Climbing

I have taken the top picture before. My sisters and I have made it an annual tradition to climb Wheeler Mountain. It is not the tallest mountain in Vermont, by any stretch, but that is not to say it makes for easy climbing. I have the same reaction every time I reach the base of the granite peak. I don't know how to do this. I could take the easy path to the left ... but no. Taking the easy way would be to deny myself something. And then you start, and find it gets easier as you learn to negotiate the smooth slope. When you get to the top the view is magnificent, and you feel grateful for challenging yourself to do something hard -- and succeeding. You find that this, THIS, is where life is really happening, and where you can find the answers to some of life's more difficult questions.

Vermont IV

One of my favorite places to visit in "the kingdom" is Wheeler Mountain. A large structure made by Mother Nature of solid granite, it is at times a very gentle hike, and at other times a formidable crawl. Trying to figure how to tackle some areas on the way to the top is half the fun of getting there. Two observations that I came up with a long time ago come to mind every time I see Wheeler Mountain. These observations extend far beyond climbing a mountain.
1. When you are walking in the woods, stop and look around. You will almost always find a mushroom nearby if you look hard enough.
2. What I have learned from my camera lens is that something is always in focus, you just have to point it in the right direction.

Vermont III

These are some shots from my visit to Vermont when a few of us went apple picking. There was an assortment of apple varieties, and some of the trees have been around for decades. It's nice when you can pick an apple from each tree, taste it, and marvel at how very different each tastes. This is obvious, to those who make apple pies regularly. Some apples are best for eating, while others stand up well in pies. Either way, this is one of those moments in the year you wish you could press the pause button for weeks.

Vermont II

When you visit Vermont in the summer, there is one thing you must do a lot. Walk. And when you do walk, around every corner waits a small surprise, a little gift. Apple trees punctuate the roadside, weathered barns with rusted hinges can be found on any dirt road, and dandelions are making their last proclamations before the maple leaves turn gold and red. This is summer's last sigh for you to witness. But it's not just in Vermont. It's everywhere, so go, listen to it sigh.

Vermont I

I am fortunate to have grown up in a beautiful place. The rolling hills, the abundance of food fresh from the garden, dew that covers everything in the morning, the way people move to the rhythms of the seasons ... it's all rather bucolic and somewhat removed from ordinary life as I know it. I think people, urban and rural, are beginning to appreciate these things more and more. While urban tastes and lifestyles are taking root in unlikely places, so are rural values. Stop. Breathe. Look.

 

Stay tuned for more from a visit to my childhood home.

Petite's Road

When I was in Vermont, I took a walk down an old dirt road that played prominently in my childhood. The maple orchard where we used to help with the sugaring in the early Spring, the vistas that spread out before me, the farm where we used to get our milk almost straight from the cow. The bottom of the first hill used to have potholes which once sent me flying from my bike, before helmets. In high school, I used to run this road when I was on the track team because I knew exactly where the five-mile marker was. Once on my run, I was stopped abruptly by a sound in the bushes and found a very young fawn calling for its mother. For the record, can you discern a sugar maple from a red maple? A sugar maple's leaves have five prongs (m-a-p-l-e) while a red maple has onle three (r-e-d). There. You learned something today.

Vermont: Growing Things

I don't know why it surprises me every time. Summers in Vermont are profoundly fecund. Apple trees seem to punctuate your every ride from one place to another. My mother has two volunteer apple trees growing down the hill from her house. This makes the deer living in the woods behind them very happy, and so you'll see lots of deer prints there. She also has blueberry and raspberry bushes that deliver so many berries that she has a hard time keeping up with picking them all. She freezes what she can, and we make preserves throughout the year from them. And if you've ever had homemade preserves, you know that store bought pales in comparison. She also makes tomato ketchup, which is actually more like tomato relish but serves the same function. Fresh flavors in the dead of Winter.

Vermont: What We Did

When I was in Vermont, I didn't eat the whole time. No, we did many other things. We solved the world's problems at the breakfast table. We put mud on our faces and established the Sisterhood of the Painful Facial. (Dead sea mud is loaded with salt ... do you know what that will do to your upper epidermal layer?)

And we started our Bucket Lists, a challenge I've been a little intimidated by. Among our life goals:

Win an academy Award

Write a book

Visit Tibet

Spend a week in Paris

Take a long bike ride, visiting every US state

Spend a month in India

Can you guess which is mine?

Vermont: The Culture & Nature Issue

When you say 'Vermont', people often think of green mountains and crystal clear lakes, which is quite accurate, actually. So writing about Vermont's micro-culture and natural attributes in one post is no stretch. It isn't just the landscape that gives Vermont it's reputation. Vermonters care about their state, and this ethic is passed from one generation to the next. You will not see bottles and cans on the roadside because that doesn't make for a thriving tourist industry, and it helps that the state has had a recycling program in place for decades.

My mother was an environmentalist before the term was invented. She collects her coffee grounds and potato peels because they make for good garden fertilizer. Victory Gardens never fell out of vogue here. It isn't so much a political or environmental statement; when you can eat like a king out of your own back yard, why wouldn't you? 'Eat local' is a term born out of necessity when it takes three hours to travel seventy-five miles. While, yes, there are numerous grocery stores in my home town, there's a special satisfaction from growing fruits and vegetables out of rich soil, and knowing what went into growing them. And many of the finer restaurants tap local farmers for their choicest ingredients.

You won't find a lot of health clubs in the Northeast Kingdom. Instead, you will find kayaks, canoes, ski slopes, hiking and biking trails. Vermont has the third lowest obesity rate in the United States, so they might be onto something.

On the northern border, you will find the signs are in both English and French. To look in the phone book would reveal a heavy French-Canadian population since so many families moved here from Canada, as my parents' families did. You needn't listen for long before you hear the dialect of French called 'Joielle', an older dialect that was isolated when the French Voyageurs and fur traders moved to Canada.

In Vermont, the pace is slower, and you can feel your busy mind relaxing a bit after just a day here. If you fail to adapt, you risk the gentle chiding of being called a 'flatlander'.

If you've never visited Vermont, why not?

Vermont: The Food Issue

While in Vermont, I ate beautifully ...

My mother's and sister's gardens are both wildly prolific due to the perfect summer they've had. There was a fine showing of heirloom tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, pumpkins and herbs. I considered grabbing a few things, but thought about how I would explain to airline security what I was doing with a soccer ball sized butternut squash in my luggage.

My brother-in-law, Louis, makes a storied corn chowder. I only eat corn chowder when he makes it because others just don't measure up.

The correct way to grill corn; soak it in water for a few hours, throw it in the coals with the shuck on to retain moisture and let the sweetness blossom. Enjoy.

This is what beets look like when you don't buy them in a can.

My mother has raspberry, blackberry and blueberry bushes growing behind the house. I make a batch of preserves with my mother every time I visit. If you have ever smelled raspberries cooking on the stove, then you know one of life's greatest pleasures.

My sister, Carol, has mastered the fine art of Middle Eastern eggs, which she made for breakfast for the whole family every morning. Paired with spicy Arabic coffee, what better way can you start the day?