Soon....

This will be me in Vermont on Friday. 

I'm going to sit by the fire drinking wine/scotch with my parents, counting bats at dusk, and watching stars...

after a day of searching for rustic cutting boards at the thrift stores to bring home and replace the chipped plastic ones we've had for years.

I will snuggle with the kitties and walk with them in the woods ...

while I check on the band-saw sculptures I made two years ago and hung from the trees. 

Boots and sweaters are packed; envelopes ready to stuff with fall leaves; I'm ready to catch my red- eye tonight, and wake up in crisp fall.

Photos:
1.  by The Noisy Plume
2.  by Katie Pietrowski
3.  from Remodelista
4.  from beatle.blogg.no
5.  me

Dispatch from Vermont: Fresh Morels

My parents were extremely excited to find a single morel in their woods, which they quickly cooked up in an omelette.   Then a friend mentioned that they had a whole patch of them, and invited my parents over to harvest to their hearts' content.  My mom brought her new trug from Ancient Industries, while my dad took the photos of the bounty.  What a life!




*Full disclosure: I hate eating mushrooms, but I love everything else about them.

Mingling interchange

'There is no death in mortal things, and no end in ruinous death.  There is only mingling and interchange of parts, and it is this that we call 'Nature.'"  -- Empedocles

From Bernd Heinrich's The Trees in My Forest.  He then proceeds to describe the ancient trees that lose their limbs and slowly fall into disrepair and decay, only to provide more food and shelter to the other living things in the woods.  I find it to be a very comforting thought.

Also, I stumbled upon this preview of a documentary on Bernd Heinrich.  I think his sweater and theories on coffee bode well for the rest of the film.

Picture above from one of my many trips to Vermont.

VT Cairns

Stacking stones is part of our common heritage, and people to this day seem to get a kick out of taming rock.

In Vermont last week, I came across several formations by the river.  Hurricane Irene gifted the banks with a large assortment of quarried marble, from which people had fashioned a fire pit, thrones and miscellaneous collections.  I added to it some of my own pieces as well.  Later that day, my mother and I saw this simply built bench at a local nursery, which looked very similar to those down by the river. 

Dispatch from the VT Woods

A damp and early spring came to Vermont this year.  The trilliums bloomed and gone, there was still winter debris left on the paths.  She came upon this eft newt slipping off a branch -- he was only trying to get a better view.  All was well as she scooped him up and perched him atop her head.  The walk allowed them both to clear their minds and with this new vantage, the adolescent newt could now grasp the extent of his habitat out of the pond.   

More info on the Eastern/red-spotted newt here.

Just bought my ticket to Vermont...

Ice cream and boulders, warm nights and walks alone, and maybe even a dramatic thunderstorm if I'm lucky.

Vermont after the rain

I forgot to post this a couple of weeks ago while visiting my parents in Vermont.  It was thundering and pouring at cocktail hour, then the golden light and rainbows came out for the dinner hour.   Best show in town.

Faces in the trees

(one is never truly alone in the woods)

Worn out

At the end of his days (7, to be exact).  Such a short lived green ghost.

Thanks for the photo, Mom.

Al Fresco

photog unknown

via Apartment Therapy via Dwellings

Vermont Morning

Photos by Polly Montgomery

This morning, as she went to hang the hummingbird feeder, she glanced down and saw the electric green moth still sleeping. 

Mom and Grandma, post hike, in Vermont sometime in the mid 70's.  If only I'd inherited those legs!

Dreaming of Vermont

Last August, I visited my parents in southern Vermont like I do every summer.  My mom is good at finding secret spots in the woods and I always enjoy exploring them with her.  In addition to the abandoned 18th century graveyard (pics to come), she also found this old road which has now become an overgrown trail.  It goes over the mountain behind the house and around to the Williams River and the Bartonsville Covered Bridge.  A couple hours after starting out, we emerge from the dense tree canopy to a more modern dirt road framed by blackberries.  A sweet treat at the end of our labor.  Last year, we saw maidenhair ferns and red eft newts.  The wild and moist lushness is an antidote to the dry wilds of LA, though both hold places in my heart.  I can't wait to get to the woods again this summer.