Stowe and Other Thoughts

In my new life as a part-time wage earner I have two weekdays out of the office. Now that the kids have started school, 4o miles from home, I have been conflicted in these first weeks of school about whether I should hang around the vicinity of the school or haul back up to the Last House.

This week, for the first time, I tried hanging around in Lamoille County. As anyone who knows anything about Vermont can tell you, there are lots of nice things to see and do in Lamoille County, which includes many nice little towns including the Vermont tourist mecca, Stowe.

I spent a couple of hours in each of the last few days walking on the Stowe Recreation Path. I first tried a little hike in Weissner woods, which is a trail network through land donated to the Stowe Land Trust by a local concerned citizen. All woods are nice, but the hike did not compare favorably with my beloved Jay woods and I was worried I might get lost (the trails went in many directions). Going to those woods, and walking on the Rec Path had me comparing the two communities (Jay and Stowe). Jay is still nowhere with a ski hill (and now a golf course). Stowe is home to Mount Mansfield, Vermont's highest peak, and it has been a tourist destination for its entire history.

One telling detail, the access to Weissner Woods is easy. Parking has been provided. Trails are marked. However, the trail head emerges between two driveways - long Stowe driveways, where no house is visible. If you could see them, I have no doubt they would have been "architect designed" and be made out of whatever were the best materials available at the time of their construction. Both driveways were marked as private property, to prevent trail seekers from stumbling up the wrong path. One said, "Private Property - Turn Back".

It has not come to this in Jay. It is still tiny and mostly wild. The few inhabitants are natives or sports extremists who want cheap outdoor thrills.

In the Rec Path, the Stowe's essence is distilled. It is beautiful. It curves through woods and cornfieds (hugging Route 108, the Mountain Road and the Stowe Brook). Sculptures (always contemporary) appear here and there. Beds of flowers, well-maintained, pop up around random corners. Iron bridges with wooden planked decks cross and recross the Brook. Access, again , is easy, with parking areas (each with a port-a-potty behind a lattice) are well-marked. Naturally, there are benches and picnic tables and recycling and trash bins. There are also rules, posted at every entrance. The rules are all perfectly reasonable, of course, but effect is rather Swiss. Stowe is a bourgeois town - the most bougy town in the State maybe. The property taxes are huge to support the big police and fire departments. The bougeoisie have their charms. I love them. I am them. But, well, I understand better why the cop I used to work with when I was a deputy State's Attorney in Lamoille County a few years back couldn't stand the place or its typical resident.

FYI:

http://www.gostowe.com/

Weekend in Montreal

Woolfoot Husband took off to Milwaukee for a class reunion. Woolfoot and Kids thus spent the weekend in the Montreal accommodation. Saturday evening we went up Parc Ave to St. Viateur for dinner at Arahova - my old Montreal favorite. I thought it would be good and interesting for the kids to see the ultra Orthodox Jews that live up there. The chance to eat Greek food while observing the street life of the neighborhood is not something they get at the Last House. Then across the street to St. Viateur Bagel. We even got a great parking spot, so that little expedition was highly successful. We had fun Sunday bookshopping at Indigo. Northern Vermont does not have bookshop cafes populated by the sort of shoppers one encounters there. Sunday morning seems to bring out silver-haired women with big glasses and tight ponytails... We then saw, Mr. Bean's Holiday, at the fabulous Famous Players movie theater. It was terribly overpriced (no matinee pricing to my dismay) and the tickets set us back about 30 bucks for me and the two kids. The good news is that we all liked the movie, despite the bad reviews.

The city was looking great. We also all liked this great display of photographs of life in Montreal now up on the sidewalk on McGill College Ave. We even went to the McCord Museum (from whence the photos came) to see if they had any prints for sale. We'll go back to properly tour the Museum - a minature Canadian Smithsonian. I haven't been through it in years and the gift shop was very promising. It's free Saturday mornings so that will be the plan

We saw this white Rolls Royce about 4 times on Saturday. We also saw the wedding party with which it was associated (must've been married in Birks Chapel at McGill). The bride and groom and the wedding party and photographers etc. were getting pictures taken on campus. It felt like good luck to keep encountering them. They looked so happy.

Video Blogging

Here's a little video I created with my handy new (used) laptop a few weeks ago. No prizewinner but it was fun for me to assemble.

"Life Water"

It's lunchtime and I'm at work. I went down to the cafeteria here and bought a nice, cheap lunch. I decided the liquid for washing down my chili and chips today would be Sobe "Life Water" which projected a certain style to me through the glass doors on the cooler.

Does anybody out there remember Tang or, even more obscure, "Start." My orange/tangerine "Life Water" tastes to me like the nutrasweet version of those. (I recall from early childhood that one of those was actually eventually banned for some reason).

I'll let you know if the antioxidants and B vitamins make any difference in my afternoon.

Summer into Fall

Another beautiful day at the top of Vermont. This new school regime means I get to see a lot of it. The Kids only like me to chauffer, so though Woolfoot Husband has been home all day, mostly doing nothing, I promised to do all the ferrying. It's time to go, but here are a few pictures of the kids in their snappy uniforms and another in my unending snaps - and a new feature, some video! (admittedly on the dull side) -of the Jay woods. (I went walking there after drop-off this morning. A moose (unseen but definitely heard) snorted at me. I almost ran out of the woods... Time to go get the kids. It could be worse.

School Again

This, obviously, is not the school where Woolfoot Kids 1&2 are now attending. It's the Stowe Rec Path, where I was walking at 8:30 this morning after I dropped off Kid 1 & 2 at their new school. What does their new school mean to me? At least one morning a week when I have an hour and a half from drop off to appearing at work for my four-hour-day. That's a good part to this new arrangement. There are other good parts, like band for Kid 1, and French and fencing. The uniforms make them look cute and special, which they are.

The bad part is that the school is 50 minutes from the last house. Getting everyone out and there on time is proving a challenge. It is a HAUL. I am not sure I'm going to be able to adjust to it. Of course, it's not exactly like having to endure the Gulag Archipelago or the Killing Fields. I guess (for once) I'll try not to complain. I hope the neighbor who also hauls her kids there will start expressing a more immediate interest in car pooling - slightly evasive on this point.

Walking with the Kids

Instead of going to court today (we settled the matter yesterday) I was able to go hiking with the kids. Here are some pictures. (I hope)