green glass and light

Vermont town before and after Irene

We have great love for a beautiful small town in Vermont called Waitsfield. Above are some pictures from our summer visit - I loved the small white building in particular by the bridge, beneath the deck a canoe was stashed, charming to picture evening cocktails with a setting sun. We have visited here for twenty years in the summer and are so sad to see the damage the flooding from Irene has caused as seen in their newspaper, The Valley Reporter, here.

After Irene

We fared pretty well - we usually ALWAYS flood a bit and get blackouts but this time only some mini blackouts and no flooding. Amazing. The wind was impressive and up until about a half hour ago, the gusts of wind were still bringing down small branches and giving cause for worry. Other areas didn't fare so well, driving around earlier with my daughter - downed trees, a live wire and broken electrical pole, flooded streets, a lot of caution tape closing off streets, lots of folks without power. Came home feeling pretty lucky. Some people are saying it was overly hyped but I think we might have seen a great many more injuries and deaths and sad stories if everyone hadn't acted on the side of caution. Hope everyone else came through okay.

Sunday Quote

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Be safe, everyone

Just cleaned up the yard, now heading down to lift stuff off the floor in our basement that is sure to flood. Everyone take care and be well, and check in on your elderly neighbors, please, BEFORE the storm hits - make sure they have prepared and know they have a place to turn if they need it. I will be posting my Sunday Quote early in the depressing thought that we will probably lose power. God Bless.

Mystic Poetry box

Poetry box installation up in Mystic, Ct outside a seaside gallery. Not sure if it is part of the gallery or part of the pebbled path with a gray water and boats view especially as a second poetry box was rather battered with its Pablo Neruda poem missing (and doors and sides). I think I might have picked a more sea-inclined poem but poetry speaks to all of us differently, so I bow to the artist's choice. Especially since I love her poetry box creation. Inside the box, besides the poem, is a notebook and pencil where I scribbled a sea haiku of sorts, just love the whole idea - would love to see it everywhere - Can you imagine being in the middle of the woods and there is a poem box? Inside, what would you find? Poems written by bears and bees and owls and the tiniest of mice leaving poems in the tracks of their delicate feet.

Earthquake

The desk, the floor, the chair shaking. Could not figure out what it was for the life of me. Amazing we felt the tremors in NY, so far from the source.

Sunday Quote

I live my life day by day with a lot of prayer and not necessarily immediate revelations, because I always think God takes his good time in lettin' you know what's doin'.

- Judith Jamison

Baby Squirrels and a squirrel history

I remember squirrel being a word I found incredibly difficult to learn to spell when I was in grade school. I am married to someone with such antipathy for the creatures that he threatens to run them over when they dash in front of the car (Reader, he is all talk). My mother had a moth-eaten squirrel coat in an attic that I loved playing dress-up with when little. I have even been in a car under attack by a squirrel gone wiggy from being sprayed when the county thought that was a clever way to fight bird disease. But with all this squirrely history, nothing tops the velvety sweetness of a baby squirrel. Here are two, brought to where my daughter works, she is the animal whisperer, by someone who saw them fall from a tree...no other details known, the person was not clear. She gave them some kitten formula (how I remember this well when I was chief wetnurse to five baby rats being raised on kitten formula - and yes, I am afraid of rats, oh, the irony). She drove them after work to a squirrel rehabber (go figure, a number of them in our vicinity) with her brother acting as wingman (I volunteered and was sweetly informed that she needed someone who could see in the dark and follow driving directions, that would not be me on either count). They are like velvet, those little gray coats. Their trusting baby legs cling to your fingers as they sleep dreaming their little squirrel dreams.

IKEA

Checking out the different kitchens for renovation possibilities - we like the light feel of the beech one since our kitchen is miniscule at best and would need something light. Loved the Godzilla curtain although not feeling it for the kitchen :) and of course, this cool fold-up cloth farmhouses was pretty cute, too.

One hot dog

On the Jersey side

Great family visit on the other side of the Hudson. Glass bottles at a jumping lunch spot called Raymond's, noisy but good vibes and fish and chips (which more than made up for the awful fish and chips I had at a sea food joint in Ct a few weeks ago). A return visit to the store where I purchased a great Jonah in the whale print last year - this year, a mermaid to inspire me. Whole foods veggie wall Inspired by WF treat - the
Australian cheddar from WF on Scottish oatcakes as a prior munch, great combo. Dropped in at the Anthro while strolling about - is it wrong to love their store set-up and design more than their actual products half the time? My favorite remains the one in Westport, Ct. but this one in Montclair made me remember how much I like lofts - love the brick and raw and open space, light and ceiling height.
Best of all, of course, hanging with the sister, bro-in-law, and visit from the nices (which was a mistake but really, the niece and the great-niece really need to be called the nices).

Happy Birthday, Julia Child!

For inspiring thousands and thousands of cooks, for being an interesting, fun person, for doing it your own way.

Sunday Quote

Was not writing poetry a secret transaction, a voice answering a voice?

— Virginia Woolf

Summer rolling on

Start of staycation and the shoulder blows out, never good when the start of your leisure time counts down with an x-ray and a doctor saying "what did you do to your shoulder?". I think that's not so uncommon though, lots of empathetic stories of getting deathly ill as soon the weekend rolls around, the vacay starts etc. Our stoic natures must let down anticipating relaxation and wham...bye bye immune system. However, the question still begs - What did I do to my shoulder? No clue.
A few summer images, for some reason it still doesn't feel like summer even with the trips to beach, swim in a Vermont lake, various New England and NY explores and jaunts, open screens, beach reads, long walks, iced tea - all sounds like summer to me but still...must be something not translated yet, some step down into green I am not yet in step with...working on it, however, got a few more weeks to get my summer on.

Not quite moonlight in Vermont

but I think the sunset in Vermont deserves a song written about it, too.

Sunday Quote

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.

- Marcel Proust

Don't let them blow out the candle

In her moving tribute to her dear friend, the late Eva Ibbotson, in The Horn Book magazine (May/June 2011), Laura Amy Schlitz quotes from an encouraging letter Eva sent to her:

" You have to...most truly you have to grow a protective skin round yourself and what you write. Writing is a love affair between you and the book - it isn't necessarily a happy one, or even one with a successful conclusion; you can write a book, be absorbed in it, and fail. But oh God...don't let them blow out the candle."

Poem chosen

Very pleased to discover that my poem, Safe Keeping, was chosen by Danse Macabre as a poem of the day today. You can access it here. Sent everyone happy emails - I am the entirely unsubtle "woot, woot!" type when it comes to receiving good news.