Leaving downtown Boston we drove back across Massachusetts (with more fall color, but only just beginning) on our way to visit Ellen and Larry in rural Vermont…
they live on 20 or so acres near Dummerston, Vermont, which is near Brattleboro…and with good directions we actually found them. The quilts were airing as a welcome…
and the view from the deck was good…
We had a bit of a drive-about and gathered supplies
I’ve heard of free range chickens, but these ladies had their own riding toy…
…the salade nicoise was yummy!!
The next day we did a drive-about visiting the home of the Marlboro Music festival
Rudyard Kipling’s house, Naulakha…now available to rent for a vacation(!)
and on to Brattleboro…a gritty and charming red brick city that captivated us…
where we noted the Hotel Pharmacy and wondered why it wasn’t called “The Church Pharmacy”…??
Sunday was church day and…it’s all true, Vermont is filled with small white churches. On a certain weekend each year, Vermont churches are the sites of PIE…here’s the Dummerston church (where Larry was once the minister)….
and the Guildford church (where Larry was once the minister and now he and Ellen sing in the choir)
lunch at Burdick’s…
Walker’s farm stand
and a soup supper in Ellen and Larry’s cozy house…a house where I could sit and quilt and talk to Ellen while she made our soup
Ellen is the author of the oh-s0-wonderful “SNAIL BLOG” in which, in small paragraphs and witty asides and hilarious descriptions and heart-felt comments she writes, postcard after postcard, about life in Vermont. Over the last few years I’ve come to know about Robin and Nancy and the music of Marlboro, the shops of Brattleboro and the singing venues, the winter woes and the summer glories, so this was a visit to a familiar place. I’m always afraid the snail blog is about to stop, that there will be no more stories of this Vermont life…but, GOOD NEWS! She has a few more post cards yet to write…
But alas, this sweet visit came to end. Fond farewells, into the trusty Rogue…
out on to the highway with the Marsden Hartley sky
in a day or two up INTO the sky
and home…
just in time to head to Eugene the next night for another award for Mr. Hull
(You’ll be happy to know that only 40 of the 215 years in the classroom were his…)
On The Way 
Bonnie, I lived vicariously on your recent trip east…..thank you, thank you
for your pictures and stories. Glad you are safely home in time to get to
Eugene…Yea Roger! I am collecting leaves for those “wax paper” specials.
I should have asked you to bring a leaf…Lynne
It was wonderful to see Vermont again. I loved our visits while Colin was at school in Brattleboro. It is such an interesting and beautiful area.