Musings

We ticked off two big chores today, both before 12:45, after which we exhaled (you know the feeling) and more-or-less coasted. All good.

Posted at 7:52 PM | No Comments »

Somebody knows we’re leaving, and his new perch is going with us….

Just after I took this bee picture, and smiling, friendly older fellow in a dashing panama who was stretching his legs nearby invited me to do a few samba steps. It may sound like it could have been creepy, but it wasn’t at all. He gave a little bow and a thank you afterwards. I thanked him back.

We crossed a few rivers—this is over the Hudson—

…and passed through many states (New England proportions, not Midwest and Western). Yawn.

Posted at 8:28 PM | No Comments »

Cat-rise. 6:15am.

Display of unusable glass-blowing forms, Quechee.

Dam and covered bridge adjacent to glass-blowing operation (in old mill building, I assume), Ottauquechee River, Quechee.

1802 turnpike end marker, Woodstock.

Posted at 7:36 PM | No Comments »

This morning we toured the Vermont side of Lake Champlain. At the first stop, we found a canoe named Fiona, outfitted for a long-distance paddler, it seemed, or at least serious fishing.

At the next stop, I found ripe Rubus odoratus, the purple-flowered raspberry. I don’t remember sampling one before. It is nowhere near as tasty as the domestic kind, but not awful.

At the next stop, I spotted this special boat used by the North Hero Fire Department.

At this stop, we watched this ferry that crosses to New York state loading cars.

On a totally different note, don’t you notice these orange and white barrels? This is a construction site in Winooski, so after we left Lake Champlain.

Posted at 7:56 PM | 1 Comment »

I’m “battling” the deer for the black raspberries. The empty socket is one that I scored. Yum.

I especially enjoyed the sixty-one afternoon minutes I spent chatting with a far-away friend, watching the lake and gulls and clouds while listening and conversing. And I’m not much of a phone-talker.

Posted at 8:17 PM | 1 Comment »

When I was “little,” that is: of the age to play with critters like this, I would have been bothered by the sloppy molding and painting on these lions, and I would have ignored them.

Posted at 8:38 PM | No Comments »

Plants don’t have this kind of cognition, but I swear these daisies were posing.

Posted at 8:37 PM | No Comments »

We arrived at the cottage just before 5pm, after a straightforward drive up from Ohio, and only a dozen-minute delay at the bridge-crossing toll booth.

One of the crucial cottage-opening activities is to air out the place, which is easier upstairs with a fan. The big bedroom has a pair of under-eaves windows facing south, one shown here, and a pair of higher windows in the end wall. It’s not an optimal flow-through situation, but a fan does help to make it work.

My apps indicate it may get down to 62°F overnight, which sounds impossible to Atlanta-in-July-oriented ears. Hallelujah.

Quick note: smoke-at-ground-level predictions on airquality.weather.gov suggest we’re fine for a while here…yay.

Posted at 9:06 PM | 1 Comment »

The inception: a loud pop (blown tire).

The outcome: just fine.

It was okay because we weren’t on I-75, there was a wide shoulder, and it was a rear tire (so it didn’t affect steering).

The big plus was a tire place (actually several, but we only needed one) a mere three miles away.

And we needed new tires, anyway.

They promised they’d finish changing, balancing, etc. the four new tires by 3:30. In fact, we were on the road again just before 3pm.

Also, we’re on track to get to our previously planned hotel stop at a reasonable hour.

Posted at 7:33 PM | No Comments »

I did a morning errand down one of the main arteries nearby that is four-lane, two each way. However, today it was only one lane each way, with large trucks parked every eighth of a mile or so blocking the center pair of lanes. As near as I could tell, they were checking the storm drains below the street, or perhaps blowing them out. They had big pumps or motors making a fair amount of noise, and the truck guys were standing at a control center on the front of the trucks monitoring operations. At least, that was the impression I got.

Posted at 9:17 PM | No Comments »