Post by Ella. The town of North Bennington was deeply offended when their resident author, Shirley Jackson based her dark short story “The Lottery” on their idyllic town. When we stopped to get a photo of Shirley’s homes, while Grubb was aiming for the perfect photo of her abode on Main Street, I sidled around…
The folksy farmer and the queen of the dark
Post by Grubb I don’t know if Robert Frost and Shirley Jackson ever sat down together and knocked back a few glasses of cider, but the places they resided into do their writing weren’t far from each other in the Bennington area of Vermont. So on our way to Providence on Sunday we stopped to…
From mountain to city: today’s route
Post by Ella. We reluctantly left our Eden in the Green Mountains to join the city folk in Providence. Why yes, we did make a few stops along the way. Grubb couldn’t pass up a stop at the Robert Frost house in Shaftsbury and a drive by of Shirley Jackson’s homes in North Bennington. Then…
We couldn’t help it, Mr. Frost
Post by Grubb. It’s Saturday. We’ll be in Rhode Island tomorrow. So after our visit to the American Museum of Fly Fishing and the Orvis fly fishing flagship store, we paid our respects to the rural American poet Robert Frost who, back in the day, had a cabin in the Green Mountains. So one last…
Our place in Sunderland
Post by Ella. We have an apartment on the lower level (first floor) of a three story house. Like our cabin/cottage in Randolph, this comes with a tremendous view, a nice porch with grill and hot tub, two bedrooms and a kitchen/living area. The place is heated with two heat pumps and solar panels provide…
One last escapade in Manchester
Post by Ella. We’ve been passing a nursery the last couple of days on our way to and from Manchester. We are staying in Sunderland which is just 6 miles down the road. The nursery has a splashy lawn decked out with straw-stuffed mannequins celebrating Fall and Halloween. Today, we stopped. There was a whole…
Casting back
Post by Grubb. There was an art exhibit at the American Museum of Fly Fishing we went to this morning. As i might have expected, there were paintings of people in mid-stream trying to hook the big one. Bent pole, taut line, straining angler, splashing fish, it all makes for a great field and stream…
Tie those flies
Post by Ella. “Which of you is the fly fisher?”, the grey bearded, robust man boomed as we walked into the American Museum of Fly Fishing in Manchester, Vt. “Um, neither of us fish at all, we just wanted to see what fly fishing is all about”. “Okay, let me get you started”, he said…
Book haven
Post by Grubb. On this road trip through the northeast it seems almost every town has a barn full of antiques and a white shingled house selling used books. One could promote a regional tour of used book stores modeling it after a scavenger hunt. Every old person getting on the Yankee Tour bus would…
Sculpted art
Post by Ella. The Southern Vermont Arts Center, along with its galleries, event venue, theater, and extensive trail systems has also a sculpture garden set on the rolling lawns and tucked into forest niches. Some were of the scrap metal ilk rusted by the elements, some wood carved, and of course there was the time…
Sugar bum
Post by Grubb. It’s hard to stop at any town Vermont without getting a sugar fix. Ella’s already given you a picture of the maple syrup farm we visited. Thursday when we drove through Woodstock we decided to take a break and stretch our legs. We didn’t get but a couple of blocks before we…
Contemporary time stamp
Post by Grubb There was no question about what world I was walking around today. The mangled machinery sculptures on the Southern Vermont Arts Center lawn were a vivid contrast to the sylvan background. Then there was the man walking his dog who I overheard talking into the wireless air. “Don’t worry about it. I…
Art as joy
Post by Ella. At the Southern Vermont Arts Center today. A tranquil setting. I was transfixed by the two special exhibits: Ashley Bryan and Sally Mavor. Sally Mavor has perfected the art of embroidery to stitch together her creations. Mixed media with exquisite needle work. Sally illustrated a children’s book written by Rebecca Bond, “My…
Back to the 21st century
Post by Grubb. It happened late Friday morning at the Southern Vermont Arts Center. There was the leaf-shuffling hike up in the foothills behind the center to give a nineteenth century stir to the blood. Then we took in the Ashley Bryan collection of puppets at the Arts Center. Artifacts of puppetry were kept in…
Fine dining in a furniture store
Post by Ella. And it’s not IKEA’s Swedish meatballs. Depot 62 in Manchester, VT bills itself as a furniture store with a central dining area. You can eat lunch or dinner and shop for a sofa or rug. We walked up the creaky wooden steps and into a blast of warm spice aroma with the…