The twelve days of Christmas in Vermont normally, at some point, include snow. However, one of the more reliable traits of a true Vermonter is that you never, ever assume that the weather, even one week out from Christmas, will determine the forecast for the big day. Even Christmas eve forecasting is dicey. In year’s…
Category: Holidays
Decorating
We are insistent on keeping Thanksgiving as it’s own holiday. This year, more than any previous, we have seen holiday lights draping people’s walkways, stores fully decked out for Christmas before all Halloween candy has been consumed, and we’ve watched people zoom past us with trees tied to the roof rack of their cars, (finally,…
Happy (New & Improved) New Year
Before Thanksgiving we had snow, not just a dusting, but piles. We pulled on winter coats, gloves and boots to go to my sister’s summer place to share turkey. It felt wonderful to walk into the camp, stomp our feet and unwrap ourselves from wool. The week before Christmas colored lights reflected in the snowbanks…
Winter Lights
I like to save a bit of holiday shopping for the week before Christmas. Normally the idea of being crushed by impatient people in the aisles of a small shop is off-putting, but this week it appeals to me. I manage to find an open spot to put my truck, happy to see the red…
How Much Is Enough
The difficult days are the ones filled with the “why me?” or, maybe, “why not me?” We all know what it is to have someone make comment from the corner of their mouth; wondering how you possibly manage to live in a house with “only” one bathroom, drive a car that a family of four…
House Wren
We woke up this morning and bounced. Memorial Day weekend in Vermont means one thing to us: planting. For weeks we have lugged vegetable flats back and forth from outside sun to the garage for protection from the nightime cold. A sudden frost alert means that when I am done tucking animals for the night,…
New Year In The Blue House
There ought to be a mandate for fireworks as the year changes. Not so much because it is special, more so as to shake us. The New Year falls close to the solstice. It does, as it should, create a stirring in our hibernation. Tucked deep in thought rather than clipping fields, I find myself…
Still
The weather was not traditionally “Christmas-y” two weeks before the holiday. We had unseasonably warm temperatures leaving only traces of earlier snow spilling into darkened crevices in the woods. Any precipitation fell in drops rather than flakes. We braced ourselves for a green (brown) Christmas. We planned on taking the week of Christmas off, knowing…
Solstice
The snow starting to quietly fall yesterday, as if someone flipped a switch. It arrived without a fanfareof great winds, a soft gift, and it continued through the day piling about six inches before dinner. Ipulled on boots after dark and headed out to settle animals for the night. Although Paul had cleared thedriveway with…
Small Gestures
We just finished the first Youth Orchestra concert in three years. Our young group, all dressed in whiteand black, overcame first-time-on-stage nerves and played beautifully. While the older groups playedonstage we sat in the front row watching. I glanced over, now and then, to see our kids sitting on theedge of the red velvet seats,…
Gifts
The trees are strung, the lights are lit. We have wreaths on each outside door and a jumble of sleigh bells swinging from the door handle whenever someone enters the house. December. Every year we host a neighborhood gathering. In Covid, we had everyone outside: we rented a large space heater to warm the garage,…
Gratitude
Yesterday we spent the day transforming the house from fall to winter celebrations. We cut the two Christmas trees that we had tagged in October: a cold, wet drizzle falling, reminding us that it was still November. The dogs stuck their heads out the window as we drove through town, making us look a bit…
Wrapping Up
It is the week of Thanksgiving. Snow is on the ground. Temperatures will plummet to fourteen degrees tomorrow night. I pile wood into the stove and take my place beside it to write: my brain filled with details of Thanksgiving dinner. My hands perpetually smell like the Music garlic we grew. I take delight in…
All Hallows Eve
Muir is sitting next to the front steps. Guided by intuition, he knows I have the ATV key in my front pocket and chores to do I walk past him and he trots along behind me to the lower hay storage. He lies down and looks up as I swing myself onto the seat, start…
Born Under the Sign Of Water
We are in the heart of summer. We choose our week at the lake to coincide with the Fourth of July, not so much because of the fireworks but because of the other heat. As much as you can count on weather in Vermont (20% max)- that particular week can usually be counted on to…