Keeping Busy

Oh my,  "the hurrier I go the behinder I get!!"  Somewhere I've heard this very true saying.  It seems like I am just hurrying along so fast this Spring!  Lots of stuff going on in May and now June events have my calendar days filling up fast!
This week is alumni weekend and for a couple months, plans have been forming for a great celebration for our class of '58.  The float is now the most pressing project.  We work on it once a week and this week, two work sessions are scheduled. The parade theme this year is TOYS and we are doing a "Block Party" using building blocks, big ones, and toys from our era, to decorate our float.  We've also built individual blocks big enough to wear (held up by suspenders) as we march along in front of the float.  It is coming along nicely and will be ready for the Saturday morning parade.  Can it really be our 55th class reunion??  Many classmates are planning to attend the Parade, the Banquet and a Breakfast which is being hosted by a very wonderful lady classmate, Diane, at the Fullerton Inn in Chester on Sunday morning.

Spring has truly come here in our valley.  With the nice rains we've had, everything is a lovely lush green and the flowers are all blooming. The veggie garden has been planted and things are up reaching for the sun. It sure is a wonderful place to be.

A Bouquet from my gardens

We made plans for a trip to the Northeast Kingdom for the Memorial Day weekend.  The weatherman was promising nice weather while we were in the planning stage.  We had three stops to make and needed to be sure we could coordinate our visits to convenient times for the folks we wanted to see.  The weatherman was way off in his predictions!!  It was rainy and cold but since plans were in place, we went anyway.  We took the Gypsy Wagon and planned it to be our first camping trip of the season. Things weren't too bad as we reached Lyndonville and enjoyed a morning and lunch with our grandson and wife and the adorable little gr. granddaughters.  We left in the late afternoon to go on north to Barton where we were to stay with cousin Mick and DonnaMae for the night.  No let up in the rain and  the further north we went the thicker that rain became!  We decided to take Rt. 5 instead of staying on the Interstate which gets really high up.  Good thing.... it was soon no longer thick rain but SNOW!!  Now who wants snow the last few days of MAY?   Mick's driveway was pretty muddy with all the rain and nice and greasy with the new snow on top of the mud.  (He lives on TOP of Barton Mt.)  But the little Gypsy Wagon did a good job and got us up there just fine.  By now the wind was howling as well and about and inch of wet snow had fallen.  We got all set up anyway and went inside for a nice visit and yummy supper and a good game of Double King Pead...an old Vermont card game.  Finally at bed time we trudged out to turn on the heater which warms the place up in a jiffy and get ready for a good night's sleep.  Something about listening to the wind on top of a mountain and the splatter of the thick rain lulls you right to sleep as you cuddle beneath the comforter and a warm quilt.

Sunday morning dawned with a heavy gray sky but no more snow.  Still a drizzle of rain.  I like mornings in the Gypsy Wagon as I get first my coffee and a bit later my breakfast served to me in bed. It is sort of a necessity as only one person can do good things in the tiny kitchen at once!

Enjoying breakfast in bed!

                Yes, that is a winter toque atop my head!  But I did get a good sleep and nice breakfast

I had made arrangements to meet my friend from many years ago on Sunday.  For many years I didn't know where she lived and last winter, heard she was back in Vt somewhere in the north.  As it turned out, she lives just a couple miles from where we spent the night on the mountain!  Isn't that amazing??
We found her house and we spent several hours catching up and reminiscing and having a great time. Dennis left us to our chatter and made coffee, read his book and took a nap in the Gypsy Wagon.  We were pretty well visited out and decided to come on home to our valley instead of making our other call which wasn't an appointed one anyway.  By now the rain had ceased and as we came south, stopped for a light supper at the exit 17 P & H truck stop, a really great place to get homemade soup and mile high lemon pie!  So our weekend ended and Miss Lizzie was pretty glad to see us home again.

Catching up and reminiscing 

I've been making a few jars of rhubarb/apricot/pineapple jam since we have lots of rhubarb.  This and the tomato spice jam are my favorites.   Rhubarb crunch is a great dessert too.  Quite like apple crisp.  The comfrey is abundant as were the dandelions this year so I have made dandelion salve and am drying the comfrey and plantain for salve making later.  

At the end of June, Dennis will be retiring and the Fix-It Shop will close.  It seems to be time.  He won't be just lazing around, can you imagine that!!  He will keep busy as it is his nature to do that.  Hopefully we will get in some good kayaking too.  And we have a few little trips and places to see that we haven't made it to yet.  Son in-law, Paul will retire the same day and it will be so nice to have them back home in their house here in VT.  He too will be busy and have a new business, tax preparation, with an office at home.  So many changes.  Someone once said, " The only permanence we know is change."   How true.  Change can be good and we hope it will be good for all of us.

Quote for the day:      

The grand essentials of happiness are:  Something to do, Something to love, and Something to hope for.