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One of our visiting bucks has been looking a little lopsided lately.
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And while losing antlers is a normal annual occurrence for these big guys…
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This fellow has lost one side completely…
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And all but one small branch on the other.
Weird.
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If you’ve ever loved a dog?
Hell, even if you haven’t… please watch this video all the way though before you read my post. It’s 7 minutes of your life well spent. I promise.
Grab the tissues.
I’ll wait.
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The husband and I have been there, although it was winter and only a few four legged visitors were romping around.
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The chapel is small…
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But bursting at the seams with love.
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And when they said every square inch is filled with layers of pictures, letters, notes and expressions of grief?
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They meant it.
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I wept the entire time I was inside.
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Look around…
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How could you not?
If you’ve ever loved and lost a dog, or any animal for that matter… this quiet, unassuming, solemn place will grab your heart and tug. The outpouring of love, loss and grief is positively palpable from the moment you cross the threshold.
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I’m not a religious person… but there’s something otherworldly about this building on that little mountain in Vermont.
Something beautiful… and almost spiritual.
If you’re ever near St. Johnsbury, please go experience it for yourself. And don’t forget to bring a picture of that special someone who’s no longer walking by your side.
❤️
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You’re here, what else are you gonna do?
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This one got me thinking…. because to be honest? I’ve lead a charmed life and don’t have many regrets. I don’t tend to do many things I don’t want to do, so this was a puzzler.
I could say – accompany my husband to those boring military reunions he insists on attending… but he likes having me there and I love him, so what are ya gonna do?.
I could say – try those homemade kale chips my friend made especially for me because she just knew I would love them. I didn’t. Blech! 🤢
But for this question I think I have to say visiting Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, Virginia. We had a little person with us so she was thrilled…
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But paying $20 to park and $250 for four of us to walk around plastic fantastic town is not my idea of a good time. I knew I’d hate it and I did. I’ve always despised theme parks and Disneyland like amusements… they’re eye popping-ly overpriced , crowded and above all? Fake.
That picture was taken in their “European village” and sorry, but I wasn’t buying it. I’ve been to France and nothing about their French section felt the least bit Gallic.
So I’m not going back to Busch Gardens… what are you never doing again?
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Before humans went to space, there were chimps. And not all of them were lovable.
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With a name like Enos, it was inevitable.
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Naked space travel. Who knew?
And if that’s not enough of a mental image for you, here’s a paragraph about the horrors of elimination while floating above our planet.
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The fact that there are slews of researchers and scientists being paid the big bucks to design high tech Pampers makes me chortle.
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No gravity means no showers. That would be it for me.. sayonara NASA.
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Nope. No way. Not this chick.
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🤣
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Since my husband has been wasting time and money working in the basement, it was inevitable he’d discover some treasure. And for the first time in a long time… I’m not being sarcastic when I say that.
To my delight, he came upstairs the other day with these.
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A box full of old photo albums given to me by my late father’s sister years ago when she was moving. She gave us all kinds of unwanted things that were basement bound but these must have gotten mixed in with the rest, and sadly I’d forgotten all about them.
The photos are old, taken in England between 1910 and 1920… and just for fun I thought I’d share a few.
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My father as a boy. A well dressed dapper little lad, no?
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My grandfather and my aunt. Another dapper gentleman.
Unfortunately I never met him, as he died when my dad was 10 years old.
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My grandmother and another aunt.
I was 2 when my grandmother passed and have no memory of her. It may have been the era, but I don’t possess a single photo of her smiling either.
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My grandfather with two unidentified children. Apparently one of them was a daisy.
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My father loved the sea, as is evidenced by him taking the tiller at an early age.
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This is his older brother, who clearly was only trusted with toy boats.
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My grandmother and uncle. Oh, that hat!
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My grandfather, left, with an unidentified man in Cuba. Pops was a world traveler.
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My grandfather and father. Did no one ever smile for pictures back then?
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My father, building his own mini Stonehenge in Cornwall.
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For a place we never knew existed and just happily stumbled upon, it was more than a pleasant surprise.
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Lake Willoughby, 5 miles long with a max depth of 325 feet. A glacial lake parked between two fjord like mountains in Westmore Vermont.
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The path around the south end was easy walking and well marked.
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With some seriously beautiful views.
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The little beach was tiny, but I imagine it’s packed with swimmers in the summer.
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The boardwalk was a nice addition as the ground was a bit soggy.
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Shame it was so cold and windy, I could easily have pulled up a stump and relaxed here for hours.
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Even the stairs were kind.
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If you’re ever in the area check it out.
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And don’t forget your camera.
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The undiscovered country is always the best.. and when we travel, we love nothing more than stumbling upon a place we never knew existed.
Enter Lake Willoughby in Vermont.
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Imagine randomly picking a road to travel home and finding this.
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Not being in any hurry, we stopped.
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And groaned at the bad grammar.
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But bad spelling aside…. wow.
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There was a path that ran alongside part of the lake and though I wasn’t dressed for hiking, I happily headed out.
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This is a glacial lake and every part of it was glorious.
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My pictures don’t really do it justice, but in spots the colors were positively surreal.
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The wind was ripping and I couldn’t feel my nose, but we pressed on.
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Being careful not to trample any seedlings.
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Mountains, rocks and a glacial lake.
Yes please.
To be continued…
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All good things must end and after a wonderful 5 days in Vermont our mini vacation did.
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Vermont. The state where even private driveways have covered bridges.
As we left the resort and headed for the Northern Kingdom, I found proof it does exist.
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If only I could have found the garden.
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A lonely cemetery.
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The Kingdom is another world. Rugged, mountainous and sparsely populated.
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With some rather odd inhabitants.
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And as we were heading home, we discovered a hidden, and heretofore unknown to us, gem.
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Lake Willoughby.
To be continued…
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Just down the road from the snowflake museum…
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We discovered a gem.
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Housed in an old inn, the restaurant/bar was warm and inviting.
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Most of the dining sections were full so we grabbed a high top near the empty bar.
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Seeing the empty bar made me wonder about the quality of libations….
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But a stellar blood orange cranberry gin fizz allayed my fears.
Of course this was Vermont, so some of the menu items put me off.
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A skillet full of kale? There wasn’t enough gin in the state to make me order that.
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Ditto the falafel, though the maple chicken didn’t sound bad.
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But the clam chowder was homemade, rich, creamy and full of fresh herbs so I started with that.. accompanied by the most amazing peach cornbread with orange whipped butter you’ve ever tasted. Ooh la la! I raved over them so much the waitress brought me extra of both to take home.
The beer? I thought you might notice that.
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I tried both of these.
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Because a girl gets thirsty when she eats salad.
😉
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We enjoyed this place so much we stayed long enough to order dessert. (Mainly because the husband found a fellow veteran to talk to… and you know how long that can take.)
Pumpkin cheesecake for him, Key lime pie for yours truly.
If you’re ever in the Jericho area of Vermont drop in. You won’t be sorry.
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You knew there had to be some antique shopping on our trip.
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The husband refused to let me purchase this pair of chicken rocking chairs… even though I knew they’d be great on the barn porch. The $2,000 price tag might have had something to do with that.
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This old advertisement made us cringe. Clearly 666 didn’t have the same connotation back in the day.
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But look, it cured everything from headache to constipation . What’s not to love?
We hit a few stores and were about to call it quits but then, from the corner of my eye….
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A beer crate! At an extremely affordable $25 price. I was thrilled and I think the store owner was so happy to sell something he gave me these two vintage wooden darts (with real feathers) for free.
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Score!
Later in the day we arrived at our destination.
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The Old Red Mill in Jericho.
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A picturesque, well preserved piece of the past.
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One half the building houses a lovely gift store filled with crafts from local artists.
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And I liked the way they left the original mill works in place.
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In hindsight I really should have bought this book.
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Probably some decent blog fodder there.
But it was the other half of the building that I’d actually come to see.
To be continued…
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River's world..... 