Thursday, August 30, 2012

Gypsies On The Move

At Last !  After the good rain from the other day, we have another Bluesky day with a gentle breeze so fresh and void of humidity. And it is good to be home again after a wonderful little trip in the Gypsy Wagon.  

We traveled all the 'old fashioned' roads this time as we drove up scenic old Route 100 and some other cross over roads to reach Bristol, where we found friends to spend part of the day with.  After a nice visit and a great dinner at a favorite restaurant of theirs...good foodies too... we spent the night in their yard, camping in the Gypsy. We were awakened at midnight by the rain on our roof, a welcome sound as we are really needing the water here.  And a good rain it was for a few  hours.  By morning it had passed, leaving part of the world a bit greener and happier looking.  The sun was slow to peek out but finally showed up through the rising fog as we headed out, easterly, across the state.



Our friends and a view from their back patio


This rock with the Lord's Prayer on it, is on Route 116 as you leave the village of 
Bristol, VT.  The story has it that a man carved it here thinking it might cause the 
team drivers to use better language when urging their teams on as this was a place
where they seemed to really curse and swear at them.   


We took Route 17, a route we had never done before up and up and up some more through lots of hair-pin turns as we went over the mountains and passed by Mad River Glen Ski area and through the Appalachian Gap on down, to wind our way northeast to Woodbury.  Here we found some more good friends above the lake there. What a treat to tour their garden!  Just full of great veggies and flowers.  Also had a tour and admired the new chicken castle...large and roomy, cozy and safe from the fox.

Finally leaving, we backtracked a few miles and set off to Chelsea where we had a great little lunch at Dixie's II, a folksy place with good down home cooking.  The fresh homemade corn chowder was something to brag about! After filling the tank and our tummies, we headed over the hill to Vershire to make a quick stop to visit our friends on Darling Hill before heading on home.

It was good to get home again after a wonderful little trip, traveling these secondary roads. The weather was cooler, the breeze warm as it wafted in the open windows allowing the sweet scents of late summer to please the senses and stir old memories of other summers, of other years.  Seeing how these strong Vermonters have worked to fix up the devastation after Tropical Storm Irene visited us a year ago to the day, brought  satisfying  feelings.  Seeing the yet to be fixed places, a reminder that we need to be so thankful that we are still here to enjoy another summer.  Things seemed a bit greener in the north and middle of the state than here in the southern end.   Lots of cornfields and haying still going on.  More farms and cattle too.

As we entered our little valley between the mountains and the river, we thought the good rain had made it a greener place than when we left it a couple days before.  Miss Lizzie was glad to see us and either welcomed us back or scolded us for taking so long... hard to tell which, but by the sound of her purring, I think she was pretty glad to see us.

The garden was ready to pick again today, yielding even more zucchini, some pole beans, finally, and cucumbers.  I picked the red tomatoes and made a couple jars of Tomato Spice Jam which is a favorite of mine.  Enough beans for supper tonight and I pulled a big beet with it's greens to cook as well.  The zucchini will wait till cousin Natalie comes to make some relish with me.  She has lots of zukes too so we will make a fun time of making some relish.

Leave with a thought that seems like a good way of life and I'm sure you've heard before.... but it is still good to think on this.
A lovely bouquet of Glads


Live Simply...Love Generously...Care deeply and Speak kindly...For we walk by faith and not by sight!                             Enjoy each other and this lovely end of summer weather.


Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Of Markets and Memories

It's been a long, hot summer and a dry one too.  It seems like an extra busy one for me.  I usually seem to find time to spend in peaceful contemplation but somehow this summer has just flown by.  I've checked off quite a few items on my 'hope to get it done' list for the summer.  Now as I sit and reflect on all this from a shady corner of my front porch, while the crickets chirp, the harvest fly buzzes, an airplane drones overhead as it pulls up a sail plane, and the phone is ...silent.. wow, that IS unusual. The day is a bit cooler, after a wonderfully cool night and morning...only 52 degrees when I poured my coffee earlier today.

The wood is all taken care of from the cutting of the lovely old maple.  There is something artistic about my hubby's woodpile, stacked just so.  We were blessed a few days ago with a much needed rainfall, a gentle one that did some good. The lawn looks greener and the garden says "thank you".

Lots of zucchini, so have to make more relish.  On Sat. I set up my table on the Green for the Community Market and sold several jars of our sweet zucchini relish and some homemade bread as well as a few note cards.  My neighbor had left some of her 'best-o pesto' for me to sell as she was away on vacation.  Friends, Cyndy and Syd brought note cards made from Cyndy's lovely drawings and some beautiful earrings that Syd fashions from feathery fishing flies that he ties. Really nice. So far our market is allowing only hand or home made items, baked goods and garden produce.  Maybe later we will be allowed to sell some flea market items like books and other items of interest.  The chicken BBQ was a big hit, selling out before the market was over.  The music was provided by a lone guitarist who was a big hit with everyone.  We're all hoping this will become a busy, fun market each summer.

The Community Market on the Green

"This and That from Greenbriar Creations"

Angel and her Dad....'finger-lickin' good!'

On Sunday we hosted a family get-together after we all gathered at the cemetary for a short service at the newly acquired family plot and memorial to pay final tribute to our sons, Chip and Matt. Dennis had carved the boys' names in the individual stones marking their spots.  It was a picture perfect day as we all gathered there, three and four generations of family and a few friends. My sweet daughter, Angel prepared a lovely reading and Paul read from the Bible.  The wind tried to interfere with my little flute but a bevy of grandsons made a circle close about me that kept the breeze from the reed long enough to play Amazing Grace. Back at home afterward, we enjoyed a good BBQ with my wonderful son in-law, Paul as the master chef at the grill.  There were salads, corn on the cob, punch and great desserts and ice cream.  So good to have our family together !

So I am making this a week of just relaxing and doing some reading and very little housework.  Probably have to pick the garden and do some more relish and some pickles but that's really just playing.  Hope to take a day trip or two before the summer is all gone.  Maybe next week?  The  'Gypsy' looks so ready to hit the road.   Hope you all will make time to enjoy these final weeks of our summer.   Blessings !

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Harvest Time

Summer is going so fast !  I am thankful for the cooler mornings and the days without so much humidity.  I got outside to do some weed pulling yesterday.  I filled my little garden cart full to overflowing with the pesky things.  It seems the trees and shrubs and just everything has grown at a much faster pace this summer. I can't keep up !  The sun was pretty hot on my back by the time I quit.  I sat for a spell on the patio cooling down and listening to the harvest fly buzzing loudly.  His sound always means to me that the shade is being drawn on summer and so very soon it will be autumn once again.  Green things are beginning to wilt and turn brown here and there.

My garden is finally beginning to produce !   It took awhile this year.  We didn't plant until after the first of June.  I just knew if we did plant in mid May like our neighbor, a big old frost would come along and kill all the tiny little shoots that pop up early.  Well, she has lots of produce from her garden and even a couple of nice big red tomatoes !   I have lots of green ones and lovely pole bean vines and leaves.  There are now a few blossoms showing up so there is hope that we will have beans one day.
(And then I will complain that they produce too fast for me!)

The zucchini is doing great, producing enough for the first batch of the famous "Best ever zucchini relish".  We picked them and set up the grinding operation last night.  Today the house was filled with that sweet tangy aroma of the cooking relish.  The cucumbers are all blossomed and every day I find one big enough to pick and eat.  Beet greens have been delicious.


The muscle behind the grinder.


The results of all that grinding!

I am happy to report that I am off the hook for Jury duty!  All who are selected to be available for a jury draw tomorrow are excused for some reason or other.  This is the third time this has happened.  The second time the case we were to be drawn for was settled out of court.  After the third time for being available and not used, we are dismissed and won't be asked to serve again for some time.  Now I can plan to be away for a few days if we get the urge to go on a little jaunt around the state.

On the 18th of Aug. I plan to take part in the Community Market here in Perkinsville on the Green.  It is something new for the Village and sounds like lots of fun.  Folks with homemade items, whether food or homegrown produce, art or crafts etc. will be setting up their wares.  Meanwhile, a Chicken BBQ will be taking place. These markets will continue each Sat. until into October.  What a great idea!

Well, time for bed.  Sounds good to me after a busy day.    A quote that really settled in my mind and it seems a good place to share it.  I don't know who said it but isn't it so true?

"Whether you give it or receive it,
Forgiveness is music to the soul"

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Eulogy for a Maple Tree

It is a sad time when we must bid farewell to an old friend.  The big old maple at the westerly end of our house had become very, very tall.  It has been growing from a young tree since the day we moved here some 55 years ago...until today.

Sometime in it's youth to mid life years, it's trunk separated and became two, looking sort of like Siamese tree trunks.  Then on its way skyward, each twin developed quite large limbs, some finally becoming larger than the single trunk that rose from the ground. This makes for a very top heavy tree, on both sides!  Each twin put forth so many, many branches making the whole west end of the house shady and cool on hot summer days.

Oh how I hated to see them cut it down!  But it had become a danger to our house and to our neighbor's barn if there came a wind storm one day.
Thankfully there are three maples growing near by, one a young tree and two sapplings.  So some shade will be garnered now and more in later years.  These youngsters look healthy and don't show any signs... yet... of doing the separation act.

I could find only one picture of this old tree.


A poem in honor of the old maple

Farewell Old Friend

Stately Maple, so tall and proud;
Dressed in your summer green gown
Of lovely leaves, that ride the breeze
Of a lazy August afternoon.

A shady spot to while away the day,
Lost in a book of verse,
Or in memories of times long past,
Sipping ice cold lemonade
From a tall blue glass.

No more....after today!
They said you've grown too tall,
A threat now to us all;
So you had to fall
By way of the ax and the saw.

It hurt to see you hewed down;
Your branches fed to the chipper,
Your limbs sawn asunder,
Your tall trunk, now in great chunks.

But you'll not be forgotten,
In spring, I'll recall
watching for your new pink buds;
And surely for your summer shade, I'll pine.

While in Autumn, I'll miss
The bright orange costume you'd don;
And the rustle of your leaves
O'er the late October ground.

When winter comes with it's frosty ways
And we gather by the cozy fireside,
Again I'll remember you, with gratitude, dear old tree
As you burn on the hearth, warming me.

                                                              Dottie Richardson 8/2/2012