What started as a just over a week vacation turned into 2 weeks – I was in a rush to finish Dori’s dress, we had to say goodbye to my Grandma’s earthly-form, sort her things, etc — there were so many business-type things to do that I felt exhausted and strained. So we added a few days, to finish up painting the cabin, try to relax, & to visit with a few more people. Now I’m in the airport, about to head back to SFO – and I still want to stay in Vermont!
Vermont is clutchy. Hot days allow you to melt into the landscape, reading on hot rocks with your toes in the river, lightening storms and fireflies. Why would anyone leave?
S. is set on moving here, and I feel ready too – waking up to the stream burbling, hearing coyotes pad and snuffle past the cabin in the night, the pine plank wall smell. I’ve mostly ignored the internet & it’s been really good, but now!! I’ve just downloaded the photos from my camera and OMG so much goodness to share with you all. Coming up — a cabin update, a tour of a stunning handmade strawbale house with a living roof, the end result of Dori’s spirit wedding dress & a tour of her gorgeous light filled cottage, endless family cuteness, & woods woods woods!
My sister-in-law wrote this poem a million years ago, they have it painted around their bedroom and it was published years ago – it resonates so strongly with me, still.
We were raised here,
Somehow.
Among the trees and stones.
In a little world,
So different, so glad.
Among flannel shirts,
Cold rivers
And rusty pickup trucks.
Bending with the thistles.
Skinny dipping on
Heat-lightning nights.
Welcome back!! I’m excited for the cabin update.
We totally didn’t get enough done, againnnn. Rain + my brother refusing to teach me how to shingle. Ah well, he better hustle if it’ll be done pre-wedding.
Thanks for the teardrop shelf advice! We did paint it white!
From the small amount you posted, it does indeed look heavenly there. I love New England. I’ve never been to Vermont, but it’s on my list.
You are so sweet. Love & miss you. I wish we’d had more gab time, I feel rather frazzled lately, with kid/money/life craziness, but someday,(in the near future, I hope!) I can come borrow a cup of sugar, and we can have tea and cry, and laugh, and do all that sister shit. XXOO. Safe journey!
Just keep an eye out for my dream 2 story brick colonial! Or, you know, that one in Chelsea that Wellspring wanted to buy. Sigh. Giant Christmas trees, dinner parties, wide plank floors. I can has?
As I get older, I feel more pulled toward the family place: for me, this is Mount Desert Island, Maine. My sister and I were discussing a couple of months ago whether the pull is just getting old or if it is a sign of impending apocalypse! that our cells are aching to go to a place that would be hard to disturb even during a world war. Can’t wait to see your updated pics of your cabin….one of these days I hope to have one in Maine, too! But until then, I will love all the times I spend on Locust Lane, Salisbury Cove, Maine! It is a magical place, where we have the woods and the ocean and the homeplace all rolled into one. Ahhhh woods!
Maybe both? Maine is so gorgeous, too. I feel like I need to be close to my parents as they get older, and my brother’s children as they grow up! That, and I want to start trying for a baby soon, like this year, so…no babies raised in cities, thanks. Unless it’s Paris.
I need to look up all your places! I used to spend summers with friends in Wiscasset.
oh, this gave me such a bittersweet ache in the chest! i know the feeling you describe very well. some of my happiest times were in new england…eating corn on the cob under pines on vinalhaven…and i miss vermont as well. there’s never enough time, is there?
so excited for the coming posts…it sounds like there is some serious beauty in store!
That photo of you reading on the sun porch has put a FIRE IN MY BELLEH for needing one. Also, SUMMER. It’s so frickin dreary in the Bay.
Everyone that I know that has been to Vermont, really makes me want to go to Vermont.
You would LOVE IT. It’s filled with your people, if you go to the right places!
I cannot wait to go there. Keep looking for the perfect Victorian mansion for us, darling! Also, I’m coming to you in August! When shall I book tickets for? More pictures and stories, please!
Phone date ASAPPPPPP
i mega-missed not having you around but i’ve been looking forward to the updates!
Yes but!! When we move I’ll be in NYC every other weekend, I’m sure!
you’re back! you’re back! i’ve missed you! i like the sound of clutchy Vermont indeed, we’re harbouring a dream to go on a road trip (to the usa) next year. i already have so many places i’d like to visit.
in other news, we have just got back from a mini camping adventure, and it was so good for my soul, meadows full of poppies, ice cream, rock pools, the first apricots of the summer, icy cold green gold rivers. siiiigh. lots of goodness.
safe trip home dearest X
Yummm! We are thinking about Ireland as a honeymoon, if those crazy air fares go down. Will you drive here in a magic flying car?
If you want to stay in the cabin, let me know!
eeeeep! Ireland! are you really?
and i will, oh i will!
Reading that poem just now shot a spike of nostalgia through me so intense I almost teared up.