Monthly Archives: August 2016

My recent blog post about the Class 4 road that runs by our camp in the hills elicited an intriguing comment from my neighbor and long-time town resident Amos Bell.  He told me that his maternal grandmother, Sadie Hagan Powell, had lived at the “Hagan Place,” (meaning our place), and taught school at the littleContinue reading “Land Records and Glebe Lots: My House History Hunt”

I love August vacations in Vermont, in part because I can bake using my favorite in-season fruits.  This time of year, the meadows, thickets, and byways of northern Vermont are bursting with a profusion of blackberries and apples. Down in the meadow below our camp, one of us picks blackberries just about every morning.  WhenContinue reading “A Blackberry and Apple Vacation”

This is Hagan Road, also known as town highway #46.  It’s a dirt and rock hardscrabble road near our camp in the hills of Essex County.  For decades, Edward and I and various friends and family members have walked this road, which ascends a steep hill and after another mile or so, makes a sharpContinue reading “A Pleasant, but Elusive Road in Vermont”

Yesterday I cleared out the overgrowth and rebuilt this stone circle up at our camp. I built it about five years ago as a place to grow herbs. It became a bit neglected, with tall grass and invasive oregano choking it almost out of sight. I pulled up all the grass, weeds, and most ofContinue reading “Stone Garden Circle”

Last Wednesday, August 17, Elvina Allen, also known as “Honey,” passed away at her home in Guildhall at the age of 70, about a month after being diagnosed with leukemia. I’m not sure my little town will ever feel the same to me without Elvina.  I am grateful that I had the chance to sitContinue reading “Elvina Allen. A Life Well-Lived, 1946-2016.”

First day of our stay-near-home vacation. We started off by harvesting from our Guildhall garden, which yielded turnips, leeks, cabbages, beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, swiss chard, and the herbs:  sage, tarragon, chives, mint, oregano, chives, parsley, fennel, dill and rosemary.   I wonder how many meals this will make for us during the next ten days? Continue reading “Staycation, Late August, Essex County, Vermont”

Last week, on my birthday, we decided to try a new hike, and ventured up Sugarloaf, a spectacular peak in the remote Nash Stream Forest of northern NH.   In the decade since we’ve lived in the North County, we’ve traversed Nash Stream Forest  on many occasions, usually to hike up North Percy Peak, a fabulousContinue reading “A Birthday on Sugarloaf Mountain, Nash Stream Forest”

As some of you may have noticed, I’ve neglected my blog for many months now.  That’s mostly because for the first half of 2016, campaigning for Bernie Sanders consumed almost all of my spare time. But in the weeks since the convention, I’ve had the chance to pause and reflect on this remarkable period inContinue reading “What’s This Bernie Activist to Do? (Never, Ever Lose Your Sense of Outrage)”