September On Deck.

8-30-10 VERMONT: The pretty weather continues, today was in the upper 80’s and cloudless. I continue to do wrapping up chores. We head for NJ in a few days.

We saw “Get Low” tonight with Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek, Bill Murray and Lucas Black—another great Indie—see it.

New blooms: more sedum.


Autumn Sedum. It must have been a good summer, this one hardly ever flowers.

Turtle Head. I can see that, especially if it had eyes.

Closing August.

8-29-10 VERMONT: Since that last post, sorry about the delay, the weather has been progressively nicer. All sun all the time and getting warmer. Today feels like July.

I have finished most of the things I was doing, the wood is split and stacked. The future herb garden has been emptied of the iris, geraniums, grass, dandelions, jacobs ladder, sorrell and anything else that was in it. I transplanted the flowers, some to the bed around the propane tank access and some to the bank behing the pond. Lots of soil came out with the uprooted plants, so I need to add back some nice juicy compost or garden soil. I plan to wait a few weeks to see if any of the banished plants show up again before proceding with herbs. In fact, I’ll probably wait until spring. The line up includes: thyme, oregano, basil, rosemary, tarragon, chives and, if there’s room, dill.

We spent one afternoon on the Connecticut River in North Thetford before putting the canoe in the barn, probably for the winter.

Connecticut River in Thetford.

Social season has broken out here as everyone’s families and guests have gone home. We went to a dinner party at Arnie and Phyllis’s Friday and were at Ken and Jane’s last night.

New blooms: autumn sedum.


Mint Flowers and Fans.

More Rain.

8-25-10 VERMONT: Yesterday was sunny and pleasant, and I got a bit more of the wood split. We had dinner in Lebanon [NH] with Dave and Gail. There was 1.25 inches of rain in the gauge yesterday morning from the preceding 36 hours of rain. Today, more rain, but no significant accumulation. Everything outside is sopping from drizzle, even the pond seems wetter than usual. Dinner tonight with the Reeses in Hanover.

New blooms: bottle gentian.


Bottle Gentian. Early Americans used this plant as a source of purple dye.

Back in Thetford.

8-22-10 VERMONT: We had an uneventful trip back from Quebec on Friday. Yesterday was pleasant after a cold, 45° Friday night. Judy switched us to flannel sheets on Saturday, the first sign of fall. Today, it’s pouring, no wind or electricity, just teeming rain overnight and all morning. Oh yes, there was 0.7 inches in the rain gauge when we got back.

Yesterday morning we went to another country auction, which marked the end of the line for another family. There were horse drawn sleighs and a surrey with a fringed top, a sixties cadillac in peeling red paint, a ski-doo, wood cook stoves, medical equipment from, i’m guessing, the 1920’s, leather bound hymnals from the early 1800’s, modern paperbacks, all the usual glasses and china, old clothes, boxes full of buttons, farm equipment, rugs, furniture—old, new and some homemade. It’s two hundred years of lives all for sale in an afternoon.


Snow Travel, from different centuries.

In my afternoon I started splitting the wood we found neatly stacked in the driveway on our return, less than half a cord. Chippers, the arborists, had been here while we were away and taken down some large branches that were hanging over the gardens and house. After a bit of that I did some more work on the flower bed that I’m clearing for the herbs. An entrenched, established flower bed is tough to clear if you’re trying to save the plants. I moved some of the iris to pond side by the rock ledge.

New blooms: another clematis, turtlehead.


Clematis on the north end of the deck.

Clematis on the south end of the deck, the other white stuff is phlox.

Le Haute Ville.

8-19-10 QUEBEC CITY, CANADA: Today was another beauty, and we explored the upper old town, le haute ville. We walked uphill from the hotel on rue St-Louis which is festooned with flags and banners and street signs. From Porte St-Louis, one of the gates in the city’s wall, we walked around La Citadelle and back to the hotel. Later we did lunch on the Grande Allée Est at another outdoor place named St. Hubert. After lunch we walked the battlements, hit the outdoor art kiosks, took in another street show, acrobat couple, and took a break before dinner.

Dinner, our first indoor meal in two days, was at ‘Restaurant initiale’ on rue St-Pierre—fabulous. Check out www.restaurantinitiale.com, the courses were very complex with multiple tastes and textures of similar and contrasting foods and surprising combinations. NYC level of sophistication, worth a trip.

Vermont tomorrow.


Porte Saint-Louis.

Avenue St-Denis.

Rue St-Louis.

Rue St-Louis.

Le Basse Ville.

8-18-10 QUEBEC CITY, CANADA: We had breakfast outside near the hotel and then walked around le basse ville, the old town, Judy hit the shops, I took pix. After an outside lunch, we did more of the old town and eventually climbed back up to the upper town and the hotel. It’s a significant hike up and down. There is a funicular, but we feel morally obligated to climb after all the eating.

Le Chateau Frontenac est tres grand.



Le Basse Ville.

There are street shows, music, acrobats, break dancers, jugglers, singers, performing outside the hotel from morning until mid-evening, usually with a big crowd. The end of each show is ‘put money in the hat time’.


Break Dancers. Can you find a familiar face in the crowd?

Dinner was outside back in le basse ville at a great seafood place. While we ate a tour group went by every few minutes. After dinner there was another chance to climb the hill and catch an evening show.

Evening Acrobat.

Bon Soir, Le Basse Ville.

Quebec, Canada.

8-17-10 QUEBEC CITY, CANADA: We drove up here this afternoon after boarding the dogs. It’s a four hour trip with almost no traffic until the metro area. We’re staying at the Chateau Frontenac, an enormous hotel on the cliff above the St. Lawrence River. The center city is beautiful with outdoor restaurants, restored stone buildings, cobblestone streets, church spires and steeply pitched roofs and towers, and flags all over the place, street music, art galleries. We walked around late afternoon, snacked and then had a great dinner in the lower town.


Lower Town Square.