Author: stumberry

And so it goes…..

Look past your thoughts, so you may drink the pure nectar of this moment……………………………………..No spring nor summer beauty hath such grace as I have seen in one autumnal face……….

What a day for a daydream, what a day for a daydreamin’ boy……………………..Bewildered, Bewildered, you have no complaint, you are what are- and you ain’t what you ain’t….Everything is passing, enjoy its momentariness…….When I get offa this mountain, I know where I wanna go………………………When you arise in the morning- think of what a privilege it is to think, to enjoy, to love……..Nothing was delivered, now I tell this truth you -not out of spite or anger, but simply ‘cause it’s true…..I will be the greatest “jobs president” that God ever created…..

The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind-the answer is blowin’ in the wind…..There’s a saying about dating in Alaska: “The odds are good, but the goods are odd”………..You can’t start a fire without a spark……We’re gonna need a bigger boat….The mind is an elusive thing- don’t think for minute that you know who you are…….Don’t think twice- it’s all right…….Won’t you scratch my itch Sweet Annie Rich- and welcome me back to town……….Disbelief in magic can force a poor soul into believing in government and business…….

Acres to mow…the blight of city boy soul
Brandon, Vermont…take me to the dispensary , please
Customer Service…where hath it gone?
Denial- the bull goose looney of psycho-babble
Eastern world- it is explodin’
Friends-“with benefits”…what the heck that does really mean?
Grandparents…..are NOT parents
Heaven…is a cool and sunny autumn mountain day
Inna De Gada De Vita…..BABY
Je ne sais pas…maybe?
Kent…tin soldiers and Trumpson coming
Long may you run….with your chrome heart shining in the sun..
Minnesota…actually has a Jewish Deli…
Never say never….or almost never say never unless you mean never…
Oregon- is like Vermont plus survivalists, minus Bernie
Peaky Blinders- check it out
Que Sera Sera….oh, F__k it …
Randolph Scott……Hmmmmmm
Sunset…kiss another day goodbye..
Time…is on your side…yes it is…
U yes U…can make all the difference…BUT NOW…
Vhat the Hell…
Wonder….wa-wa-wa, wonder….why, why, why ,why .why…
Xcellent, dude….
Yaba…Daba…Doo
Zomething is not right in Denmark……

Ferlin’

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

Sunday, Sunday….can’t trust that day:

“An empty bottle, a broken heart…and you’re still on my mind”…………………………………………………………………………………………………….Luke McDaniel

“Ooh, Eee, ride me high….tomorrow’s the day my brides gonna come”………………………………………………………………………………………..Bob Dylan

“ Some say that I’m an outlaw, some say that I’m a thief…but here’s a Christmas dinner for the families on relief”……………………Woody Guthrie

Oh what week it’s been….the Bunty band made the annual pilgrimage to the Greens and did the mountain music scene nonstop for six days….the absolute joy of having a house full of Bunties, and an endless array of jams, communal meals, walks in the woods…and a distillery collection of spirits.

All presided over by the hostess with the mostest….THE Queen of Mt. Holly, who worked from dawn to midnight to keep The Inn in tip top shape and the food and fun flowing……

The Nave and Lucy’s BFF, Rosie-Posey, arrived on Sunday night….so Monday and Tuesday were devoted to early preparations and long walks on dirt roads…Al, Lloyd and Mitch all arrived on Tuesday and our long lost brother/bandmate, Phil (Feel) arrived on Wednesday…thus completing the circle….and providing us with a chock full house of testosterone for the week………

The music this week was the culmination of an eight month odyssey that began when Nave, Feel and I met up in Baltimore last December to go to Bethesda to catch the 50th anniversary tour of the Byrds celebrating their 1968 seminal Sweetheart of the Rodeo album. We were so moved by this experience, we decided we needed to replicate the album start to finish, note for note ..which we did twice this week…almost getting good at it…

The band, in one form or another, has been at it since 1978 (Really!) ..and we had all four original members (that were Steaks and Chops) here this week, when Brother Feel came up from his garden state homestead……….

Brother Al, our original (and forever) bass man, rejoined us this week , coming up from Florida where he has escaped to (leaving us without our foremost rock and back beat)….Al makes all the difference…

We played the local Music on the Green series for the third year on Thursday, joined by a local fiddle player extraordinaire, Bob the Fiddler, and folk club friends Marty and John on slide guitar and percussion….thus becoming the Sweetheart orchestra….all hosted by Jennifer….. our own Sweetheart of the Rodeo (catch her garb))…..when we put our CDs out for this, we will be using her image to replace the original cowgirl featured on the 1968 Byrds album cover…….

Friday we went back into the local TV studio and recorded the entire Sweetheart set….I will send out a link to this, once it is mixed and edited by the sound engineer, in the next few weeks… after two nights of practice and two days of shows we were spent on Friday night and all stayed home at the Inn to have pizza and lubricants….but Feel could not abide by the laziness, and pulled out his guitar around 10 pm…leading us through drunken transitions of some of old standards. Jenn posted some of these on Facebook ( “going viral”), and the link to this is here if you want to laugh your head off…..

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipPZLALESymVfQnbm7XcXX_1z8gI3gBEUiIRpPVJiE5JeCeLwdnA6vrIqDLrLRyG3w?key=QVVTM3l2YXkxdzB1MGg2Z1pEM3JrS1N6ZDlod3Jn

On Saturday we hosted our 20th (or so) annual Tie-Dye Festival (third straight in Vermont)…and had a wide array of music, food, games and majestic Tie-Dyeing…..completed by the late night campfire…..

Now, with all but the Nave on their way back to points south and west…it’s time for cleanup, multiple naps and a matinee show in Weston this afternoon….closing an absolutely unforgettable week…

But…enough….they say that every picture tells a story…so I will let the attached photo display speak for itself…

Good Yontif…….Ferlin’

Happy summer Daze to all:

“Seriousness is the only refuge of the shallow”……………………………………………………………………………………………………………Oscar Wilde

“Nirvana is right there before our eyes”……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….Hakuin

“ In the summer time when the weather is hot…..you got women, you got women on your mind”……………………………Mongo Jerry

Back again from the Heartland Sahara…..to mountain paradise. After the swelter, our return night Sunday was around 50 degrees…..that’s what I’m talking about…… continued to have majestically dry and arid weather all week creating perfect mountain Green Daze….and need-a good –blanket nights…..I’m reminded of why city people have always headed for the mountains in August…

The Belmont General Store has a couple of small tables in front windows for the consuming of questionable deli fare…..and when you go to pick up your mail at the po box….you run into the old pot belled stove crowd malingering at the store all afternoon….that usually includes the Dumpmaster and his cronies and our local stonemason/rock and roll king….when one stops to say hello …it is like disappearing into the Bermuda/Mt. Holly triangle….Yenta Central….

We bought a bag of ripe red cherries at the Hannaford……which in Vermont and it’s three week growing season, is like buying 40 carat gold……Jenn shows up at the checkout with a bag that probably weighed three pounds and rung up at a week’s wages….so if you come to our house and we put out the priceless cherries…..there is tip jar to put in your forty cents per pit…..just a head’s up….

Oh, what a beautiful mornin’…..continuing our summer season at the Weston Playhouse, we made the twenty minute drive down route 100 for the ten millionth performance of OH….OH….OH…..KLA……HOMA…….Amongst the many reasons to go to the 100 year old Weston theater…is that we are often (yes, even me)…the youngest people in the house………huge cast….tiny stage….magnificent mini orchestra….thought The Queen might explode from demurely keeping her vocals in check…

With gorgeous mid-70s, no humidity day in store on Thursday, we took a trek……cruising up Rt. 100 for a meandering drive up the Gold Coast Road, which is our top secret bypass to circumvent the hub-bub of Woodstock….and houses all the cloistered mansions of the movie star and Mafioso set sequestered away in Vermont (it’s not called the Gold Coast for nuthin’)……then made our way to the far side of Woodstock to the Quechee Gorge…..dubbed (quite boastfully) the Grand Canyon of the East…..though that may be a bit of a stretch, it is indeed an magnificent 1000 foot deep crevice formed by the ever decreasing glacial movements…..beautiful hike down to a world class swimming hole, which Lucy proceeded to drink gallons out of…….

Having accomplished our healthy activity for the day, we wove our way down the Connecticut River valley on old route 5…to Claremont NH and the state of the art Walmart there for tax free fried chicken, which is clearly very bad, but is achingly good…and has the bonus of the most classic array of Walmart shoppers, ripe for the camera…..

The artery clogging Fried Chicken proved a valuable addition to our evening picnic at the Belmont Music on the Green…..featuring Mt. Holly’s own Piano Man….whose house Jenn cleans on the side…..Very popular with a loyal local following, the Piano Man is eerily similar to the old Bill Murray Lounge Lizard on Saturday Night Live….close your eyes and you can hear….”Feelings”…..

We’ve spent a pretty lazy weekend, with visits to Ramuntos for Friday night pizza, a late night grocery trip to Hannaford’s and a Saturday evening visit to Sal’s in Wallingford for some red gravy shit…..so I guess it’s time to visit the ever- dwindling (no rain for a month…its either feast or famine) POND and get to some chores….Music week is coming up this week in the Greens, with The Nave arriving tonight and the rest of The Bunty Station Band by Tuesday for our Thursday Music on the Green gig , Friday recording session and Saturday annual Tie- Dye Festival….naps will be required for all….

Stay tuned for next week’s music week report……..

In Sha Allah…………………………Stu