Thanksgiving 2016

My last post started with this same shot from our front porch but with fall colors. This is what it looked like from Thanksgiving through our departure on 12/16.  Notice the depth of the snow on the pumpkin!

This year Gail, Colin, Leslie and Rob joined us for Thanksgiving Day. James, Sean and Will came up for most of the week. Sadly Morgen can't leave work Thanksgiving weekend due to her work at Anthropologie. Larry and Christine were in Morocco so they and Luke weren't with us this year. Vermont was blessed with lots of snow this year - happily for us! A month of cold snowy days was just perfect before flying south on 12/20 for the winter. After Thanksgiving Larry and Christine returned from Morocco and joined us for a few days. We did lots of hiking in the snow and at night they serenaded us on their guitar and fiddle. We left Vermont on the 16th and celebrated Scott's birthday and Bill Fonvielle's with friends at Pinxto Pincho Tapas Bar in Woburn - great night. Then had our Annual Holiday Open House at the Wolfs in Concord - a record number attended and it was perfect. Our next stop was a week's vacation with our oldest son Josh and his family in Costa Rica - covered in my next post.

The Smiths brought this beautiful Antipasto plate for
 Thanksgiving appetizers.

James & Scott relax with a drink before the meal and after
a good long walk in the snow on the AT

Colin enjoyed the first volume of my new
books on our Adventures on Scott Free.

Sean and Gail

Colin, Will, Rob, Leslie, Sean and James

Scott prepares to spatchcock the turkey.

The result was amazing - crisp skin and moist meat in half
the time!

Our dinner is mainly traditional to my family; turkey, stuffing
with onions, celery and apples, mashed potatoes, butternut
squash puree, turnip puree, plain & giblet gravy, two kinds of
cranberry sauce (homemade of course), sweet potatoes, and this
 year, roasted Brussels sprouts with walnuts & grapes. Growing up
we didn't have a green vegetable but scalloped oysters and
creamed baby onions.

Sean and I in the kitchen

And Sean with Leslie

James made the Brussels Sprouts

My pecan and apple pies (we always had pumpkin and mince as
well as apple - but these are now our families' favorites)

Gail and Colin (and the back of Heather's head)

Sean was our mixologist - yummy
specialty drinks were concocted.

One night for dinner I made Salmon Caprese in Puff Pastry for
dinner for Larry and Suzanne,

They provided some excellent music for us.

Christine was a revelation for us - we hadn't
realized she was an excellent musician.

Larry has always played the guitar and sang but now he's with
a local group in Essex and playing a lot.

Fall Colors

Looking down the walkway from our front porch here in Shrewsbury

This view and the next few are from a road walk in Shrewsbury

Smith Maple Farm

Cattle grazing at Smith Maple Farm

Another view from the road

This was taken another day on Lake St. Catherine

Sunflowers and morning glories on our garage

We discovered some new trails at White Rocks off Rt 140
not far from us - here on Ice Bed Trail

A view of  the White Rocks slides

Scott exploring the rock slide

Deborah & Dick visited us this fall and we spent a day at
the Shelburne Musuem

Dick, Deb and Scott in front of the Lighthouse built in 1871
 and originally sited on Lake Champlain's Colchester Reef

These 3D quilts by Dominique Ehrmann were gorgeous

It's a long walk around the beautiful grounds so we took a
coffee break - Scott here with Dick

Dick at the huge "backup" wheel on the Steamboat
 Ticonderoga, built in 1906 and moved here in  1955 - no easy
task!

Two of the many amazing sculptures by George Sherwood
shown throughout the grounds - they all move with the wind.

Now in late October most of the leaves have
fallen but once in a while we look up from the
trail and see a blaze of color.

The trail is a bed of multicolored leaves
that make for somewhat treacherous footing
but a great swooshy sound.

We went down to Maryland to see my sister Paula and James
& Morgen in Washington DC. We spent one day at the
Annapolis Boat Show.

Summer Fun

The view of our home as you come up the path from the parking area - just taken September 13th!

And now looking down at the pond, lawn, garage and shed from the path. Most of the flowers have gone now but it is still GREEN!

Well two months and more have gone by since I last posted. We've had lots of guests and only a few trips away - and those were short ones. Jenny and Julie Wolf and Gail Smith came for brief visits as did Harpal and Jennie Dharma with David Wood. Scott's brother Brent, his wife Wilma, daughter LaVern and grandson Joseph came up for a wonderful week. In September we had Tom and Coleen, cruiser friends formerly of "Unplugged", and my cousins Joanie, Kent and Nancy. Our trips away were to Karen and Ted Martin in Falmouth, MA, Gail Smith in Gloucester and Larry Barns in Essex, NY. Coming up next month we'll visit my sister Paula and James and Morgen down in Maryland/Washington DC. They'll be a visit to the Annapolis Boat Show during that weekend. Scott's looking at replacing our radar.
Then at the end of October we'll be attending Suzanne Falter's wedding in Oakland, CA followed by a week with daughter Zoe and her family in Palo Alto. Finally, we fly to Costa Rica for a week with oldest son Josh's family and then on to Guatemala and back to Scott Free on the Rio Dulce. Whew! The garden has been a constant source of work and enjoyment. The years of planting perennials have started to really pay off. We have color now the entire season. Without the help of gardener Katherine Heald it would all go to wrack and ruin but she promises that it will get easier. Hmm... Theater and concert opportunities are endless here. Just a sampling; Marriage of Figaro, Daughter of the Regiment, Magic Flute, Evita, Mama Mia, two segments of the Norman Conquests, Murder for Two, lots of chamber/orchestral music (VSO, Marlboro, Killington Chamber Music Festival and the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival) and much more low brow stuff. There's just so much to do. One constant is hiking. The Appalachian Trail is right up the road from us and we try to get some sort of hike in most every day.

Scott hiking the Appalachian Trail north of Killington

With sometimes steep descents

Everything was so green and lush

Gerry & Chryl Martin, neighbors and friends here in
Shrewsbury, joined us for an afternoon at the Marlboro
Chamber Music Festival.

We picked 20 pounds of blueberries at the Monadnock
Berry Farm

They were incredibly prolific! You didn't have to move at all.

Scott's brother Brent on a hike up to Little Rock Pond

Heather rests a minute on the trail

Brent's family took the gondola up Killington with Scott &
I to have lunch. Brent walked up.

Joseph, Brent's grandson, and I hiked up to the peak

It was a beautiful day

Celebrating at the top

Brent & Wilma with daughter LaVern and grandson, Joseph

We also hiked along the bike path in Falmouth on a visit to
Karen & Ted Martin

The view from their home in North Falmouth at sunset

Sean passes the baton to Laura on the 100 on 100 race. Sean,
Will, Scott Silverstein and girlfriend Laura, plus 2 others
ran 100 miles on Rt. 100 in one day. David & Leslie
Silverstein and ourselves spent the day cheering them on!

On the leg up Killington, Sean wore formal
attire!

At the top after an exhausting run uphill, he had shed
some of his clothing.

Will picks up the baton, now in the dark..

And takes off fast.

Gail, Heather, Leslie and Jen at the Quarry at Rockport

The inlet at Good Harbor Beach in Gloucester. That's Salt Island center distant and the Smith's home is on the cliffs far
left above the private section of the beach.

Scott enjoys a big plate of fried clams at Rockport.

Colin, Will, Sean, Leslie and Jen pose at White Shutters
 in Gloucester

Heather and godson Colin 

Heather and Gail in Gloucester 

Donna Swartz checks out the Library Haystack
Dinner & Dance Buffet at the Town Hall.

The Shrewsbury Community Blues Band entertained.

Larry, Christine and Heather on a hike along Lake Champlain
near Larry's home in Essex.

The view along the Lake over to Vermont

Heather poses on a long walk along Lake Champlain

Our beloved Senator Bernie Sanders speaks
at a rally in Brandon, VT

Coleen, Scott and Tom pose in front of their huge RV. They tow a car on the back plus there is a motorcycle mounted on the
rear of the RV and two bicycles on the car! This is their only home now. They sold "Unplugged" in March.

Tom Bartley and Coleen Coyle

Scott, Heather, Harpal, Jeannie and David pose at the
Mountain View Resort where we had lunch

My cousin Joanie came up for a visit with her husband Kent
and my other cousin Nancy. Unfortunately we only got this
one picture during a hike around Spring Lake.