Tiime Flies

Oh geez. Talk about a season getting away from you. Not only is it not spring anymore, it's not summer either. Luckily fall in the Northeast Kingdom is lovely. For the moment we've got chilly nights and warm days. Soon the ground will be covered in snow, but for now I'm enjoying the lovely weather.

A lot happened this summer. Too much for one blog, really, but I'll try to give a brief(ish) snapshot of what we've been up to since May.

The last week of May/first week of June my parents, Peggy and Warren, came for a visit. I think I'm safe in saying a good time was had by all. Activities included: stopping by Harvest Hill, checking out a crazy old cemetrey, making risotto, hosting a 'Meet the Parents' potluck, going to the Shelburne Museum and eating dinner in Burlington, having my lovely friend, Therin, over for dinner, checking out the Hardwick Farmer's Market and doing a lot of work in my community garden plot. Truth be told, most of the work was done by my parents as I had to go to work at the Co-op. They made my weedy plot look fantastic! Their trip was far too brief, but much enjoyed and appreciated.

Here are a few photo highlights:

Warren working in my garden plot.

The four of us at Pho Hong in Burlington.

This was part of an awesome paper art exhibition at the Shelburne Museum.

This too.

The rest of June was moderately mellow. We hosted a 'Hardwick Scavenger Hunt' that was real fun and a little out of hand. We had 3 teams of 5 people. Everything on the list was worth a certain amount of points and those points could be tripled if you did the item without any pants on. Who knew so many folks would be willing to drop their drawers? It was a photo scavenger hunt, so all the activities had to be documented. In the end we gathered back at our house and had one of the best slideshows I've ever seen. Definitely inappropriate and definitely hilarious. Some sample items: making a human pyramid, getting 5 or more subarus in the same photo, eating a maple creemee with gravy on top, finding "local celebrities" and getting pictures with them, finding a Monster Energy drink logo on a person, buying hot sauce and condoms at the same time.....the list goes on. I'm not gonna post any photos of this event, but let it be said that it was one of the highlights of the summer.

Our friend Jen hosted a 'Tequila and Tattoos' night. The tequila was tasty and the tattoos were henna. It was a great combination. Some pretty awesome tattoos were put in some pretty awesome places. For the next week or so it looked like there was a secret society walking around town. I had Jen draw a Bitterroot flower on the inside of my left forearm. It looked awesome and if I get another tattoo, it will probably be that one.

In July our friends Katie and Alex came up from New York City for the 4th of July weekend. It was a quick trip, but really nice to have them up here. We hiked to Cheever Falls, went to the Bread and Puppet Museum and hosted a 3rd of July BBQ.

Katie and I playing smooshy face at Cheever Falls.

Mark and Maggie bonding.

A few days later Mark tore his MCL playing Ultimate Frisbee. He was in pain for quite awhile, but luckily he didn't need surgery. Now it's fine, except for the occasional twinge, but it did put a bit of a damper on the summer.

A couple weeks later our good friend Devin and his girlfriend Carrie came from Portland, Oregon for a wedding in Burlington. It had been almost 2 years since we'd last seen Devin and it was so nice to have them up here. They are having a baby in January and I hope we get to meet the little guy/girl before it's a teenager.

Devin looking hip in Burlington.

The first weekend in August, Mark and our friend Matt made their dream of having a taco stand a reality. They sold tacos at this funny music festival called Bonestock. Though the music festival wasn't huge, they actually sold quite a few tacos and had many repeat customers. I think it was a good learning experience and it made them all fired up to really get the stand off the ground next summer. The plan is to apply to farmer's markets and also work the festival circuit. Tacos. Yum.

On August 11th, Mark and I celebrated our 4th Wedding Anniversary. We went out to dinner at Kismet, in Montpelier. It's a really good restaurant that focuses on serving high quality, local foods. Here's a photo of us four years ago:

We still love each other.

Near the end of August we took a 4 day trip to Maine. We met up with Katie and Alex in Machias for the Beehive Collective's Black Fly Ball. If you don't know about the Beehive Collective you should check out their website. They draw intricate black and white posters detailing various environmental and social issues. One of their original posters was 'Plan Colombia' and their most recent is 'The True Cost of Coal' about mountain top removal. We bought a poster and I'm still discovering new things every time I look at it. The ball involved 3 stages with different bands. One of the stages was built on a pavilion over a waterfall. I only wish I had a photo. We spent 2 nights camping at Cobbscook Bay State Park and on the 3rd night headed down the coast towards Rockland. We went hiking, ate lobster, visited a boat building school and slept outside.

I love Maine.

Katie, Alex, Mark, Maggie and Lucha at the Easternmost Point in the U.S.

Praying MANtis?

Katie and boats.

Sub-arctic bog. There were pitcher plants here!

The last weekend in August I had my very first canning experience. Mark had bought 2 crates of peaches and after eating a ton and freezing even more, we still had 1/2 a crate left, so I made peach jam. It was way more labor intensive than I thought it would be, but ultimately not as intimidating as I had imagined. I was so un-intimidated, in fact, that a week later I made and canned peach chutney. I also made pasta sauce from fresh tomatoes and froze about 4 quarts. We bought a chest freezer and it currently holds pesto, blueberries, peaches, 3 turkeys, kale, blackberries, pasta sauce, peppers and soup. We're planning on buying a whole lamb from our friend Jonah and hopefully half a pig from our friend Dan. If anyone wants to come for a visit, I guarantee you'll be well fed!

We discovered something amazing in the North East Kingdom this summer. There's a museum in someone's barn off of Route 16 called 'The Museum of Everyday Life'. Our friend Dan talked us into going one day and it was really awesome. This summer's exhibit was on matches and one part of the exhibit featured instruments made entirely out of matchsticks. The man who made them was in prison for 20 years and the only wood available to him was matchsticks, so he made a banjo, 2 violins and a mandolin. And they work! But the real treasure of this museum is that underneath the museum, in the old dairy barn, the owner has set up a bowling alley. We spent a ridiculously fun night there bowling. Could I feel anymore country? Probably not.

Museum Entrance. That's not a real bear. But Jon is real.

Mandolin made out of matchsticks.

Entrance to the bowling alley.

Bowling! Amy looks skeptical, but she had fun.

Clearly this was not regulation bowling. But there was a disco ball.

In mid-September Mark's good friend Mikal came up for a visit from Austin, Tx. He was only here for 2 nights and 2 days, but we packed a lot into a short time. Activities included pizza and beer at Parker Pie, a farm tour, a hike to Cheever Falls, at trip to the Museum of Everyday Life and the Bread and Puppet Museum. The main event during Mikal's visit was the Chili-Cook off that we hosted. 10 chilies were entered and almost 40 people came to taste and judge. All in all, I'd say it was a huge success. We're contemplating a 'hot dish' cookoff this winter.

Mark and Mikal just above the falls.

Maggie's good about staying hydrated.

Our latest adventure was at the end of September and involved another trip to Maine. This time we headed to The Common Ground Fair with our friends Jon and Claire. Common Ground has been going on for over 35 years and it's pretty much the best. It's an agricultural and sustainable living fair and exhibits and activities there included multiple craft tents, an amazing border collie demo, tons of great food, two farmers markets, a manure toss, animal exhibits, 3 music stages, lectures, classes, veggie exhibits....too much to take in all in one weekend. We volunteered at the manure toss so we got free camping, free admission and one free meal. Here are a few photos.





On our way back to Vermont we hiked Tumbledown Mountain. It was a little sketchy on the way up, but totally worth it. We were met at the top by gorgeous views and a much easier route down.

Don't Tumbledown. It will hurt.

Halfway up Claire and I were feeling like this:

Then I almost got stuck here.

But we finally made it to the top!

Jon was pleased. And warm.

From the top we hiked down to this little lake and took the less steep, less sketchy route down.

Other adventures that are currently or soon to be happening include the 6 week pottery class Mark and I are taking, a trip to NYC at the end of October, a visit from our friends Nic and Sarah for a week over Thanksgiving and a trip to Montana from Dec 17th-28th! Fun times ahead.

Ch...ch...changes!

There have been a number of changes since my last post. For starters, Mark and I are officially townies. We moved to the thriving metropolis of Hardwick on April 15th and we're loving it! Since most of our friends live out in the boonies, our place has become a central meeting spot and we've already hosted a number of potlucks and dinner parties. Our place is 2 blocks from the Co-op, which means my work commute takes about 3 minutes. It's also kitty corner from my other job, meaning that work commute takes about 35 seconds. Awesome. It's also only 3 blocks from the Community Garden, where I have a plot this summer. Since I'm not farming, I figured I should probably still have a space to get my hands dirty. It's been raining pretty steadily this week, but on Tuesday I managed to squeak in between rainstorms to plant some brussel sprouts, rainbow chard and kale. My plot is next to our good friends Jon and Amy's plot, so we spent the afternoon weeding and prepping beds together. Hopefully next week will bring sunshine and the opportunity to get more seeds and starts into the ground!

Mark finished his long winter of seed packing and is now back at Harvest Hill this summer working as a crew leader and Bill's right hand man. The interns have arrived and they all seem awesome. I worked there for a day last week and helped transplant a bunch of brassicas and lettuce into the fields. It was fun to be out there, but I'm glad I'm not farming full time this summer. However, I do hope to be periodically called in to help out. Mark loves it and is feeling super optimistic about this season. He already brought home a giant bag of spinach and I scored some starts for my garden.

Even though I thought it would never happen, winter is finally over! The snow lasted until almost the end of April, but now the grass is green, flowers are blooming and the trees are no longer naked!


An excellent homage to this change of seasons was celebrated on May 1st. Every year in Montpelier there is an 'All Species Day' celebration. It starts in the park and then a parade shuts down the streets and wends its way from Hubbard Park to the state capital. Here are a few photos. It was a gorgeous day full of tons of great energy (and hippies!)

Opening circle. A few of our friends are in the dance. They had this great body paint on and since it was so sunny, they all got these crazy awesome tan lines.

Mark and I in the parade.

My friend and co-worker William, one of the masters of ceremony for the event.

Show at the statehouse.

It was a beautiful day and a nice kick off to the start of spring. I know the calendar says it started March 21st, but up here in VT, it took a little longer! Though I didn't feel this way in March, I can now honestly say it was worth the wait.

Speaking of things that take a long time, I finally finished the baby quilt for Penelope Ray Prinbeck, lovely daughter to Cosmo and Gwenn, that had been consuming my life for a good 6-8 months. It was a fun project and it felt amazing to finally send it on its way. I first silk-screened some of Mark's jellyfish onto plain pieces of fabric, then cut out more squares from various patterned pieces. I machine sewed them together which took no time and then spent the next 6 months hand quilting. I had had the best of intentions to get it done and sent before Penelope was born in December...but as always happens, I forget how long my projects tend to take. However, it is finally with it's rightful owner and as the family is moving to St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands at the end of the summer, it turned out to be a very appropriately themed quilt!

Finished project!

Mark's jellyfish. My hand quilting.

Closeup.

Other things that have happened since my LA trip include Mark taking a trip to Austin for SXSW. He saw lots of great music, ate a bunch of breakfast tacos, saw a grip of good friends and generally had an awesome time. He spent the week walking around in shorts and a t-shirt in the 80+ degree weather. The night I picked him up from the airport, it snowed over a foot. Oh Vermont...

Mark turned 29 and had an epic dress up potluck/dance party/freeze tag dodgeball game to celebrate. Our friends braved mud season and turned out in force.


Oh, what's mud season, you ask? It's a disaster! Once the snow starts to melt, all the dirt roads turn to mud. I didn't realize how serious this mud was until I sunk up to my axles on Noyestar, unable to go backwards or forwards. My tailpipe was a mere quarter inch above the squishy mud. Luckily at the third house I tried a family was home and a very friendly stranger grabbed a giant tow chain, hopped into his truck and proceeded to pull the poor little subaru out of the giant mudhole where I had lodged her. He then followed me back to the pavement, just in case I got stuck again. You can never underestimate the kindness of strangers. Mud season lasts for over a month and makes every trip down a back road an exciting, occasionally terrifying adventure. Until I experienced it, I never got the joke that Vermont has 5 seasons, the fifth one being mud season. Now I get it.

Maggie and Hank have both adjusted to city living with ease. Hank is busy staking out his territory and therefore comes home with various cuts and bumps, but it hasn't dampened his spirits. My boss and friend Maggie McGuire has found him in her kitchen more than once, via the cat door. Maggie (the dog, not my boss) doesn't seem to notice much difference between town and country, possibly because she's getting the best of both worlds. Mark takes her to work on the farm, so she gets to run around and then when she comes home, she gets to go for long walks most of which she spends peeing on every imaginable surface. Looks like she's staking out her territory too. When she's not peeing or farming, she's generally doing this:

Or this.

At least she's not bored, right?

Well, that's the spring update. Look forward to more adventures in the coming months, including a visit from Peggy and Warren. I hope wherever you are flowers are blooming and sun is shining!

City of Angels

Los Angeles is amazing. For my entire life I have always had negative thoughts and feelings towards LA, but I had never actually been there. That all changed a month ago when I traveled to LA to visit my friends Ivy and Sierra. As the pilot came over the intercom to tell us that we were descending towards the Los Angeles metropolitan area, this was my first view. Already I was feeling more positively towards LA than I had imagined I would. Who knew LA had mountains? I didn't.



Of course as we descended further, I saw the inevitable rows upon rows of houses and buildings. However, after having lived in rural Vermont for the past 10 months, the sight of all those buildings, freeways and concrete was surprisingly exhilarating. It felt like you could fit the entire population of Vermont, and all of its buildings in one square mile of LA. Who knows, maybe you can. My friend Ivy picked me up from the airport and we spent a relaxing evening eating thai food and reminiscing.

The next morning my friend Sierra came to pick me up and we spent the afternoon at The Getty Museum. Sierra had a conference call that she had to be on for work, so The Getty was the perfect place to wander around while she took care of business. The original museum was run out of J. Paul Getty's house, beginning in 1954. An oil tycoon, he had purchased many works of art that he wanted to share with the public. Eventually his collection became too big and in the early 70's he built a replica of an Italian villa on his property to house his art collection. The Villa opened in 1974 and is still open today. After Getty's death in 1976, the museum was turned over to the Getty trust. In 1983 a 110 acre site was purchased in the Santa Monica Mountains, surrounded by 600 acres of untouched land. A 24 acre campus was designed by architect Richard Meier and took 13 years to complete, finally opening in 1997. My four hours there were barely enough to scrape the surface. I spent a large portion of my time wandering around the artfully landscaped gardens. After months spent starting out at 4 feet of snow, flowers were a sight for sore eyes.

A shot of The Getty from the freeway.

The central garden.

Oooohhhhh.....bougainvillea!

Friends!

Cactus and succulent garden.

Our evening was spent going to Sierra's work meeting, hitting up a happy hour in downtown LA that gave you a token for a 35 cent(!) first drink, walking around Little Tokyo and stopping at a super tasty restaurant for a dinner of ramen. Rest assured, this is no 25 cent grocery store ramen. It was brothy and delicious and involved pork. Yum.

Day three in LA dawned gray and rainy and our plans for a hike in Griffith Park were foiled. Fortunately, Sierra always has back-up plans. We wandered around a Mexican market where the main language spoken was Spanish, then headed to a local place for amazing fish tacos. After throwing out a few ideas for afternoon activities and hemming and hawing for a bit, I finally asked Sierra if there was anything she'd been meaning to do since moving to LA but hadn't gotten around to and she immediately thought of the Watts Towers.

The Watts Towers, also known as Simon Rodia's Towers were built by Simon, an Italian immigrant, over a 33 year period, 1921-1954. On these 90 foot towers he used no ladders, scaffolding, bolts or welding. The entire structure is made from metal and concrete and covered in mosaic from re-claimed and found materials. In a short documentary film we watched about him, it shows him climbing up the towers with a bucket and some tiles to work on the top of one of the towers. The structures were amazing, every square inch mosaiced and beautiful.

Sierra and our tour guide, Howard.

After our tour around the towers, we went into the Watts Towers Arts Center where artist Dominique Moody was having an exhibition. She happened to be leading a small tour around the gallery, so I latched onto the group while Sierra made a quick work call. After the tour, Dominique invited us down the block to the house where she is doing a 2 year artist in residency.
A 3D artist, she is legally blind and only sees in 2 dimensions. Her next project is to build an 8x20x12 foot cabin on a trailer bed which she will then, with the help of her brother, pull around the country, stopping at various art spaces and communities. She is an amazing woman with incredibly warm, positive energy and both Sierra and I felt lucky to be able to spend a couple hours with her.

After our adventure in Watts, we sped down the freeway to Norwalk, where Sierra's boyfriend, German, lives. The evening was spent eating incredible Peruvian food and catching a late night movie at the $2 theater.

Sierra and German sampling my tasty Sangria.

Saturday morning dawned bright and sunny and though both Sierra and I tried valiantly to sleep in, we only made it to 8am. Luckily, it was the perfect day for a hike in Griffith Park. Griffith Park is gorgeous, a lovely oasis in the middle of the madness that is LA. Originally when Griffith J. Griffith gifted the 3000+ acres of land to the city in 1896, the city council was reluctant to accept the gift as they weren't convinced that people would travel all the way to the park, which at that time was a mile outside of the city limits. Of course, as the years went by, LA not so slowly crept towards the park and today it is smack dab in the middle of the city. Good thing they took a gamble and accepted the gift as it is now a major center of outdoor activity in LA. The park has over 53 miles of trails and is a beautiful place to hike, jog or ride horseback. We saw a boyscout troop at the top learning "wilderness skills". I thought it was funny and tried to snap a photo, but then felt creepy, so unfortunately there is no documentation. Sierra and I had a lovely hike and I, of course, took a billion photos. Here are a few of the best.

Nature.

It's windy up here on the hill...

Birds of Paradise!

There was snow on the tops of those mountains. People were excited.

The Griffith Observatory with the LA skyline in the background.

After our hike, we met up with German and headed to Hollywood! We were there the day before the Oscars and got to see all the preparations. German had worked security for the Oscars in the past, so he had the inside scoop and gave us a great tour. The next day he and Sierra were actually going to be in the bleachers outside of the Oscars. You can read all about it at her fabulous blog Soooo....Cal. Here's a photo record of our day in Hollywood:

The setup begins.

Of course Cher wore stilettos!

Marilyn was super chill about having her picture taken with us. She didn't say much, though.

This gentleman was outside Ripley's Believe It or Not, letting people staple money to him.

With a staple gun.

What this photo doesn't show is the finale when someone stapled a $20 to his forehead.
Ouch.

Of course I knew he was an actor before he became president
(mainly due to Back to the Future III)
but I was awfully surprised when I came across his star.

After our adventure in Hollywood, Sierra and German took me to In-N-Out Burger, which is as great as everyone says it is, and then we stopped by Roosevelt High School in East LA to check out this awesome mural. It wrapped around the wall under the fence surrounding the school and the whole thing was 2 blocks long. Amazing. Here are a few photos:

There were some pretty intense scenes in it and it was refreshing that it was on a school. Often the school system tries to sugarcoat history and in this mural, there was no sugarcoating.

After our mural viewing, they drove me to Hermosa Beach to meet up with Ivy. After bidding Sierra and German farewell, I settled into the beach house Tom and Anna, Ivy's parents, were renting for the month. It was in a great location and I spent the next 3 days eating, walking on the beach, biking around, playing dominoes and generally just having a great time. We rode the ferris wheel on the Santa Monica pier, checked out the scene at Venice Beach, wandered around the Venice Canals and took lots of long walks.

The Miller's at the beach house.

Venice Beach. The guy in white was dancing up a storm.

Ivy and I on the Hermosa Beach pier. It's good to see she's representing the home state.

Ivy and Josh at the Venice Canals.

The view inland from the Manhattan Beach pier. Those houses go all the way back over the horizon.

The lovely Pacific.

Ferris Wheel!

My trip was far too short and so much fun. I can't say enough thank you's for the wonderful hospitality from Sierra, Ivy and the Miller's. I also now appreciate why people live in LA.

It's fantastic!