Monday, July 31, 2006
Sunday, July 30, 2006
A Fair Time
7-30-06 VERMONT: The end of July, one month of summer to go, its always so fast. Today was beautiful, breezy, clear warm, but dry and tonight its in the 50’s. Friday was camp visiting for Lucy in a downpour and yesterday was the Haverill Fair which we got to between T-storms. Lucy won a small stuffed pig playing darts for about twice what it would have cost at a store. We watched the pig races and ate good fair food. Blooming onion, pulled pork, funnel cake, italian sausage with pepper and onions—all healthy treats and no one heaved. The two rainy days left another 1.1 inches. Judy made a pie with our blueberries and raspberries.
Today I did a bunch of maintenance type chores and attacked the thistle in the pasture getting most of it before it bloomed and seeded. Speaking of the pasture, the oxen have been sold and are gone. About half the apple trees they ate are recovering the rest are dead.
New blooms: more phlox and lilies.
Today I did a bunch of maintenance type chores and attacked the thistle in the pasture getting most of it before it bloomed and seeded. Speaking of the pasture, the oxen have been sold and are gone. About half the apple trees they ate are recovering the rest are dead.
New blooms: more phlox and lilies.
Friday, July 28, 2006
Gloucester-Salem-Exeter
7-27-06 EXETER: We are in Exeter, NH at Phillips Academy awaiting the premiere of the play in which Anna is performing. We just finished dinner with Anna and Lisa Fagin in cutsy downtown Exeter. Yesterday we left Thetford at 9AM and arrived in Gloucester, MA mid-morning for a seafood lunch. Our B&B was adequate, old, cluttered and with almost no water pressure for the shower. There were blueberry muffins for breakfast.
The whole of Cape Ann seems to be a granite pluton. Outcrops are widespread. Gloucester is old, run down, tacky and historic. There are lots of colonial houses, federals and Victorians. Many houses are re-done with vinyl siding and asphalt roofs. The seagulls are everywhere, brazen and noisy. We walked for miles after lunch, saw the working waterfront with lots of fishing and lobster boats, up the hill were all the old places and a nice museum/historic house, Cape Ann Historical Museum, that we visited this morning after the blueberries. Later in the afternoon yesterday we went to the Sleeper-McCann House. It is a century-old 45 room extravaganza put up by a Boston designer, most of the rooms have different decors and dedications, some are copies of European rooms, castles, colonial reproductions, and whatever. Most of the rooms are tiny and claustrophobic, but it is a fascinating place and also has a small and pretty garden. Dinner was at Woodman’s, a famous lobster shack in Essex that does a huge business. Then we watched the boats in Gloucester harbor until dark.
After the blueberries and the museum today, we went to Salem and visited a repro three-master, “Friendship”, the House of Seven Gables and Hawthorne’s birthplace, and the hostoric part of downtown before meeting Anna in Exeter. Salem is an upgrade from Gloucester, but still many historic houses are repaired with the tacky modern materials and/or converted to small apartments. Sorry, dear reader, if that sounds too snobby, but I prefer places like Woodstock, VT where the old houses are all pampered and coddled. Thetford tonight.
Review of the Premiere to follow.
7-28-2006 VERMONT: Anna’s was excellent in her one act play. She was a social worker dealing with an abusive mother who wanted her child back. It is a difficult subject and was well acted by the two principals and got big applause from a mostly student audience.
The whole of Cape Ann seems to be a granite pluton. Outcrops are widespread. Gloucester is old, run down, tacky and historic. There are lots of colonial houses, federals and Victorians. Many houses are re-done with vinyl siding and asphalt roofs. The seagulls are everywhere, brazen and noisy. We walked for miles after lunch, saw the working waterfront with lots of fishing and lobster boats, up the hill were all the old places and a nice museum/historic house, Cape Ann Historical Museum, that we visited this morning after the blueberries. Later in the afternoon yesterday we went to the Sleeper-McCann House. It is a century-old 45 room extravaganza put up by a Boston designer, most of the rooms have different decors and dedications, some are copies of European rooms, castles, colonial reproductions, and whatever. Most of the rooms are tiny and claustrophobic, but it is a fascinating place and also has a small and pretty garden. Dinner was at Woodman’s, a famous lobster shack in Essex that does a huge business. Then we watched the boats in Gloucester harbor until dark.
After the blueberries and the museum today, we went to Salem and visited a repro three-master, “Friendship”, the House of Seven Gables and Hawthorne’s birthplace, and the hostoric part of downtown before meeting Anna in Exeter. Salem is an upgrade from Gloucester, but still many historic houses are repaired with the tacky modern materials and/or converted to small apartments. Sorry, dear reader, if that sounds too snobby, but I prefer places like Woodstock, VT where the old houses are all pampered and coddled. Thetford tonight.
Review of the Premiere to follow.
7-28-2006 VERMONT: Anna’s was excellent in her one act play. She was a social worker dealing with an abusive mother who wanted her child back. It is a difficult subject and was well acted by the two principals and got big applause from a mostly student audience.
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Another Day in Paradise. Right, Judy?
7-21-06 VERMONT: The last two days have been beautiful. The previous two days, the camp visiting days, were stormy and included another 2” of rain for a three month total of almost 23”, over half a years worth. Maggie and Lily were both excellent in the camp production of “Wizard of Oz”. Alison, Dan and Steve have all returned to the Metro area. I spent yesterday climbing around the Dartmouth Skiway with Brian and Kevin Dade as part of the Geology Handbook project and came home in mid-afternoon to do some weeding.
New blooms: echinacea, Joe-Pye weed, catmint, potentilla, phlox and oriental lily.
New blooms: echinacea, Joe-Pye weed, catmint, potentilla, phlox and oriental lily.
Friday, July 21, 2006
Worm Assault.
7-21-06 VERMONT: Yesterday was another work day, all routine stuff, final finishing of the pruning of the lilac hedge, weed wacking around the fence roses, some weeding, raked up grass cuttings in the swamp which was mowed for the first time, pulled all the dead Woodward viburnums form the wall at the southern end of the lawn and other stuff I forgot. Those viburnums were eaten by some little wormy bug in late spring, the others survived the assault, and I sprayed the big one by the porch. The loss of these shrubs leaves a hole in the border about twelve feet long that I will fill with burning bush volunteers. Today I’m in the library to recuperate.
New blooms: helenium, monks hood, lingularia, more asian lilies.
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Clearing the Air
7-19-06 VERMONT: Last night’s cold front switched us over to clear dry air, blue skies and 82° temps. Life is worth living again. I did get most of the hedge work done yesterday, one last cartload of cuttings wheeled away. After a dry week, the swamp is almost dry enough for regular mowing.
Mr. Steve joins us tomorrow and Alison and Dan arrive Friday for camp visiting this weekend. Next week Judy and I do a side trip to Gloucester and Salem and visit Anna to view her performance in a play at Exeter. Last night Judy and I heard a few of the singers from Opera North in a church in Post Mills and were very impressed. We may go hear the performance of “Il Trovatore” in August.
New blooms: an annual poppy popped up, purple salvia, more fancy daylilies.
Veggie report: the corn is as high as my eye, ears and tassels starting, tomatoes are green marbles and golf balls, no little pumpkins yet and something ate most of the sun flower seedlings. Blue berries being eaten as they blue up.
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