Being Vermont
There’s a few things we’ve done to symbolically acknowledge our move back to Vermont:
1.) I bought a flannel shirt.
2.) We bought our friend Adam’s book from a local book store.
3.) We started a garden.
I’ve daydreamed about the above activities plus many more for hours while living abroad. Vermonters are a distinct bunch. I’ve always pondered what it would be like to travel through Vermont with Bill Bryson. The state seems to hold onto, if not embrace, the idyllic small town America Bryson grew up with and has since despairingly written about trying to find again. The small towns, each with a general store different from the general store of the neighbouring town over holds a distinct ability to charm. This is a state where I once witnessed a man getting agitated while waiting in line and the woman in front of him turned around and said, “Excuse me sir, where are you from?” “Vermont,” he replied. “Well then you ought to stop acting like that. You’re a Vermonter and you should know better. We don’t act like that.”
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Vermont is full of good hearted people.
They are also very good looking and always ready for a model shot.
This is a state where the live music stops at the local pub so one of the performers can go and tend their kids when motherhood calls.
We get to enjoy good food, good music and know the owner, Chuck, on a first name basis.
Dogs the size of small ponies wandered around and brushed up against our legs at a ski lodge for our first ‘welcome back to parks’ state wide meeting.
We moved small ice bergs so that our anglers could row up the side of the pond the split second the ice melted.
The snow actually made it easier to slide the boats into the water.
Arg….Ranger Brader moves an ice berg.
We’ve enjoyed watching the meadows turn from a wilted brown into a bright green blanket of lushness.
Another significant moment in our Vermont life: enjoying a beer from the Alchemist. They used to operate both a restuarant and brewery, both of which were my favourite in the whole world. Seriously. It was one of my favourite places to eat. Almost any time we were getting together with friends we went to the Alchemist. The atmosphere, the food, the company bring such fond memories to light. After a bad flood they went to solely being a brewery and did not reopen the restaurant. I was devastated. I heard about this news in Australia and felt like that alone was almost reason enough not to move back to Vermont. Why bother? But we did and our good friends thoughtfully picked up these Alchemist heavy toppers to celebrate seeing each other again.
In the foreground is our friends homemade cheese wrapped in birch bark and to the right are wild dandelions harvested and cooked to perfection. I feel Vermont is a foodie state. It’s easy to strike up a conversation with neighbours comparing the height of each other tomato plants or what kind of trellise we each built for our peas this year. Vermonters love good food and they love to know where it comes from and often times that is right from the back yard.
And in reference to last week’s post, here is what our backyard garden looked like on Memorial Day.
The lodge was covered in snow.
One of our guest beat us to it and went out to shovel the walk way.
Everyone had to clean off their cars.
At first everyone stayed cozy by the fire completing puzzles, then people ventured out to play in the snow.
It’s great to be back in a job and a state that we share so many values with. And perhaps also living up the hill from what the Boston Globe voted as the best ice cream in Vermont helps just a little bit too.
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…looks like you and Vermont have taken a serious liking to each other! Lots of good food and good things to do (tough to beat the BEST ice cream in the state)…
OH my gosh, that is maple ice cream in the photo and it was soooooooooo good!
I cannot believe the weather on Memorial Day!!! What a storm! Vermont seems like such a wonderful place!
That was the weather. It at least kept the black flies away for a day.
How come the link for ‘the best ice cream in Vermont’ takes me to a mead and wine shop?
Oh, well that is their main business…they just happen to also have some of the best ice cream in VT.
Great post. You two are amazing! 🙂