Hollister Hill Farm

One of our favorite places to go in Vermont is Hollister Hill Farm in Plainfield.

When we lived in Montpelier we used to come out here for honey, bacon, and eggs and to walk around the barn.

It's waaay out on a quiet dirt road.

I don't know if this is a Vermont thing but the store is entirely self-serve.

In this day and age of distrust, it's pretty amazing that a farmer in central Vermont leaves a box full of cash on the counter and trusts his customers to make their own change!

He trusts his customers and in return, his customers are trustworthy. This makes me happy.

You are also welcome to wander through the barn and see the animals, provided you follow some simple rules.

When we're there we always wander through and say "hi" to the animals.

When you buy milk of cheese, he labels them with the cow's name so you know who to thank. This is Sheila. We bought cheese from Sweet Stephanie.

This is what being a free-range chicken is all about. They have the run of the place. You'll be happy to know that I cropped a cow-pie out of the picture. I thought it distracted from the pretty chicken. You're welcome.

There are lots of pigs. The larger they are the louder they grunt. We were there at feeding time so they were making a lot of noise when we walked down to look at them. I'm here to tell you that if I'm ever alone in the woods, and I hear a sound like the adults make, I will be hauling my nearly forty-year-old self straight up a tree. They sound downright menacing!

OK, these don't sound menacing, they are the piglets. Just relaxing on their hay.

Bigger piggies...

Even bigger piggies. I want to install hidden cameras to see if they actually swing on that tire when no one's around.

That's not a pig, that's a hog.

We happened to get there at exactly the right time, because the farmer walked out, handed Lu a ginormus bottle and asked her if she wanted to feed the calf... Um "YES!!!"

Do I hear an "Awwwwww" Awesome experience!

Here's Lu giving mama a pat.

Oh patient cow. I love cows. I want a cow. We don't have enough lawn for a cow. Boo.

But mama cow wasn't the only mama in the barn.

Can I get another "Awwwwww...." Mama cat was actually fine with people holding her babies. I don't know what that says about her parenting skills. Do cat's have parenting skills?

We had a great time, we always do. If you go to Vermont, to Plainfield, find your way down some back roads to Hollister Hill Farm and grab some bacon. I'll leave you with a picture of the farmhouse.

I shall see you on Monday!

Have a great weekend!
H

The Lake House at Elmore

Hello Everyone,

I'm back. I was on a trip to my home state of Vermont. Hun, Lu, and I stayed at my cousin's beautiful lake house, we spent time with our wonderful friends, and visited some of our favorite places. I love it there... I miss Vermont. *sigh* ...Well, I miss it until I remember what it's like in February when it's forty degrees BELOW zero. Did you know that Fahrenheit and Centigrade meet at -40°? Now you do.

Then I was working on the house putting baseboards in the kitchen, adding some wainscoting and doing both of those things pretty badly. Yes, I will show you. You know that I love a horrible "before" especially when the "after" turns out well... Of course this is my house so the quality of the "after" remains to be seen.

Any-hoo, I thought I'd take you on a tour of my cousin's lake house.

Jon and Betsy Anderson are my cousins (OK, technically, Jon is my cousin) and they have a lovely bed and breakfast in Montpelier.

If you're ever visiting Montpelier, I recommend staying here, it's just as beautiful on the inside, you can walk to town, & Betsy makes a fantastic breakfast. If you're planning on being a "leaf peeper" you would need to call now for 2013, it fills up very quickly during peak seasons.

A few years ago they built this house on Lake Elmore. They spent years designing it. One of their goals was to make it look like it's been there for a long time. They succeeded! It blends in with the other older houses along the way. It also doesn't look as large as it is. They did a great job disguising the square footage from the road. It looks like a cottage but it's three times the size of our house!

I love the bungalow/arts & crafts feel to it. The turquoise is pretty awesome too.

Here's what you see when you walk through that door:

That's the dining area. I love the dark floors with the light maple stripes in it. 

When you walk around the table and look into the living room, here's what you see.

It's just so light. I love all of the windows.

Here is the view standing next to the fireplace looking back at the table.

Over in the corner there is the kitchen. Which is awesome.

Those are soapstone counter tops. Hun and I have serious counter top envy. Did I mention that I LOVE all of the windows!

Here you are standing by that table and looking back toward the living room.

Check out that sink.  

Upstairs is an office and two lovely bedrooms, the first floor has a bedroom and then there's a family room and two more bedrooms in the basement, which is where we stayed. Here is where Lu and I slept:

More windows. It's the nicest basement I've ever personally been in. 

Here is the room where Hun slept:

Both bedrooms have a french door out onto the lower porch. It was so nice to wander out onto the porch first thing in the morning.

Here is the back of the house:

Those are the windows to Lu's and my room on the right and Hun's window is on the left.

Here's the whole back of the house. Wow, right?

Oh, and we need a view of the lake.

Here is Lake Elmore at sunset:

It's a quiet, peaceful lake. 

Jon won a Better Homes and Gardens award for this house. 

Cool huh? I think they deserved it. 

Here are some of the other residents of the lake. Lu was feeding these guys every night. By the time we got back at night there was a whole host of them waiting for her. I'm sure that they missed her.

I was debating about putting a pic of the laundry room because it's so neat and organized, but I decided not to, just in case Betsy didn't want the laundry room loose on the web.

Needless to say, we loved staying at the lake house. Jon and Betsy are so gracious for sharing their home with us. Jon said that one of the reasons that they built the house was so that all of the descendants of my Great Grandma Hinckley could go stay there and enjoy it. It's a really amazing gift! We hope to go back every year for the 4th. 

See you tomorrow!

H

20 Years with Hun!

I haven't had much to say lately, weird for me...

Anyway, yesterday was Hun's and my twentieth anniversary, WOOT! I thought that I would tell you our story.

We met in 1990 in Ms, Hardman's Jr. year Geometry class. He sat in the back corner by the window and I sat in the other back corner by the door. He will tell you that I was staring at him from across the room, I was actually staring out the window (that's my story and I'm sticking to it ;-) It took me most of the year to figure out who he was. It wasn't until a friend of mine told me that she was going to a dance with him that I put a name with his face.

I don't need to flirt I will seduce you with my awkwardness...

I was quiet and awkward in high school so when I decided to check and see if he was in fact the Roger that my friend was interested in, we had our first conversation, here it is verbatim.

Me - "Are you the Roger who's going to the dance with Danielle?"
Hun - "Uh yeah"
Me - "Oh"

Then I turned and walked away. No introductions, no "hello" zip.

Fantastic huh? It's a good thing he's into weird, awkward chicks.

Our first "unofficial" date was the Jr. Prom. Hun went stag and I ditched my uber-annoying date after I got there (he didn't care) and hung out with Hun. Our first official date was June 6, 1990 to see Total Recall, oh Ah-nald you're so romantic. Roger proposed senior year on my birthday and we got married about eighteen months later on May 30, 1992.

Heather's Observation: the amount of money spent on the wedding is inversely proportional to the length of the marriage.

Nah, I don't know if that's actually true, it just seems to be a phenomenon that I've noticed.

We had our wedding in the church we attended. The reception was in a tent behind the church. An elderly gentleman did our photos, all of the ladies of the church did a fantastic buffet of finger foods. A friend of a friend made the cake and a friend did the flowers. My voice teacher sang for us. I happened to be working at a bridal shop at the time so I worked for my gown and veil. My cousins Jon and Betsy gave us our honeymoon at their lovely B & B.

It was a great wedding. The people who loved us were there and a lot of them participated by bringing food, making favors, setting up, taking down, all kinds of ways. It was a nice celebration. It came to $1,200, take that Kim Kardashian.

Oh, and I'm still apologizing to my sister for making her wear the bridesmaid dress I chose. It looked like Victorian wallpaper. (Sorry T)

"Everyone who said it wouldn't work is dead now" Tink Bigelow.

Jim and Tink are friends of my parents who also got married at ages eighteen and nineteen. They've been married fifty-six years now. Yes, we did encounter some resistance to getting married. We spent the first few years of our marriage being annoyed at the "you'll never make it" pronouncements from some corners. One person actually recommended to my husband that we get a pre-nup. Think about that with two broke high-school graduates... Kinda funny. I will say that now that I have a daughter who is ten I can see their point.

We did stop regularly seeing the people who said we wouldn't make it, I mean, who wants to subject themselves to that kind of negativity? Unfortunately that has lasted to this day. It began as a conscious decision on the part of Hun but even though we no longer harbor any annoyance, we've never really re-established the relationships. It's a cautionary tale: be careful how you treat your loved-one's potential mate. If you were unkind and they get married then you might lose the relationship.

I tell my kids a version of that all of the time: "be nice, when you're an adult no one has to spend time with you."

Twenty years later, we feel we've proved them wrong.

I love you but I don't really like you... how is that possible?

Hun and I didn't like each other for the first five years we were married. I was manipulative, he was occasionally mean. We were stressed out. Never let anyone tell you that marriage isn't hard. We finally said the d-word after we found out that we were expecting Isaac. I remember sitting in an empty classroom at our college and saying "What are we going to do? We can't keep going like this." It was at that moment that we agreed that we didn't matter anymore, we were bringing a new person into the world and he deserved two parent's that loved each other.

So we shaped up.

OK, it wasn't quite that easy. We had to learn how to talk to each other and how to be patient with each other. It was work! It was worth it though.

My family likes Roger better than me...

Besides, if we got divorced, my family would have said "Heather! What have you done!" My mom and my sister would probably take my side, but everyone else... My dad thinks the world of Hun, my Grandpa loved Hun like he was his own so does my grandma. Hun lived with my great uncle and aunt for awhile and they loved him too. My cousin took Hun to New Zealand for two weeks. This doesn't bother me at all because I like him a lot too ;-) What can I say, I have good taste.

He dug his parent's basement by hand.

This is what I tell people when they ask what Hun is like. He's the sort of person who spent three years in high school with a shovel, pick ax, and a wheelbarrow digging a basement. That's a lot of dedication right there. At eighteen, he got a job working at a hospital so we could have insurance. He has always believed that it is his responsibility to provide for us. That's a pretty rare trait in an adult, never mind an eighteen-year-old. He consistently puts us before himself.

He puts up with me, a flaky, disorganized, fairly quirky wife. He's kind, patient, and  very funny. He's a great dad and a great husband and I have no illusions that I was the one who made out better in our marriage. He's one in a million and I'm blessed to have him!

Children learn what they live.

I'm sure that one of the reasons that we've had a successful marriage is because we both had parents and grandparents who modeled successful relationships to us. Roger's parent's have been married around forty years. My parents have been married for more than forty years. All of our grandparent's reached fifty years. They all had difficult times, they all pulled together when things got tough rather than pulling apart. They all treated each other with love and respect. They were teams. No matter what, they had each other. That's what we saw and that's what we do.

We've been through some tough times and we've had some sadness, I once had a friend who spends lots of time with Isaac tell me that raising Isaac, who is autistic, is a real testimony to the strength of our marriage. I had never thought of that as a test. Who knew? Through it all, we've always know that we could rely on each other.

So here's to twenty years with my best friend and favorite person! I hope to have way more than twenty more :-)

See you tomorrow!
H

Photo Friday Challenge - Animals

This week the Photo Friday Challenge with The Simple Things is animals. My favorite animal is my puppy Maisy.

Here is Maisy:

That's her "what on earth are you doing?" look. After I get that look she closes her eyes and tries very hard to ignore me. She's not really sure about having her picture taken. Modest fuzz-butt.

See you Monday!
H

Photo Friday Challenge #3

Photo Friday Challenge with The Simple Things. This week's theme is pocket light.

A photo with a pocket of light... how about Miss Lucie by a window?

I had a cooperative kiddo today. That doesn't always happen :-)

Happy Friday!
H

The Nutcracker

Well, I crossed the first item off of the 40 X 40 list:

# 31 - Take Lucie to the Nutcracker (I'm literally crossing them off on that post as I finish.)

We went and it was fabulous!

Hun, Grandboom (my mother), Lucie, her friend Madison, and I went into Boston on the 23rd for an evening performance. 

No pictures in the theater so Lu's toy will stand in for the event

The Boston Opera House is beautiful, dare I say "magical," at Christmastime. Our seats were good... actually, I think you'd be hard-pressed to find bad seats.

The sets were lovely. I understand that they were designed in Italy and that this is the last year they're being used. There are no photographs of the sets because the staff will blind you with a flashlight and publicly shame you if you try to take a picture in the theater. No, I don't have personal experience with the blinding shame, you only have to see it happen to someone else once before you decide not to try it.

At the end of the first act, the lights came up and Lu and Mads exclaimed "THAT WAS AWESOME!!!" I was really excited that they liked it so much because I love it too... However, that was short-lived because at the end of the second act Lu says "That was a horror show!" and she said the the spinning tutus "made me want to throw-up because they made me so dizzy" Oh how far you have fallen Boston Ballet, from "AWESOME" to "horror show" in the space of one act. I think it had more to do with the fact that it was approaching 10:00 PM. *Note to self - a matinee might be a better option next time.*

They did have to admit that Mother Ginger was awesome though. Mother Ginger was my favorite when I was little too, although Hun and I decided that our current favorite character is Heir Drosselmeyer. He may be the coolest godfather ever.

 All in all the night was a success! At least I'm calling it a success because in the car on the way home they said "Next year let's go during the daytime" right before they descended into slap-happy, over-tired giggles. So I'm assuming that it was a success. 

... Now for the other side of the story...

I sent Hun and Lu out a couple of hours before we left with these simple instructions: "Get Lucie a pair of dressy shoes to wear tonight." At least I thought that was simple, apparently I was wrong because she came home with these:

Oh, for the record, Lucie is ten.

I guess the look on my face when I saw them said it all. I tried to hide how annoyed I was but it didn't really work all that well... Yep, we had about an hour before we had to leave and the choice was those or sneakers. Guess what? Push-over mom let her wear them.

However it wasn't all bad. First of all, Lu is young enough and her dress was modest enough that she looked like she was playing dress-up, as opposed to looking like a prosti-tot (I said "wasn't all bad" which is not the same thing as "good" but I'm taking non-prosti-tot as a win). Second, Lu learned a very important lesson as she hobbled around Boston: High heels are painful! She said "I never want to wear shoes like that again!" and that's fine by me. I think high heels were invented by the same evil people who brought us foot-binding. I'd rather go barefoot than wear torture devices like those. So if she came away never wanting to wear them again, then I guess it was worth it... maaaaaybe.

The other outcome of the shoe debacle is that Hun has insured that I will never, ever, EVER ask him to take Lucie shoe-shopping again. It was genius on his part. Well done, dear. I'd fist-bump you but I'd be too tempted to miss at the moment...

Anyway, despite any evidence to the contrary, we had a great time and I hope it can become a tradition! 

I will see you tomorrow,

H

Variations on a Theme - HEARTS

Hey everyone, welcome to the first installment of "Variations on a Theme" which is my new monthly column. Variations on a Theme simply about a bunch of different ways to look at a shape, object, icon, etc.. This month is all about hearts.

Here is my mini collection of hearts.

I love these things! My sister, T, is largely responsible for this collection. One is iron, some are glass, wood, gemstones, rock & metal. I can't tell you my criteria for choosing what hearts get added, I just know them when I see them. So does T (fortunately for me)!

Above: These are a bunch of  hearts, that meet the undefined criteria, which I'd like to add to my collection. From top left: Rainbow Hearts from KraKra Craft, Slate Hearts from BHLDN, Zinc Hearts from Sundance, Pewter Hearts also from Sundance, Rock Hearts from Aid to Artisans, Micro Wood Hearts from E.J. Freeborn & Son, and Olive Wood Hearts from Nova Natural.

Art from the heart. From top left: Porcelain Hearts from Art Mind, "A Little Bottle of LOVE" from dekanimal, Tiny Heart Painting from Divisor Successor, Pride & Prejudice from Veronika, "Tree of Hearts" from molMolly.

Heart-shaped food, what could be better? Clockwise form top left: Chocolate cookies from Martha Stewart, Rose Water Marshmallows from Decorada, Realistic Heart Jell-o Mold (this one's for Isaac) from Perpetual Kid, Hot Cocoa and Marshmallows from Martha, Linzer Cookies from Babble.

Useful & beautiful hearts. Clockwise from top: Beautiful Bleeding Hearts for your garden from White Flower Farm, Heart-shaped Soap from Sabon NYC, Olive Wood Cutting Board on Amazon, Casserole from Le Creuset from Chef's Resource, Lavender Heart Sachets from She is Sew Crazy Too, Heart Copper Cookie Cutters on Amazon. 

Heart-shaped crafts for you to try: From top left: Hearts from Prints Charming as blogged by Ohdeedoh, Norah Gaughan's simple knitted heart pattern (I know, I've made some) available at Berroco. Super-cute felt hearts on Purl Bee, Heart-Felt Bag from Martha, Heart Pot Holders from Purl Bee, Polymer Heart Gift Tag from Poppytalk.

As I was putting this page together, my husband pointed out that every Valentine's Day my hometown of Montpelier, VT is phestooned (hee hee) with hearts by the Montpelier Valentine's Day Phantom. The Phantom's identity is a closely guarded secret... actually, I'm not sure that anyone really tries to discover the Phantom's identity, he/she can remain anonymous, it's OK. It's just awesome to know that every February 14th Montpelier will wake up to hearts all over the city. Even the Valentine's Day Blizzard of 2007 wasn't able to stop the Phantom! He/she is like the postman in that way. So, here are some photos from Mount-Peculiar on Valentine's Day from the Phacebook Phantom Phan Page :-)

Well, there you go! Hearts in lots of forms. Look for Variations on a Theme next month, let me know if you like it! Oh, and have a spooky Halloween!

H

Lucie's Nighttime Visitors

When Lucie was in Kindergarten my sister T (no, the name hasn't been changed to protect the innocent, I actually call her T) bought her a fairy door. Lu was really into fairies so T thought that giving her a door to invite the them into her room would be a great gift. It wasn't at first, Lu was like "Oh... it's a... door?" but being the polite child that she is she dutifully set it up in the hall outside her room. A few night's later the fairies visited Lu in the middle of the night. They left sparkly footprints and a note, it was AWESOME! Since that day the fairy door looks like this:

Bad picture. It's me, I stink at photography. It's on my long list of things to do,
somewhere after "finish the woodwork" but before "take up sky diving".

Lucie has had four different bedrooms in four different states since receiving the door, (hopefully this is the last room until college) and in every new room she sets up the door and rolls out the welcome mat for the fairies. Occasionally, Lucie likes to write the fairies a note and by gum the fairies write her back!

They have curly handwriting and names like Leaf, Fern, Rose, Lily, Ash, Birch, and Lilac. One day they even left autumn leaves all over her room while she was at school. The fairies are the ones who color the leaves and open the flowers don't ya know. They are a very important part of the ecosystem which is rarely mentioned in school. 

The fairies aren't perfect (the Tooth Fairy is particularly flawed but I'll get to that in a moment). They did start wiping their feet before they use the door so no more footprints, hallelujah. They occasionally forget to write back and it's interesting that they forget when Lu doesn't mention that she wrote a note... huh, weird. 

T also gave Lu a box of fairy trinkets to help them to feel more at home.

There's a fairy pin, a tiny shell, a pewter acorn, gemstone, wooden and rock hearts and some crystals. Lu also has a vial of fairy dust. These are either placed in the box or arranged around the door. It was a fantastic gift!

Here are some of the trinkets.

 The Tooth Fairy

It would seem as though there are many Tooth Fairies and that Tooth is a classification of fairy within the fairy community. After some lengthy Facebook discussions, it would also seem that some Tooth Fairies are very good at their jobs and others are very bad. Our Fairy with the classification of Tooth is a lush. She often imbibes in Mulberry Wine and leaves Lu's tooth money in very strange places, like mom's pocket for instance. I had to gently explain this to Lucie one morning when the Tooth Fairy left her tooth money in my pocket (Oh yes. I really did). FORTUNATELY, Lucie, being the gracious child that she is, gave the tipsy Tooth Fairy a pass for her eccentric behavior.  Phew! You're a lucky fairy Ms. Tooth! You should do better next time.

So, is your fairy with the classification Tooth good at her job or not?  Tell me about it!

Until Tomorrow,

H

Mackworth Island

Yesterday we went to one of my favorite places, Mackworth Island, in Portland. Mackworth Island is a lovely little trip. You can drive to the island (no kids on boats is a great, big plus for me) and then walk the mile-long loop. 


The wooded path is beautiful.

Don't you want to take a walk?

There are several beach access points along the way. 

You can't see the stairs on either side of the jetty leading to the beach

One of the beaches.

There is also a section where you can build fairy houses

Lucie, hard at work on a fairy house.

The finished house. If I were a fairy, I'd want to move right in!

One of my favorite things about Mackworth is it's a great walk for everyone. Little kids won't get too tired because it isn't that long and big kids won't be bored because there's lots to do.

My Niece for the "Little Kid" category and Lucie representing the "Big Kids."

Actually, I feel I should qualify that "even big kids enjoy it" comment. Isaac, my darling ray of sunshine,  does not like anything about woods, beach, outside or nature. He managed to carry on the entire time. His stream of consciousness went something like this: 
"Can we go now?"
"I'm thirsty I want a drink."
"THERE'S NO PLACE TO SIT!"
"I think I'm allergic to the sunscreen."
"I'M NOT SITTING ON THE STAIRS THERE ARE SPLINTERS IN THE STAIRS."
"I want to go to the Monster Store on the way home." 
"I'M NOT SITTING ON THE ROCKS, THERE ARE BUGS IN THE ROCKS."
"I need you to scratch my back."
" I want to watch some of Uncle Buck's movies when we get back."
"OH NO, NOT THE FAIRY HOUSES, I HATE THE FAIRY HOUSES!"
"I want to play Uncle Buck's video games when we get back."
"I'm soooooo tired mom."
"I want to take a shortcut back to the car."
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN THERE'S NO SHORTCUT BACK TO THE CAR!"
"I'm soooo hungry  I want to stop and get pizza."
"Well, does Auntie T have anything good to eat at home?"
"I HATE PB&J SANDWICHES!"
"Mother, I'm hot, it's sooooo hot out here."
"I think I need a bathroom."
"OH NOT ANOTHER BEACH! I HATE WALKING DOWN THE STAIRS TO THE STUPID BEACH!"
"I need hand sanitizer, I touched nature."
"Mother, I really, really hate nature."
"WHY DID YOU MAKE ME GO OUT IN NATURE, YOU KNOW I HATE NATURE."
"Rub my back please."
"No, rub my back here."
"Mother, I am very, VERY tired, you have no idea how tired I am."
"MY LEGS ARE GOING TO GIVE OUT, THAT'S HOW TIRED I AM."
"I want to read Uncle Buck's comics."


Can you see why we think long and hard before we take him places?


If you think I'm picking on him unfairly you should know that I just read that to him and he was laughing until he cried, then he said "Mom, will you rub my back?".


So I'll leave you with a picture of the three kiddos on one of the swings around the island. Isaac actually looks happy. He's faking.

Maybe that's a grimace.

Until tomorrow, 
H