Mist opportunity

For once unable to blame the children for dragging their feet (because they weren't there), it still took us half the day to get out of the house, but we spent the afternoon well. 

The weather looked a bit dodgy, but we chanced a trip to the Catskills for a bit of a hike.  Though the Girl and her camping companions weren't far from us in the North and South Lake State Campground, we knew they had their own plans for the afternoon, so we just got on by ourselves.

We took the Mary's Glen trail.  It was a rugged route and reasonably hard-going in the muggy conditions, but satisfying at the top to break out of the forest when after about a hour we reached the open space of North Point.  On a clearer day the views from the 3000 foot summit must be pretty fine.  We had to content ourselves with looking at the mist-shrouded hills beyond our own.

The weather finally broke as we neared the end of our descent - the forest canopy saved us from getting wet, but we heard the thunder.  The rain drove the camping party home too - as I'd feared, they'd had plenty of it yesterday, too, and though they were due to spend another night under canvas they decided to give that up as a bad job.  The Boy is also home with us, after spending the whole day at his buddy's house.

Home Alone two

We are without the Girl - she is camping in the Catskills this weekend with friends.  If the weather there is anything like the weather here (driving rain) I should think she'll be bathing in mud by now.

The rest of us headed down to the Farmers' Market this morning for our usual refreshments, and to stock up on supplies and catch up with friends.  We bought lunch - curried summer rolls - from our favourite Vietnamese stall, My Linh, and it was exceptionally delicious.

The Boy had his buddy over in the afternoon.  Amazingly, we persuaded the pair of them to join us on a quick trip to Five Rivers and a cheery race around the Beaver Tree Trail (or as the exercise-averse buddy described it later, "A ten-year hike!  It was sooo boring.")  The pond is, unfortunately, covered in water chestnut, an invasive species that just seems to get more dominant each year.

Having packed a massive suitcase this evening, the Boy is over-nighting at his buddy's, leaving the Man and me once again in a strangely empty house.  So we're planning another cinema trip.  This could get to be a habit.

Hanging around in Stowe

Captions please!

Pottery lesson

I hadn't seen a Harry Potter movie in a cinema since the first one, and even that wasn't really by intention.  It was the only half-decent thing on offer when the Man and I managed to get away for our first "date night" together, about a year after the Girl was born.  I have to admit, I slept through a lot of it.

Tonight, however, we set out en famille with the sole purpose of watching Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II.  Despite HP having been the backing track to my life for what seemed like several months a while back, I'd managed to hear most of the last book without actually listening to it (a skill I've honed over the years with radio cricket commentaries), so while I had a vague idea of what was going on, I didn't actually know the ending.  So I was very excited to learn that... 

What's that?  You haven't read/listened to/seen it yet? 

Oh, well then, I won't spoil it for you.

The kids enjoyed it, though they picked holes in the production as only the Potter faithful can.  I'm not quite persuaded that I'll ever read the books, but I am grateful to JK Rowling for creating Professor Snape, played so superbly by Alan Rickman.

Breakfast club

Considering it's still very much the vacation, I had an early start today - up at seven to get to a weekly 7:30am breakfast speaker meeting held by a local charitable group.  The speaker was the president of Friends of Five Rivers, and I was along to support him (also to scope out the group because I'll be addressing them myself in a couple of weeks).

It wasn't a huge turnout, what with it being August and all, but those that came were attentive and, who knows, some may accept the invitation to become members of the Friends.  At least one person had never heard of our group.  Three had never been to Five Rivers at all, despite living locally - but maybe they'll want to visit now. 

As for the rest of the day - the Boy had a friend over and they talked Pokemon together, impenetrably.  The Girl had a good skating lesson.  And tonight I had another session down at the refugee centre, finding out more about mentoring. 

Imagine that

I was sitting at the kitchen table with the Girl today, eating some fruit.  I don't know where the Boy was.  An eery voice came from the pantry:

This is your conscience speaking!  Buy Cape Cod Potato Chips for your children!  It will make you feel very good...

I do generally try to pay attention to my conscience, but now I'm officially middle-aged it seems to be going a bit rogue.

A stay-at-home day today (can you tell?), though we did all get out this evening to hear a friend performing in an open-mic night at a local restaurant.  The musicians all played outside under an awning open to the street, so they filled the little shopping hub of our town with sound.  It was fun.  The youngest performer was only eight years old and did a remarkable job accompanying himself on piano as he sang Imagine. 

No signs of the times

Our camera seems to have made a partial recovery after its dip in the stream yesterday - at least enough to upload the photos we'd already taken.  But alas it wasn't functioning at all as we passed the most modestly named guest accommodation I've ever come across - the Ho-Hum Motel in South Burlington.  Hard by the So-So Cafe and the Nothing-Special diner (ah, if only).

Modesty may be a bit of a Vermont thing, I don't know.  Certainly there are no boastful roadside hoardings promising you the earth with this or that product or fabulous day out.  Though, as it turns out, billboards are banned altogether in Vermont, and have been since 1968.  This is largely down to a state legislator, Ted Riehle, who strongly felt that Vermont's landscape was being despoiled by signage.  So he went against the businessmen and landowners who most profited from billboards and pioneered the landmark change in state law - now much appreciated by Vermonters.  Read more about it here.  And mark, the man was a Republican - a member of a party not so much noted now for valuing the environment above commercial interests (although a longer time ago it was also the party of Theodore Roosevelt who instituted America's National Parks - the jewels in this country's environmental crown).

I loved travelling through scenery free of advertising.  I loved the look of Vermont altogether - the tree-covered mountains, the verdant pasture, the well-kempt houses in every town and village.  Of course there's beauty, natural and man-made, to be found all over this country, but as states go (at least the ones I've visited), Vermont seems particuarly well cared for and looked after.