Well hello
there! It’s been a long time. I thought I would post yesterday, but first
days back at work can be rough, no? This
will be a long post with a bunch of pictures, so grab a cup of coffee or tea,
or an adult beverage and sit back.
We had a great
vacation. It was just wonderful to get
away. The weather was pretty good the
entire trip (only had rain one night and a few drizzles on a couple of days). We did not see a lot of color (more in MA
than in VT which was a surprise), but managed to have fires every night except
the rainy one. First we headed to the
Woodstock/Saugerties area in NY. It was
a relatively short drive for us (3 hours or so) and we had time to set up our
camper and then relax before dinner. For
our first night we had steaks and veggies done over the fire:
Don’t know
if you can read the coaster on the table, but it’s one Fletch picked up last
year and says: “If drinking on the front
porch counts then, yes, call me outdoorsy.”
LOL
It was a
very cute shop with a small selection of teas, mugs and yarn. I did buy some gifts there, but the only
thing for myself was a replacement tape measure.
From there
we headed to Rhinebeck!!! What a cute
and fun little village. Lots of
boutique-type shops, coffee houses and restaurants. We stopped in Al Stickle’s Variety Store at
the back of which is the “yarn garage.”
A fun place with really nice yarns.
Since I knew I had two more shops to visit, I practiced major restraint
and only came away with this skein of yarn.
A little
sparkly and fun!
Our next
stop was southern Vermont. There is a
very nice shop in Brattleboro, but since I had already visited there a few
years back, we skipped it. I wanted to
get to the cemetery where my parents’ ashes are buried. This was the very damp day. So Much FOG.
This was driving up the road to the cemetery:
And there
was one tree beginning to turn:
This is (to
me) a beautiful place – nestled in the Green Mountains, by a river. A few years ago Fletch was walking around and
discovered a grave stone for someone who fought during the Boston Tea Party! Anyway, I had a little chat with my parents
who are doing fine. It was misty/rainy,
so we did not stay long. That afternoon
we managed to get in an hour’s walk along side the CT River. And despite the dampness, we managed to have
a peach pancake breakfast the next morning!
There is
just something about food cooked outside that makes it so delicious!
The first
afternoon we went to Webs! It’s big, but
not as overwhelming as I thought it might be.
Everything is organized really well and the people are helpful. The back really is like a warehouse with
metal shelving and tons of yarn. It’s
the type of place where I should have had a list of projects and yarn
requirements…but I didn’t…so I just got a few things:
The bottom
two skeins are so soft and a lovely spruce color. They are a blend of alpaca and bamboo and I
plan to make socks for Fletch. Those
skeins were deeply discounted. And here’s
a shot from the front of the store:
It was
starting to rain a bit and Fletch wanted some coffee so we drove to a coffee
shop. I spotted this tea that they were
selling….not appealing to moi:
After that
we walked a bit around Northampton and ended up getting subs to take back to
the camper for dinner. Neither one of us
felt like cooking in the rain. No fire
that night – we stayed in the camper knitting (me), reading (both of us) and
writing (Fletch).
The next day
turned out to be beautiful.
We headed up
to Montague and the Book Mill which is just fabulous!
( http://www.montaguebookmill.com/) Our timing was perfect for lunch at the
restaurant (The Alvah Stone) and we were able to sit outside by the waterfall.
Our meals
were delicious and I wish I had been in the mood for a drink.
Look at the cocktail list:
Here’s a
shot of one of the rooms inside the Book Mill:
We each got
a book and we bought some fun cards. One
of my favorites (from The New Yorker):
The day was
still young, so we headed back to Northampton and the last yarn shop:
Northampton Wool. What a lovely shop.
Lots to choose from and very welcoming.
I came out with:
The latest
issue of Laine (FABULOUS!!!) and a fun skein of sock yarn (or course).
Before
heading back to camp we stopped at:
The Pie Bar
in Florence! We both had Salted
Chocolate Pie and it was so good. We
also picked up some maple-nutmeg cookies for Colin & Mailing.
The next day
we headed back to the Woodstock/Saugerties campground for one final night. I managed to finish the 2nd green
sock!!!
Our last
night and I finished the one and only project I had brought on the trip! I don’t knit in the car, so it all worked out
just fine.
We got home
on Friday afternoon. Saturday morning I
met Dee for coffee which was great (it had been too long since we had gotten
together). The balance of the weekend
was playing catch-up with laundry, grocery shopping, etc.
And…the
weather has been pretty much awful since we got back – Humid, too warm (we ran
the AC Sunday!!) – everything is damp and sticky.
I’ve managed
to start a new sock, but I’ll save that for another post. Thanks for reading this LONG one.
