Last Looks

Oh Vermont, ours has been a forty plus year love affair which I still cling to even while I prepare to move west. Happy lake time runs from May into October and brings a constant treat. Diving in takes precedence on most afternoons, yet each time I consider myself lucky. There are more than 800 lakes and ponds in Vermont, one more spectacular than the other: I have done my best to swim in lots of them, although I have found favorites they are all fabulous. Of course there is more to my love than one season’s occupation. There is the richness of green hills against the brilliant blue sky, the sweet smell of yellow flowers that run Spring through Fall, as well as the stark black and white beauty of Winter. All an integral  part of me now.

As the movers lift the last of our boxes into their truck, I am certain it will all come with me.

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What’s in a Name?

What’s in a name? That which we call a rose/ By any other name would smell as sweet.” Shakespeare’s Juliet was right, neither her love nor the season of flowers depend on a name, but oh my goodness these last days of May is extraordinarily sweet. I invite you to scroll through this post and linger over each botanical image. You will be elevated. You might even be inclined to find your own blooming spring beyond your doorway.

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The Path of Totality

Sometimes you really are in the right place at the right time, as we northern Vermonters found ourselves to be on April 8: right in The Path of Totality. As much as I thought I knew everything there was to know about seeing a solar eclipse, it proved otherwise, just mind blowing really. And there really is no way to describe the totality of the experience, it is just too staggeringly extraordinarily awesome (in the truest of that word’s definition). The whole 360 experience of changing light, the temperature drop, the suddenly visible planets Jupiter and Venus, the chatter of bird song, and of course The Dark Side of the Moon that seemed to be playing from everyone’s speakers. Totally cool.

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