Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jog!

 Hello My Friends!

It's been some time, huh?  Hard to believe I was away from this space for so long...but it was a wonderful break.  Now it is good to be back.  I'll share a few pictures and tell you a little bit about our vacation, but first some thank yous.

Our neighbors, Rob and Eva, took care of coming over daily to feed Mabel and let her in and out.  Thanks to the hurricane remnants, there was quite a bit of rain here and Mabel felt the need to stay in a bit.  Extra thanks to Dee and Steve who came over a number of times to hang out with Mabel, show her a little lovin' and affection and, of course, spoil her with treats!  Dee texted me pictures of Mabel which was wonderful, and we knew she was being taken care of so well.  That made our vacation all the more pleasant.

Initially we were not sure how our plans would work out.  We left on Tuesday, September 27th.  On Monday, the 26th, at around 4 p.m. I received a text and an email from AirBnB letting us know that our confirmed (and paid for) reservation for Wednesday night had been cancelled.  No reason or explanation...it was just cancelled.  We scurried around and found another AirBnB (more $$) for Wednesday, but that was not a good start to our trip.

So, where did we go?  Tuesday we were in Stanfordville, NY which is just outside of Rhinebeck.  Just shy of a few weeks for NY Sheep and Wool (which was fine by me - Rhinebeck would be crazy I'm betting!!).  That first night I managed to finish the 2nd Tidal Wave sock.  Good thing too, because by the end of the trip I had run out of socks and was wearing them!

After that we were in Southern Vermont, Northern New Hampshire, back to Southern Vermont and then finally Kingston, NY (again just outside of Rhinebeck).  We absolutely lucked out weather-wise.  We had beautifully sunny days with some cool (but not cold) temps.  Colors were at about max in New Hampshire.  We were staying in a house in Dorchester (Katie I am not sure where you are?) that the owner calls the Log Cabin.  (As Fletch says, it is a million dollar log cabin with a million dollar view!)  The owner, Keith, is the son of Lois, a friend and former client of Fletch's.  We stayed there last year as well.  Our friends, Lois and Dick were just down the road in their house.

One day we took the Mt. Washington Cog Railway to the top of Mt. Washington.  Breath-taking views.  Again we lucked out.  Mt. Washington is often in the clouds and often has nasty weather.  The day we were there was crystal clear and unusually warm (upper 40's).  Our train was in the afternoon.  Those who took the train up in the morning were able to see the Atlantic Ocean from the summit!  The sun was glittering on the water!  We could see far, but could not tell if we were seeing the ocean or not.  We were able to view Quebec, Canada as well as a number of peaks to the west in Vermont.

Back to Southern Vermont where the colors were not quite at peak, but still very beautiful.

That was the view from our AirBnB apartment in Marlboro, VT.  Our hosts were gracious enough to let us have a fire one night and even provided wood for us!

Fletch had bought this little folding grill/fire pit before we left on vacation.  Very convenient.  It folds completely flat and could be used for grilling as well as a little camp fire!  A little prosecco added a nice touch to our evening.

While in that area, we drove over to the (very pretty) cemetery where my parents' ashes are buried.  I had a little chat with them and then wandered around a bit.  In a prior visit, Fletch had discovered a gravestone and marker for a guy who had participated in the Boston Tea Party!!

Pretty cool and pretty surprising that he lived to the age of 94!

We arrived home Wednesday afternoon with enough time to unload the car and take quick showers.  Then we ran out to meet Colin & Mailing, Bonnie & Zhongren and Anna for dinner.  C&M had flown up from TX that morning for a wedding over the weekend.  We were pretty tired after our drive home, but it was so nice to see them again.

The garden is still producing:

The radishes are yummy and we will have the green beans tonight.

I spent the weekend doing laundry (no surprise there), switching out the summer quilt for the winter comforter on our bed and bringing out all my wool sweaters and putting away summer tops and dresses.  Fletch ran out yesterday and picked up a number of mums to have around the property.  Here is the yellow one by our front step along with a couple of pumpkins we had bought before we left.

I really like those bit, flatish pumpkins/gourds.

Finally, I'll leave you with a funny.  We love to find unusual and funny cards to frame and this one is the latest that we added to our collection (click to enlarge):

All in all it was a wonderful trip, but it is also very nice to be home again.  There were some places where we had no internet and no TV!  I actually enjoyed that, but Fletch felt a little out of sorts - LOL.