastern Tribe…..autumn winds and baseball…..Amerika!………trippin’ solo to Middlebury- town to see the second coming of the shaman…crunch, crack…………aahhh……..how long have I been waitin’ for you, how long have you been on yer way………..Work, Work, Work……we gotta get outta this place, if its the last thing we ever do………..retirement memo apparently missed……Zoooooooomm…….where are the old dogs to teach new trix…………..New woods to ramble….out in the Mendon Orchards way……..Buenos’ Burritos……yes, yes, yes……….Johnson, Pfizer, Moderna….gotta jab me up…yeah jab me up….yeah, jab me up…..how much is too much?..

The sun is out; the Barn awaits……. Dear Prudence, won’t you come out and play-ay……the woods are lovely dark and deep, but miles to go before I sleep, miles to go before I sleep……

Friend of mine goes to hospital to get checked out……passes room with a guy masturbating……asks the nurse what is up with that…. she replies that the patient has rare condition and has to do it every hour to avoid symptoms…. shakes his head, continues down the corridor…. passes another room where nurse is going down on the patient…. catches the nurse and asks what about that…. nurse says same condition, better insurance……

Ta-Da…. oh my……that’s the end……

Papi-San

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