Category: Green Mountain Blog

Bonjourno:

“ To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all”………………………………………………………………………………………..Oscar Wilde

“Moonlight through high branches, Is being nothing else…But moonlight through high branches”……………………………………………………..Fernando Pessoa

“ A stereotype is a stereotype for a reason”…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..Stu B. on the next door Jamaicans indeed roasting Goat in the yard

“Hey! Get back indoors!
Whatever you were doing
could put an eye out”…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………Haikus for Jews

Autumn has stalled in the mountains……after another startling heat wave (high 80s in September), there has been little foliage boom, but all the Green is getting a lot less Green…The Queen say it is looking like spoiling heads of broccoli……

And speaking of Autumnal changes…Brother Al of the Bunties has unearthed a pre-Bunty- Steaks and Chops photo taken at the legendary Blue Danube in Columbus in 1979….check out the PDF attachment to see the boys with lots of hair and erect posture………….

And, The shit has indeed reached the fan……the septic-shit man finally showed up this week and dug up the pipes …and…no go….no easy fix at this point…having to investigate other forms of leaching our precious stools….so we continue on our water minimization effort to avoid back-up (none yet)….since the water level has gone down some, I have reverted to quick showers and once a day flush….but The Queen of the Mount steadfastly continues to pee in a cup and bathe in The Pond…..is this life in the mountains?

Though…up side is…THE POND… remains in a state of grace from all the rain we’ve had…despite a failed pump and no water movement for a week, it has remained full and pristine clean, as evidenced in the pix of The Queen and The Circus Dog at float….The floating and plunging took place last Sunday after we spent four hours staining the deck in 90 degree heat, and then sprinted for the brown water immersion…

Have you ever noticed that no one works on Labor Day?….even people who are supposed to be working?…and is this an oxymoron?…….maybe it’s just a mountain thing…

Last weekend we had two quite contrasting Airbnb guests….after the Queen accepted two last minute reservations despite our shit storm state…the Saturday night woman showed up at 10 pm and left at 8 am- taking our conservation to heart and not using a drop of water or anything else….she is now the record holder for least impact for an overnight…then we had our Sunday night cute couple with dog, escaping Harvard move in day in Cambridge…who in 12 hours managed to utilize every room in the house (potential multiple sex acts??) and every recreational space on the property…..though they did not take showers out of deference to the shit show…may have left a bit on the musty side…

On Tuesday, I made the drive down to lovely Hartford to catch a flight to St. Louie for a few days of conferencing with the Casey peeps…..Ah….St. Louie in early September… the Cardinals, Bar-B-Que, historic rail station hotel…and HEAT….a cross between a humidor and schvitz bath….almost did not make the trip as majordomo Deer sprinted in front of me across crazy I-91 in Springfield ,Mass on my way to airport. I somehow jerked every which way around the big boy, but the guy in the Maserati who was passing on my left at about 100 mph smacked him sideways and then got clipped by four cars trying to stop or get around….this happened all around me, while I continued to chat with The Nave on the speaker phone…so right now, decidedly better on avoiding highway accidents than on shit flow…

And then there is the Jewish Fish Monger (Trademark ©)…who has begun an all-out assault on internet dating with a number of crazed outings in the last few weeks…apparently the action has picked up since he switched from Match.com to a new site called “Plenty of Fish”….I could not make this up……

After getting back from my travels quite late on Friday night, we made the trek down to Brattleboro yesterday to meet up with Ry, Lauren and the one and only Quinn -baby…..returning Olaf The Circus Dog to them after his stay at summer camp…..in our one week with him, Olaf totaled 1743 fetches of the lamb – chop squeeze toy, fourteen miles of scooting around the house standing on his back legs, 19 lost skirmishes with Grace the Cat and managed to gently bite six people in the ass…all while leaving adoring masses everywhere we took him….Lucy seems content to have reverted to being an only child…

And Brattleboro…well, let’s just say the 60s are alive and well in southern Vermont….a climate change march, an LBGQ (did I miss something?)bicycle rally, at least 65 patchouli -scented woman in caftans and paintings of stoned cows at every corner…in the spirit of the whole thing, we made a detour to the Hemporium on the way home to pick up a bit of medicinal oils…Brattleboro is a bit far-fetched even for Vermont…..

So…..overcast and quite cool Sunday morning….time to move on to weekly water dumping outside, and researching places to take our laundry…and it looks like a major nap day, before meeting up with the Java Baba royalty couple for dinner……………….so keep on shaking it………………………………..until we meet gain….

Papi (five weeks and counting)

Steaks & Chops 1979

Happy Labor day weekend fellow workers:

“Until you forget everything, You will never live in your heart”……………………………………………………………………………..Ashtavakra Gita

“When you have to make a choice and you don’t’ make it, that in itself is a choice”……………………………………………William James

“Be THE Ball”……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
.Caddyshack

“Hey! Get back indoors!
Whatever you were doing
could put an eye out.”………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….Haikus for Jews

One day in August you wake up and drive down the mountain and suddenly the Green Mountains are a bit less eye-popping green…..and a few trees are turning light brown or yellow…and behold, a red maple starts to pop with its luminosity….and then you are up on another morning and the ground has a light glaze on it….and the full moon is surrounded by bulbous , puffy clouds, and its maybe a harvest moon of sorts….and you think maybe it’s time to close a window at night…AND…this is summer turning into Autumn in the mountains.

So- its suddenly Labor Day and that used to be the official end of summer when we were kids….before the ice cap stared melting from climate change (yes, Donald , we have climate change)..….but now, we are expecting to be back in the 90s some this week, before going back to dipping into the 30s at night. Change is in the air…and on the ground…….

We continue to wait for the shit-solver to show up in shinola….almost three weeks and counting with our clogged Septic system and hoping he may deign to cross the ancient bridge this week…..meanwhile, back at the ranch, we continue (under the watchful eye of the Mountain Queen) our vigilance in being shower- less, laundry-less, dishwasher-less….one flush a day, dishwashing in a pan. Had our last guests of August this week, with a two night visit from our kids, Ryan and Lauren and cutest baby in the world….little first granddaughter, the mighty Quinn ( see the photo gallery for Quinn adventures)….and I think they snuck in a few extra flushes when the Mountain Queen was not looking, but no showering to speak of…..and now, we have Airbnb guests for two nights…whom we lecture as part of the arrival tour, on the ecology of water savings for our dehydrating planet….and then require to sign a blood oath to limit themselves to four minute showers and no flushing until the bowl is near the top, regardless of what sort of matter is in the bowl….this is, apparently , another facet of mountain life……

Since this is the dominant matter clogging up our life…I’ll make short shrift of the rest of the week in review (well, short for me …and shrift for you)………………….

We continue to escape the hotter days and no AC with drives up to the mountain dirt roads for walks in the shade (all improbably seem to be uphill) and a little mountain viewing….the surrounding mountain dirt roads are endless, with the quaint and lovely old Vermont houses surrounded by trashy trailers with snarling dogs….

Jenn continue to embrace becoming a true Vermonter…this week she worked her organic garden volunteering, participated in some shyster lawyer focus group ($70 and pizza), cleaned the house of the local piano-man, cleaned our house four times for various guests, and presided in her role as the Empress of the community association…..she also schlepped me out last night to volunteer at the community supper benefiting our local historical museum (“gimma more ham, gimma more bread”….)

While she was off at some meeting or other, I spent an evening at the home of the Jewish Fish Monger, who made homemade pizza and we sat on the flea infested couches with the big old drooling dog watching reruns of the latest Sox victory…did get a load of required laundry in there, which Jenn felt required a second laundering due to sanitary conditions….

The kids arrived on Thursday night (and got the ecology lecture) while I was playing the last of this summer’s Belmont Music on the Green with the Folk Club. Friday we spent the day driving up to Middlebury for a brewery tour (I was the designated driver and Quinn escorter, though I cheated a wee bit at the add- on distillery stop)…..stopping for lunch at Mama Corleone’s don’t-miss Italian Deli….arrived back at home to try and get a nap for the exhausted little one, before hoofing into Ludlow for dinner at Mojos café…..All in all, a really nice visit and we got left the door prize of the week (while they are in Maine with Laurens’ family) of having little Mr. Olaf, the amazing circus dog, who tries to ride Lucy around and sleeps on your face…check him out coming on to Gracie the cat…

And, by the way, what are your thoughts on Cable companies??? Let’s vote……….Bomb them___ Annihilate them ___ Gas them___ Never allow them to flush again___

And-just as the kids were getting ready to leave, The Matron of The Inn at Scum Pond, decided to accept two last minute different guests for holiday weekend lodging…ergo…more cleaning, more ecology talks, more smiling…luckily she rejected the request with three toddlers in our water challenged environment…..

So- off to prepare for guests arriving soon, get a new pump into THE POND before the Algae have a joyous reunion….. and take a ride up to the Plymouth Blues Fest…then start three straight weeks of the joy of travel….Yippee, more TSA, more friendly skies, more driving to and fro……..Feh…..Be back soon….Love ya- each and every one…

Papi

Happy Sunday my friends:

“All is one, one is none, none is all”……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….Zen Algorithm

“You have not forgotten to remember; You have remembered to forget”………………………………………………………….Idries Shah

“This is America. We don’t share land here”………………………………………………………………………………………………………….John Dutton (Kevin Costner) in TV Series Yellowstone

“Wet moss on the old
stone path – flat on my back, I
ponder whom to sue.”…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….Haikus for Jews

Well….we are officially running on fumes after a month of travel, music, festivals and guests. Our August social calendar concludes this week with a visit from Ryan, Lauren and our grandbaby, sweet little Quinn..…then , perhaps we can get back to some sort of normalcy…but I doubt it…with a busy work travel schedule for the Fall along with a scourge of Airbnb guests and Baby No-Name due in October….and then the necessary time to stand around and watch the leaves change….

Speaking of which…..began to see the first blooming of reds in the maples this week…..early August in the mountains means foliage…..it won’t be long until we are inundated with color….last night we saw the first really Autumn night sky….ominous clouds shrouding the full moon, the air crisp, burning off in the distance…hot damn…

Had our annual five day visit this week with Sister Jane, who is inclined to mostly sit around it the quiet of the mountains and catch up on her rest…..which was slightly disturbed by the water rationing and minor stench around the house…..as the “our life is water” theme has continued. No pond issues, no rain roof leaks, no broken water lines ….but now….The Shit has almost hit the fan (though not that high yet)…..had our septic tank cleaned out six weeks ago, and it was quite over filled, so were instructed to keep an eye on it (and a nose)……discovered last week that after only six weeks it was back to way over full and close to the proverbial back-up. So we are waiting for the sewer gods to come this week and excavate…if we are lucky they will find an obstruction…. if not, we may be calling some of you about taking us in –given the cost of new septic systems, leach fields, mounds for shit…..who thought all of this stuff? ….can’t we just dump our crap into the stream down the hill?

So, all of this has meant the Mountain Queen had us on strict water rations…..no showers…..pee-ing in a cup….once a day flush (if its yellow, just be mellow/if it is brown, it can go down- Vermont folk wisdom)……washing dishes and selves in a plastic tub…..we relented and let sister Jane take a shower after five days….but only because we don’t need additional smells in the house…….

Speaking of Jane, we picked her on Tuesday at airport down in Manchester, NH…..and came very close to running out of gas on our trip home after a visit to NH beaches (Stu- “I’m not paying $3.00 a gallon, we’ll just go to next exit……is this familiar?)..…..my newest learning is that there are a lot more liquor outlets in NH than there are gas stations….but the late August lonesome beaches were quite nice and the drive home through the Lake Sunapee region in late afternoon, sun drenched, mountain faded green…was…well, fill it in yourself……. we made the requisite stop for Maple Creamees at the joint in Downers…which may be our fifth Creamee stop in two weeks…flaunting ourselves to the lo-carb gods…

More water….we have had record rains for the past month, which is, generally speaking: BAD for the Septic, GOOD for the gardens…and GREAT for THE POND…see its full glory…highest levels of the whole summer…not too late to join us for a murky swim……

And….more Goat….though the Jamaicans are once again gone…apparently the Goat residue is not….and we keep catching Lucy wandering down the hill and returning with goatish bones in her month…she loves Rasta……

And, speaking of Lucy….we went out with Jane for a celebratory dinner in Rutland at Table 24 on Friday night….and arrived back home to find Lucy had devoured most of Jane’s giant bag of Trail mix…..internet research advised us that raisins are apparently quite toxic for dogs…so began an overnight vigil to see if she turned into a coyote or something….but eight teaspoons of hydrogen peroxide (welcomed advice from Vet- daughter-in-law Lauren) resulted in immediate Exorcist-like vomiting…and possibly due to the fact that she has Lab size kidneys and liver in a dachshund body…..resulted in no apparent damage…except to our sleep cycle…..

We dropped Jane back off in Manchester on Saturday morning and spent the rest of the day meandering back…a classic late summer -early fall New England afternoon providing impetus for a dirt road walk along Lake Sunapee and a stop in Claremont, NH for dry goods (maybe some wet) at the tax free Walmart (Live Free or Die)….and we are in our recovery mode once again…thinking about laundry down at the steam…..

For those of you interested in such, here is the link to the Bunty Station show from the Belmont Music on the Green last week. Rough sound and mix, but still full of that Flatlander fervor…hope to have the studio session available to post by next week… http://okemovalley.tv/bunty-station-belmont-green

Insha Allah,

Papi

Greetings fellow travelers:

“Let’s have coffee when you’re’ not bloated”………………………………………………………………………………………………………………Personal ad from Seven Days newspaper in Burlington

“It is very hard to be simple enough to be good”………………………………………………………………………………………………………….Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Here is my secret: I don’t mind what happens”……………………………………………………………………………………………………………Krishnamurti

“Scrabble anarchy
after ‘putzhead’ is placed on
a triple-word score”…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..Haikus for Jews

And…there were zillions more this week, but you can’t eat all your chickens unhatched (!!??!!)…so some we have to save for bit later and some for another Blog day……….We have lived an absolute whirlwind for the last two weeks, and…at our advanced ages (mine more than hers)…are just about out of breath (could mean literally!) …so despite the extraordinary rich amount of material that has been generated here at The Inn at Scum Pond……survival dictates this will be a “moderately” BRIEF (and mostly clean) recounting…………………….

The Jersey Thing…………………No sooner had we gotten back to the mountains, when I took off for parts and Marriotts unknown, completing a three day blitz to Minneapolis (a lot nicer than in January) and Baltimore (a lot hotter than in May)….returned from this, to take off again Saturday morning for an overnight trip to western New Jersey (there is such a thing)…for the second annual reunion of my Bronx childhood posse…..an ethnic extravaganza of eating, drinking, cigars and stories that probably should not be told again in this lifetime…these are guys I have known since we were around six, which amounts to more years than should be written down…five plus hour each way got us back Sunday afternoon in time for the start of their arrival of The Bunty Band boys

The Greasin’ Thing………………not to drift away from the structure of the story….but you may recall the narrative from a few weeks ago about Jenn’s proclivity to get things done thru sweet talk with our local artisans and townspeople (see “Greasin’ the Bowbee from Blog post # 4567). Well, her newest conquest has been with the farmer who provides our unpasteurized milk product- getting him to meet her time demands for overnight milk delivery….this is Farmer Johnson….so now we have graduated to Jenn Greasin’ the Johnson……..

The Naven Thing…………..like clockwork, our dear friend and band member, the Naven, arrived Sunday evening with Lucy’s BFF, Rosie – both taking up residence for the week. Nave is really easy to hang with ..with the possible exception of having to listen to Cubs games on the radio each and every day…but we had a nice dinner on Sunday night, a little hiking and the first of six straight days of BLTs for lunch (Nave brought a shipment of home grown heartland tomatoes)on Monday and then Nave joined for the weekly folk club, which got a little nuts since our founder and leader (a calming influence) has been gone for six weeks. Tuesday we began prepping for the week’s music activities and the Festival, but found time to head down to the Weston Playhouse for a performance of “The Million Dollar Quartet”, featuring an over the top, amazing portrayal of Jerry Lee Lewis, which highlighted the night along with crazy thunderstorms and wiping out a massive eagle in flight on the drive home in the rain

The Johnny 99 thing…….We arrived home to find our second band member, Lloyd (who likes to call himself Johnny 99) passed out on the couch. We had made dinner for him, expecting him by 5, but he apparently rolled in at 9….after an unimaginable 17 hours on the road getting here (he somehow went through most of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania with a quick side trip to Schenectady)……apparently Johnny eschews both GPS and Maps of any kind. We hauled him off to bed for the night. The Johnnie 99 experience is woefully hard to capture in any coherent way that does it justice. He tends to disappear with his beloved pipe for hours at a time and speaks in something approaching tongues……so I’m not going to really try too much to explain…so if you know the legend, no explanation required…for the rest, well, consider coming to the Fest next year to see for yourself. I will say that J-99 did leave us with a string of indelible quotes for the week (some of which even I could not comfortably reproduce), but highlighted by: “Who the F___ cares what a three eyed raven does”…….and……..”F___-off, I’m in Vermont”

The Sound and Electric Waves thing…..Our Music on the Green gig was a big hit….except for the fact that we blew out two sound boards just trying to set up and at one point were forced to play acoustically to a sizable crowd. We eventually got rolling and since we got a late start played well into the dark with the throngs (ok- maybe a little less than throngs) calling for more, until we weren’t sure if there were five or fifty people left…..Johnny 99 got fed up and left the stage to find beer at one point but we soldered on…joined by some gifted percussion player who appeared out of nowhere and then disappeared back into the night…then we had a car that would not start after that…the Grid in the mountains can sometimes s be a bit mysterious…….

The Rock Star Thing….And then we got to go to the local cable access TV station in Ludlow on Thursday and drank bourbon at 10 in the morning…and recorded 12 songs in their very cool studio with both video and audio(we’re like MTV guys now)….we played live to tape acoustic living room music with boom mikes for the instruments…..which produced some manor ranting behavior on our blues number…which you will no doubt be waiting with baited breath to hear…12 songs…four hours… and on to the next endeavor… (tired yet reading this?)

The Fest Thing…….finally arriving at Saturday, after mowing and trimming and prepping and setting up endless chairs, tables and tents…and somehow avoiding a line of major thunderstorms that threatened to bowl over the whole thing…..turned into an amazing day with lots of musicians, food, much drink and tie-dying……we were on stage for most of five hours with various people joining us…..discovered an incredible local talent, Tim, who played with us (where do these people materialize from?)…and then the leftovers/diehards adjourned to a roaring campfire (thanks to the Queen of all things Vermont) and mystical Tim then played for a couple more hours while the peace pipe made its way around…the day was generally a who’s who of Blogville, with (among many): the Jewish Pig Farmers, The Jewish Fish Monger, both the German and Russian spies the ONE Gay Black Man in Vermont, The Massage in the Trailer lady, The Solar Queen. The Organic Mr. Smith and the extended family of 20 Jamaicans from next door who came up from the urban quagmire for the event.…no one wanted to miss being seen the Fest it seems……

The Goat Thing……and, this, I cannot resist. The lovely Vermont Queen often harasses me about what she suggests is some degree of exaggeration in my reporting. One, for instance, is that she feels I tend to stereotyping of the Jamaican clan next door by often inferring that they are out in the yard roasting up goat. I have reluctantly apologized for this in the past….BUT…during the Fest, the clan came up for a while to tie-dye and I asked them if they wanted to have a bite to eat…..to which they replied that they had to go back down the hill to the encampment to finish BAR-B-Q-ING THE GOAT…..Faith has been restored ….and I can now continue stereotyping in with some degree of immunity…..

The Recovery- Please go home now thing…….so the boys all left today, except for The Nave who kindly stayed to drool with us and clean up the mess…..the weather turned overnight and it dawned sunny and very temperate with a hint of leaf change all around……FALL is coming….we are somewhere on the long and winding road to recovery…waiting for the next set of events and visitors…and of course, already planning next year’s magical mystery tour…

And that, my friends, is it in a nutshell….too many Pix, I know…but, who cares….This pasts weeks show and studio recording will be on line and available this coming week and I will post links for those of you so inclined….given the sound issues, not sure how the Green show will sound or look, but I have high hopes for the studio sessions…

Be well and talk back, Ferlin’

Good Yontif to all:

Time has gotten away from me, and resulted in hundreds of ugly spam comments on my website, so thought I better take a few moments to quickly update the legions wondering what has become of their favorite blogger and The Queen…..from the top floor of a Baltimore Marriott, very late at night, after a whirlwind trip to St. Paul for one day and late and delayed flight on to Charm City …..the road has seemed to again be beckoning of late…..

“Dream as if you’ll live forever. Live as if you’ll die today”…………………………………………………………………………James Dean

“Each day you say to yourself: Today I am going to begin”………………………………………………………………………..Jean Pierre De Caussade

“Boom, boom, boom, boom……..”……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….Muddy Waters

“Is one Nobel Prize
so much to ask from a child
after all I’ve done?”………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………Haikus for Jews

So….a quick recap……………………………

The Flatland visit……was a whirlwind three days of non-stop activity. We had three miracles in 12 days: our massive water leak got fixed by the big bad excavators in ONE HOUR on our first day back after months of endlessly running water; BOTH my guitar pickups got working for the first time in ten years, after one of them just fell off the guitar necessitating an emergency trip to the local luthier (just in time for the Bunty station boys to arrive in Vermont next week for a series of gigs)………and in the miracle of the decade…my car broke down mid-last week leaking out all my transmission fluid over the streets of Powell…with nowhere to take it, having only one car and needing to drive up to Toledo the next morning and then home to Vermont…a savior man-child Muslim- to- be showed up out of nowhere, doo-rag on his head, beer in one hand, cigarette in the other and absurdly talked me into letting him fix it……….four hours later he had replaced the radiator and fans and delivered it unexpectedly back to my house….he goes by the name of “Not Yet”….I’ll let you fill in the inferences…..but this was a true miracle and a possible path to sainthood……………….

THE SHOWER (baby, not bathing or weather)….went perfectly and was a moment of beautiful emotional out letting….we had people from Jake’s, Jenn’s and my family all entwined in a wonderful clubhouse setting off a golf course (courtesy of our dear friend, Nancy, who played bouncer at the door for three hours). My nieces and nephew showed up for three days of rural invasion to help out with the blessed event and lent the proceedings a certain level of ethic authenticity…..our granddaughter, baby Quinn (now 14 months) stole the show and everyone’s hearts (along with Tess’ bulging in vitro coming attraction)…and Jenn proved to be the queen of showerdom….how lucky can you be to be joined by five mid-80s or older elders attending? Jake is lucky enough to have three living grandparents….and my long tome friend and mentor, Don Clokey, once again, lent a stately blessing to the event, which he has done to every significant moment of our family’s life since he presided over my marriage in 1986…that’s been a lot of events, Don!………………………….

And then, the mid-summer empty house visit….which this year featured an invasion of Mickeys and Minnie’s , who left their liquid and solid gifts, in every corner of the house….The Queen of the Manse arrived, went to the bathroom and then spent 36 straight hours, cleaning out drawers, doing 30 loads of laundry, and setting traps…..we caught almost a dozen while we were there, and they seemed to have gone away….until we left, and I’m sure they emerged feeling like the house was theirs again………..now I have to point out that we are talking about The Queen of the Animal Kingdom here going Rambo with her wrath on these tiny, adorable creatures…..shamelessly slaughtering them one by one in a frenzy of extinctive behavior….you never really know someone, do you?…..

The return trip to Vermont….was 12 straight hours of mindless driving…broken up only by our little cat, Grace, diving out the car window when we stopped at a Tim Horton drive through….apparently she wanted a latte…and luckily we noticed her prowling the sidewalk before we drove away thinking she was hiding somehow in the back of the car….got to the Mount at 10:30 Sunday night, and had the car unpacked and the house re-settled by midnight…………..like we never left….

I spent this week going back to my road warrior ways with an over the top two day trip to St. Paul and then on to Baltimore…can I mention how much I love airports? Off tomorrow to Philly area for second annual reunion of my child hood Bronx posse (oh, the stories)….and the Band will be here most of next week….…..so, it’s late, it’s late…must go to meet my faith…will try and remount the horse again soon…

Ob-la dee, Ob-la da,

Papi

Mid-summer greetings to all:

“We can’t avoid pain,- but we can transform our response to it”………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….Sharon Salzburg

“Dahling…Is there anything more boring than being banged at The Ritz”………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………Unknown European Bourgeois

“We were lying in post-coital bliss when he came crawling in through the hotel window….while the package of meat thawed in the bathtub”………..You’ll have to guess this one

“Jewish triathlon–
gin rummy, then contract bridge,
followed by a nap.”…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….Haikus for Jews

Well, its ben an eventful week in the mountains….and now…Sunday rainy day, after a week of magnificent mountain weather….time to sit and ponder. Spoiler alert!…off to the flatlands for a two week mid-summer visit on Tuesday, so chances are no blogging for next couple of weeks…unless the Midwestern spirit unexpectedly strikes…..

The week kicked of last Sunday with our goodbyes to the Dutch and Duchess…sending them off to Fenway Park to see the Sox, where they scored cheap scalped tix after the second inning and texted us their glee…Sox won on a walk off homer by who may be the only Dutch born player in the big leagues…what serendipity…..we then headed over to Belmont village for annual MT. Holly Daze celebration, where Jenn presided over the festivities in her role as the Queen of Mt. Holly, while Stu slaved over the blazing hot grill, cooking dead animals to perfection for three hours in 90 degree heat…and got dragged (literally) into community tug of war….which later required icing of all major joint and muscle groups…….

And, while we were away, the Jamaican clan showed up next door for their continued assault on rehabbing the condemned property….. this was a record turnout with at least a dozen burly Rasta’s working on the house and yard while the woman folk roasted what appeared to be goats (had to check for Lucy’s whereabouts momentarily) in the front year….Mt. Holly is going to be a lot more multi-cultural in the near future…….

Made my monthly excursion up to Waterbury-Stowe area this week for the governors ‘council meeting….and an unnecessary, but welcome, night at the only Marriott within a hundred miles…..Driving up last stretch on way there on I-89 you glide from the mountains down into the valley of God surrounding the state capitol of Montpelier and all of a sudden you have Greens to the right, Adirondacks to the left and Canadian Laurentians straight ahead….on a drop dead gorgeous summer day, it leaves you speechless…..this month’s meeting was in the old section of state office complex, where the 18th century state hospital used to be….filled with tumultuous ghosts…..my co-chair on the Jurisdiction committee is a retired Vermont Supreme Court justice, who is the second coming of The Church Lady from Saturday Night Live…which is hard to ignore…..preettttty uptight…..but in the midst of our meeting this week, she told a story of seeing the first live performance of The Band is 1968 at Winterland in San Francisco and rattled off all their entire set list from that date 50 years ago…which has led me to reevaluate my perceptions of Vermonters…..not always quite what they seem…………………

Thursday night, my old friend Feel (that’s Phil to you flatlanders)showed up for a weekend visit from Jersey…which set us off into a maelstrom of activity until this morning. Within minutes of his arrival, we regressed to our 1970s ways and were downing full glasses of 30 year old scotch….and buzz in tow , headed into Belmont for our first music on the green of this summer, which featured the Jewish Fish Monger’s duet group….then on to Ludlow for a three hour supper at the Homestyle Hostel…after some more wine, we just had them bring us the first five things on the menu…and then late night catharsis back home….

Friday dawned bright an beautiful, and we left the Garden Queen for her last day preparations for THE Garden Tour ..and set off to Lake Nineveh for kayak with Lucy, who refused to stay in either craft and spent two solid hours swimming the circumference of the 600 acre lake and whining the whole time in between snorting water out of her mouth….home for short crash, quick dinner prepared by the Queen on Garden break, and off to Weston Playhouse for an absolutely incredible rendering of West Side Story…..27 actors/singers/ dancers on the small stage and voluminous orchestra sequestered in the basement…..simply awe inspiring…when you’re a jet, you’re a jet all the way………

Saturday arrived with a another God-like day, and Phil, Lucy and I managed to get up and out of the house before the Garden Tourists descended on us…leaving Jenn once again covered in mulch (since 6 am!)…. we hit the Dump for Saturday drop off where the Walrus Dump King, Kevin, embraced me and told Phil how much he loved me……he queried about why Jenn was not there, so I told him I had traded her in for my new husband, Phil, and he quit embracing me…though he indicated if we are going to be gone all day, be could pay Jenn a conjugal visit…..after a trip to the post office (everyone in MH is either at the dump or the PO on Saturday morning) we went down to Ludlow to the Café Delight for an hour and a half breakfast (it’s cheap and EVERYONE was there), then off to Weston for Phil to buy his wife, Mo, birthday tchotchkes at the Vermont Country Store….two hours of dirt road driving and then a hike down to the magnificent Ice Caves, where it goes from 80 to 50 degrees in minutes….Creamees in Wallingford and then home to crash….

We finished the night with our monthly debauchery with our favorite Shanty Irish friends , John and Lydia, up at their mountain estate….which was…well…unfit for description in family friendly writing , as usual…..you just have to be there to grasp the experience….. we brought them a dinner Jenn made of brisket and all the fixings plus Rhubarb cake for dessert ….which was a total assault on my purported low-yeast/low carb/low sugar diet….my answer to the mad scientist Doctor for the last three days is “Worse, Worse and Worse”…..but I do plan to get back on the wagon by day’s end…..

Put Phil in the car and on the way to New Jersey this morning….and will be working on recovery….

It has been e beautiful week here in the mountains….and now that the guests, friends and Garden Tourists have come and gone….. it is time to listen to the frogs and contemplate the slow way of life that rainy days bring….

Hallelujah to all,

Papi

Greetings Fellow Travelers:

“Take thou also unto thee wheat and barley and beans, and lentils and millet and fitches, and put them in one vessel, and make thee bread thereof etc.”…………………………………………………………………………………………………From label of Ezekiel 4:9 yeast free bread (or from The Bible-your choice)

“ Thoughts are the shadows of our feelings- always darker, emptier, and simpler”…………………………………………..Friedrich Nietzsche

“How can I begin anything new with all of yesterday in me?”……………………………………………………………………………..Leonard Cohen

“Lovely nose ring –
excuse me while I put my
head in the oven.”…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….Haikus for Jews

A week of “Quoting” in the mountains…………………………………………………………………….

“We gotta get outta dis place”…… After a few days of working the land and THE POND…..we decided it was time for a Sunday drive ….and set out to deliver and hang the posters for the MT. Holly Daze celebration today….so we chased summer around the Quaint mountain towns of region; circling through East Wallingford, Weston, Londonderry, Landgrove and Peru (Vermont, that is) ……….stopping for short walks along the way and emulating Lucy as she stopped to literally smell the roses…we call this the “Quaint village tour”….”Quaint” may be an understatement…………

“Look at the size of that F____r”………….we have inherited a bull-goose size “House Toad”, who has emigrated from The Pond, apparently seeking asylum from Pond oppression, outside our front door……we welcome immigrants here and believe they enhance our community…..and Lucy has failed to notice he/she as of yet……………………………

“What happened to all the women”…..on Monday Folk Club was a boys night only……apparently a memo circulated amongst the folkie woman to stay away en masse (a “Me-Too” move?)….with only the men there it becomes decidedly testosterone-ish…..and the volume goes up several decibels….plus we have a new folkie member-an acquaintance of mine from the Gym on the mountain, who is an interesting guitar virtuoso, brain- damaged surgeon, who claims to have played with Richard Thompson????….really???….

“How depressing was that?”……we went to our second play of the season at the Weston Playhouse, “Fun House” …and our first in the sparkling new “Weston Playhouse at Walker Mountain”- a year round arts facility built last year after a ten year campaign to extort money from theater goers…..the play was very well done, but they should have handed out Zoloft at the door….the venue is quite the upgrade over the former Weston ”second theater” , which was housed at the local Rod and Gun Club (really)…………………………….

“I think I made a FOPA”…………..Jenn describing a mistake in what she believed to be the French phrase spelling…..(I think she did, no????)………

“I’ll have whatever she’s having”………….The gym at Okemo ski area has been getting a lot busier since the summer people arrived en masse, I think there were as many as 6-7 people at a time there this week (I often have the building to myself)….I was working out on the bench press one day this week, when I started hearing this moaning and groaning, which began to increase in volume, frequency and intensity……eventually culminating in a crescendo of orgasmic screams…..needless to say I perked up and scanned around to find the source- a young woman in purple spandex from whence this emanated……she continued to express herself this way as she moved on to stretching (quite limber) and weight lifting (really strong)……all of which was pretty distracting my working out……I finally gave up and went outside to jog five miles in 90 degree heat and take an hour long cold shower……..

“We gotta get outta dis place #2”-……We decided we needed to have an overnight away- so Thursday, which was a God-day in the mountains (72, sunny, no humidity)…we loaded the car with food and gear for all eventualities and set out to parts unknown….and spent 13 hours driving around southern Vermont and then on to the Hudson River byway…..in search of a gourmet meal and quaint lodging………by 6 pm, we had decided we did not like any of the lodging offerings since the tourista were out in full force, and circled back hone arriving around ten pm…..we also stopped for a meal of burnt meat loaf and something resembling roast pork at a little “trading post” underneath the Champlain Bridge (connecting NY and Vermont)…..since we were gone 13 hours, used a full tank of gas, hit two states and took four walks…this apparently adds up to an overnight in the mountains……

“Better, worse or the same” … I have to call in dally to the mad scientist- doctor (Frasier’s brother Niles) up at Dartmouth, who I am seeing for some unknown condition that may be Rheumatic/Lyme- related/Yeast-induced). When I call and try to tell him how I am doing , what symptoms I have, what is the progress….he reminds me of “the rules”…..”Better, same or worse than the day before”….nothing more, nothing less…the cure may be worse than the condition….

“Ve like to zee the Red Zox”…..we had our third Airbnb guests of the season this weekend – a lovely young couple from Holland (Utrecht), who are avid baseball fans…..Jakob and Annemieke ( I called her Anne Marie for short)…..they already had plans to see the Yankees in New York and wanted to see the Sox today in Boston…so we sent them down to wait until the second inning and scalp tickets when the scalpers get desperate (one hopes)…they left us a cookie and a love note….gotta love the Dutch……

And, finally………………………………..

“I need another bush and I’m not sure we really need a pickup”…….The Garden and Bedding Queen as she prepares for the annual Mt. Holly Garden Tour showing next week (after spending 430 hours in garden preparation) and after seeing a Subaru Impressa and Kia Seoul listed on line…. we do keep busy in our heads in the mountains……

And, that, my friends, is about it….gotta go get ready to man the fiery grill at MH Daze…an decide whether I am better, same or worse for tomorrow’s call….See ya…….

Stu

Greetings Patriots of all ilks:

“Better you should close the club soda”………………………………………………………………………………..Stu in response to Jenn offering a beer after she did not put the top back on the now flat club soda bottle

“ I live, which is the main point”…………………………………………………………………………………………….Heinrich Heine

“A flower dos not think about competing with the flower next to it. It just blooms”…………..Zen Master

“Hard to tell under
the lights–white Yarmulke or
male-pattern baldness?”…………………………………………………………………………………………………………Haikus for Jews..

Pens Pals in the mountains……………….I received a beautiful book of poetry this past week form my pen pal, Sherilyn, who lives in Winnipeg (north of the wall). I met Sherilyn in 1978 when Phil and I were traipsing around the country and we spent a few weeks together in the Pacific Northwest….though I have never seen her since, we have exchanged letters for more than 40 years, with astonishing regularity (I have hundreds of letters hidden away in a box, which my kids will someday come upon as some extraordinary panorama of our times)..….even now , we continue to exercise this somewhat archaic art form and have not resorted to e-mail….40+ years, and still poetry!

Birthdays in the mountains….we spent last Sunday in the 95 degree heat at a birthday party for our friend, Linda Miller…..which meant hours floating in their pond in rafts with little drink holders, while Lucy ran around the pond in circles barking at us…..this is apparently how one deals with heat with no air conditioning

Kayaking in the mountains…..we got out this week, to escape the seven straight days of 90 degree plus heat, to lovely Lake Nineveh, for our first Kayak trip of the season….. we often try to stay apart so Lucy will stay in one boat, but eagle eye fleagel spotted me from all the way across a pretty big lake…and dove in from Jenn’s craft …..swimming after me for the better part of two hours, with her little life vest and her little legs churning and her snout barely above water – snorting the whole time…..a few other kayakers seemed amazed, though I’m not sure if they were impressed or suspected puppy- abuse…..Of course, on the way back, we had to make dirt road, over-mountain detour , to find Cremees….before all crashing back at home (Lucy slept for six hours!)

Fresh Milk in the mountains…..Jenn has struck up a relationship with nearby Farmer Johnson, where she leaves her own personal jug to be filed with newly milked cow stuff a few times a week…since she was busy with the town yenta-ing job, she asked me to pick up the filled up milk jug for her….which created quite a stir amongst the group of farm-wives (how many does he have?) when I drove in with my foreigner plates to pick up the milk…..after a quick cavorting with their baby heifers, I was able to locate the milk shed and the storage fridge …..and return home with the anointed milk…..though, apparently, I had forgotten my glasses ( and it is DARK in the milk shed), since the next day we realized I had someone named “Gerber’s” milk and jug….which looked pretty close to reading “Jennifer” to me…and does the Gerber get some kind of special milk, anyway?

Sunday morning visits in the mountains…..The Jewish Pig Famers’ wife just showed up with her dogs for a visit, and Jenn was telling her about The Blog, as I was mid-composing…she asked to be on the list, but Jenn was dissuading – her describing the nature of my stereotypical descriptions….using herself as an example of being the object of my stereotyping…to which the JPFW responded…” men just have to give us shit about what they don’t understand”….this is apparently Vermont pig farmer wisdom….

Fourth of July in the mountains……We braved the 96 degree heat to head into Belmont for the infamous eight minutes of Parade….with Queen Jenn on her community association float..…After the first vehicle, with the “Grand Marshall”, who is our local state senator..…came the wandering donkey, who proceeded to shit all over the parade route…which the state senator hastily cleaned up with a shovel…which I believe is a real example of government at its best…..From there, we went in to REALLY hot Rutland to check out the “Giant” flea market at the state fairgrounds…..which turned out to have four tables of fish wives hawking semi-voodoo dolls and other Vermont relevant tchotchkes..….then on to find shade for a walk up a dirt road at White Rocks Recreation area, and after much debate over a picnic lunch, a decision to take our first trail walk of the summer…so despite the tick-hysteria, we put on the Off (what a sentence, no?) and did a two mile walk straight up….then back home where Lucy slept another six hours….

And…Gardening in the mountains…my Garden Queen had another three yards of mulch delivered for her garden overhaul project ( more mulch than it might seem…BIG pile) …..and we are on a trimming, lopping, edging, digging whirlwind leading up the Mt. Holly Garden Tour in few weeks…Lucy and I find places in the barn to hide while this activity is going on…and I just booked a few Marriott nights in anticipation of the Tour preparation heating up……

Dining in the mountains…..this week had us meeting the King and Queen of Java Baba-land at the legendary Country Girl Diner in Chester for their Friday dinner special menu ..…open until eight (usually closes at 3), eight specials on a chalkboard (only five choices left when we arrived at 6:30) and cash only ( we had bills rather than change this time)…….it’s a wonderful experience……mostly gravy-based, in a classic 1939 Mountain View Dining Car (you can look it up)…..then on Sunday night, we made the pilgrimage to Rutland, to our beloved shrine, East, for the traditional Sunday supper…..we now have a permanent table reserved for us there…

Conflict in the mountains….THE POND is once again dissipating as the heat of summer goes on…with little in the way of feeder water supply, so we are again considering tapping into the old spring up the mountain and running 1500 feet of pipe down to the Pond…..which the diaper cleaning people who owned our place for 50 years did……A Connecticut mensch bought the adjoining zillion acres a few years ago and is building his pleasure dome up there, and the spring is on his land….when I mentioned the idea to him last Fall, he immediately pointed out that it was HIS LAND…….but we have now found that the deed to our property includes a right of way for the springs up there….so there, Mr. Connecticut…..you go back to the burbs….The process would still involve all kinds of piping, gravity, coupling , heating and dowsing…..so we may just pay the fire department to come with truckloads of water for THE Pond..…stay tuned on this one…has the potential to be Hatfield and McCoy like………

And…finally… though there is much more I could illuminate you with….Pet-acquisition in the mountains….So, our friend, Linda, the French Master Chef’s betrothed, decided it was time for another cat (I think she already had 14) and cat procurement is tricky in the mountains, as most of them seem to be going to Chinese restaurants (remember the recently closed-by-the health – department Chin-Some -Young Guy in Bellows Falls) so she found one being deported from the Deep South to NYC…and on Saturday, drove 5 ½ hours to midtown Manhattan to pick up the little ball of fur, and then 5 1/2 hours back (we declined to accompany her despite repeated pleas)…..we clearly love our pets in the mountains…..

And……that…my friends…is clearly more than enough…..

Papi

Happy Summer Ya’ll:

“You must learn to wait properly”………………………………………………………………Shoji Yamada

“He’s more Kasich than Kasich”…………………………………………………………………. Stu responding to Jenn about Vermont’s Governor Phil Scott, who is hard to pin down on political leanings and quite unpredictable

“Everyone should have themselves regularly overwhelmed by nature”……..George Harrison

“Left the door open.
for the Prophet Elijah.
Now our cat is gone.”………………………………………………………………………………….Haikus for Jews

“I’ve really been spending time in my head”………………………………………………..Big Papi in mulling about this week’s Blog style

Off the teletype……………………………………………….Dateline: Mt. Holly………………………………….Sunday July 1st ……………………………….Rat-ta- ta …..Ra- ta- ta ……………………………….Vrrrooommmmmm………..

HOT………….95 yesterday in the Mount……………………………..no end in sight…………no AC around……..what you gonna do?……..3 hours in The Pond Saturday…………four buckets of Algae…..VEEY CLEAN….Very cool……

Shade…………………..first walk of the summer up the Gates Trail……Spring Cistern found….how to get water down the mountain into The Pond….possible Hatfield and McCoy showdown with Connecticut mansion builder on adjoining land, whose spring is it?….black flies go nuts…ooh-aahh……..Lucy finds BIG dogs (horses) and thinks “life-mates”…………………….

“Greasin’ the Bowbee”…………making nice with the Mount road crew supervisor (Mr. Bowbee) to get them to build a temporary bridge replacement over the stream from Rt. 103 to our house…rather than make our road a thru road for egress…and us wind up with another house next to a “parkway” for the Belmont crowd shortcut to Rutland….Jenn working on skimpy outfits and sweet talkin’ skills with “The Bowbee”

De-shitting the place…….How many A-1 Septic services can there be in the small mountain hamlets…more than you would think….

Music in the Greens…..summer lawn music starts….Castleton College mountain setting picnic night….”The Hot Club of Saratoga” (really, Saratoga!!)….like 1930s Paris Hot Club with Django Reinhart and Stefan Grapelli…..very ambitious….all bands love Lucy……

Cell phone plans are a sham – how can you pay hundreds of dollars and run out of minutes? …..five conference calls in one day must do it…along with children buying houses and having babies……………………….and what about the daily dropped calls?

POT….legal as of today in Vermont…but you cannot buy it or sell it….get out the garden hoe, mama….

GOLIATH………..Billy Bob Thornton…. Amazon……check it out……….quite the ride

Jenn- many friends now in the Mount…..pulling organic weds, remodeling bathrooms, building Fourth of July floats…..many home visits for wine tasting…taking over the community building…thinking about a run for the House District……..Jenta-Yenta………..the queen of Mulch…………………………..

Stu- on the anti-social side….no friends to speak of except those who cannot ever make any plans…..boo-hoo….BUT….many daily acquaintances….. my “Circle of Care”…..……one day last week: mingling with the Gym matrons at Okemo…….my free lunch mama bear at Java-Baba……the inside contact at the General store leaking all the secret news of the Mount…… the postmistress who gives me daily prizes…. and the librarian who gets books for me from all over New England and leaves them out for me to let myself in to the library for 24 hour a day pickup……..who needs friends-with needs anyway?….though why is clearly a complex psychological question??????

Tessa-Bear…..six months down and three to go…might make baby-date yet…….

AIRBNB- had a last minute hang-gliding guest this week…..was here for 12 hours and I saw him for five minutes of gliding regalia…..he left and now we have two baby chicks, that The Mulch Queen is fostering, living in the guest room..…which is keeping Lucy up and vigilant most of the night…….

More Music…More Heat….Friday night – at ski hill – free concert series……young bands playing 80’s hits……bad expensive Bar-B-Que……..visiting Jerseyites with wine spritzers…..two zillion dogs searching for ground scraps…..sunset on the hillside………………….

Weston Playhouse….first show of season……….Our Town….New Hampshire’s Thornton Wilder’s 1937 gem which was the first show presented at the new Weston theater that year……unannounced lead role of The Stage Manager done by Christopher Lloyd (Jenn: “don’t we know this guy from somewhere?”)

Sunday-Sunday…….Tasks for the day: spread Mulch before it is 90 degrees…. get all our weekly laundry done because electric rates are lowest on the day of the Lord (why is that?)…. jump in the Pond…find air conditioning….finish the endless Blog….

Blah, blah, blah, blah…..I need the remedy……Feliz Naveda………………all that glitters isn’t gold……..it’s all right mama…….Buenos Diaz……

Papi

Aloha:

“Let yourself become the space that welcomes any experience without judgment”……………………………………………..Tsoknyi Rinpoche

“Twenty thousand roads I went down, down, down…….and they all led me straight back home to you”………………Gram Parsons

“I closed the box and put it in the closet. There is no real way to deal with all that we lose”…………………………………..Joan Didion

“Jewish triathlon–
gin rummy, then contract bridge,
followed by a nap.”………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………Haikus for Jews

I’ve been thinking about “sound bites” this week….which seem to be ubiquitous in our culture……for instance “ Make America great again”, “We will build a wall to keep them out”, “I always look out for the little guy”, “No new taxes”, “I’m also honored to have the greatest temperament that anybody has.” ….well, you get the picture….so here are my own annotated sound bites for our week in the mountains…..

“I’ll bring the gefilte fish”………The Jewish Fish Monger in preparation for our dinner party last weekend, that featured all of our mountain chums, including the Jewish Pig Farmers, the German intellectuals (German was actually spoken at the event), the trippy Organic Farmers, The Boston Shanty Irish Southies, The Russian spy….and a few new ringers thrown in…the food was great, the whiskey was flowing and the conversation was titillating and bizarre…a good time was had by all…..and we were exhausted by the time they all left near midnight

“This belt will work fine”………Famous last words of the parts guy at the mower repair shop when we got a new belt for the tractor last fall, which took three peoples’ strength to stretch and get on… and which had the mower blades running even when not engaged…and which snapped early into our new season…which led to us doing it all over again…well, we’re not really farm people, ya know…

“Boredom is the lack of quality relationships”……after staying at home with no work travel for 6-7 weeks and Jenn and I hovering over each other 24/7)…..was thinking some Marriott stays were a dire necessity…and then the phone started ringing and the e-mails started coming….and now I am suddenly trying to decide who to answer…..and whether air travel is all that desirable…famine and feast

“I really need a snack”….our newest yard boy, Ian, after about ten minutes of weed whacking, most of which was spent kicking and screaming at the whacker……apparently Jenn had set the dangerous precedent of feeding him at regular intervals when I am not here. I asked him if he could use some bread and water……a bit of a difference from the hearty Midwest farm-yard boy types we are accustomed to

“We have the Presidential suite ready for you”……The Marriott front desk at my arrival at the Fairfield Inn in Waterbury (Vt.) this week, for my monthly meeting of the Governor’s Council for Children….apparently the ongoing perks of being a “Titanium” rewards member (Platinum actually, but Jenn can’t remember that and thinks I am Titanium) ……it was pretty nice with a fireplace and such….though I kept wondering which presidents might have stayed there, but was reassured to consider that the Donald would never stay at a Fairfield inn……It was a beautiful drive- day up there on glorious Route 100… a little nap…a little workout…a little jog…a little Thai food…a little hot tub….the complete Stu gets away package

“Take a load off, Fannie”………..Left Waterbury after my meeting Thursday morning and hooked up with Jenn in the mountains of New Hampshire for a drive down to the Boston area(Shirley, MA) to the Bull Run- a 200 year old stagecoach inn that has unbelievable music seven nights a week. We caught up with The Weight Band—who are a band that does The Band, and has five guys who at one time or another actually played with The Band…….. including the great jim Weider on guitar, who replaced Robbie Robertson in 1983 when The Band resumed touring after the finale of the Last Waltz in in 1976. . The food was shockingly good at this erstwhile traditional supper club, we had great table mates (very, very Southie , indeed) and you could close your eyes and hear Levon and Rick Danko singing the great Band catalog. We stayed at a nearby Springhill Suites (two Marriotts in a row……got my fix) and shared the hotel with a huge wedding party, which meant we were up most of the night listening to drunken conversations and squeaking bed springs…but who is complaining….

“Here comes the sun”…..Last night we went over to the “Mount Hollywood” barn studios to hear a barn concert featuring Walter Parks- who is generally regarded as the King of the swamp guitar, and spent many years as a sideman for Richie Havens. We and the Mt. Holly stoners were treated to the very eccentric guitar and vocal ramblings of this very tall, very aesthetic, very temperamental NYC- via Florida swamp- player, who truly channeled Haven’s voice in the lower register and then sang other worldly in the higher registers. Maybe 50 people there to hear the trio which featured local blues guitar legend , Rick Reddington, on bass. When Walter did “Freedom”, Haven’s Woodstock anthem, it seemed like having the late great Richie in the room. This is music in the mountains…………………

“All the news that fits”….and that is where we are….for now…..

Happy trails to you….

The Chuckster