Cathie's visit

Cathie's first career was as a farmer and cheese maker. She is currently an art teacher in Saint Gaudens, France and crossed the "pond" with their English teacher and 20 plus students from her school. She stayed with me for the two weeks they were in Vermont. There was no school on our Veterans Day and I needed to check out flooring in Glens Falls, NY for the cottage bathroom. On our way we saw a chainsaw carver and stopped to watch him work. I'm assuming that Cathie's "Bear", the fellow she lives with back home, is much cuddlier than this one.

More bears. Cathie had asked me where our current American Indians live. We got to speak with the carver and found out that he was half French and half Indian. Amazing coincidences.

Going through his showrooms was an interesting experience.

The tables were beautiful...I like wood...but so huge that they would never fit in my house and so heavy that if they did fit I'd never be able to move them for cleaning. I couldn't resist taking a picture of a few of the prices! Way out of my league.

The Saturday before this we had gone to the Farmers Market in Rutland. I take everyone there because the mixture of food and crafts is fascinating. Besides, I like to support our local farmers. Cathie wanted to buy a bowl from Bob. They got to talking and he invited her to come to his studio to make a wooden bowl. We took him up on that offer...

After showing us around, Bob took a chunk of wood, drilled a hole in it and attached a metal plate that would hold it to his carving machine.

Cathie had to stop taking pictures because Bob made sure she got involved from start to finish. Her first job was to tighten the bolts. The machine was going to rotate the wood and letting that chunk loose to go flying through the air was not an option.

After the wood was attached, Bob chose the appropriate curved blade. He has made all of his equipment which made it even more fascinating to watch what was happening.

As the rod pushed the blade deeper, the shavings would build up in the space that was being created. Cathie would have to back up the blade to let the shavings fall out so the blade would have space to cut more.

That created the rough outside of the bowl. The bottom needed to be flattened, the surface smoothed, and an edge formed...all done at a slower rotation. It's still not a bowl.

Bob chose another blade and the cutting process was repeated.

It still needs some finishing touches, but here's the first bowl and a proud creator.

 

The inside of the bowl needed to be sanded smooth. Then it was coated with a bees wax and mineral oil mixture. I am now the proud owner of this bowl. Really neat to know how it was made.

There was still a lot of wood left from that original chunk, so sure enough, they repeated the whole process and made a second bowl. Then Bob showed us how he adds pictures to his bowls.

Bob cuts out pictures that he likes and then uses a wood burner to outline the picture on his bowl.

He uses watercolors which don't bleed into each other because of the outlining.

He will add a tree and sap bucket to this picture because the hole in the bowl was made when its tree was tapped for maple syrup.

Cathie wanted to see some small farms so we visited several right within Mount Holly. These goats fascinated me because of their eyes.

Cathie wanted pictures of every possible critter we could find, even dead ones. I parked so she could "shoot" a dead skunk (pun intended). When she returned to the car I was laughing because she was amazed at how pungent a skunk smells. It's something you just have to experience; there are no words to describe the odor of a skunk spray. Coming home after dark one night, suddenly in the car headlights we saw movement and then realized we were seeing 2 moose! It was too fast an encounter to even think about cameras, but there was no mistaking what was crossing the road ahead of us! Two! With the size difference between them, I would guess it was a mother and calf.

Cathie chased wild turkeys and even climbed down river banks to get her pictures.

I took Cathie to the best beaver spot I knew of, but we never got to see a beaver. I'm sure they were cuddled up and staying warm.

 
Cathie was surprised to see this sign on an elementary school.

Why should such a sign even be needed?


She also took pictures of road signs that said "Bear Crossing" and "Moose Crossing."



Another road sign she asked about said "Adopt a Highway." I explained that organizations would volunteer to keep 2 miles of a highway's borders clear of rubbish. Things fall out of our pickup trucks and too many Americans toss their beer cans and other trash out of their car windows.

We also found more covered bridges. I finally located the one I'd missed in Woodstock when I was showing Elisabeth and Faz around Vermont. It's called the Middle Bridge and it's tucked right into the middle of the town. It has a separate walkway for pedestrians.

   

This covered bridge uses a lattice structure. Those are the same kind of pegs that hold my house together. Cathie was having trouble remembering the word peg. Then she used mnemonics. All she had to do was remember that the dogs I foster are pugs and that was close enough to then remember pegs.

And there she is, climbing down a river bank again!

Between Visits

Awareness improves observation. On the way to my yearly visit at Dartmouth Hitchcock Hospital, traveling a road I have driven on many times, I suddenly noticed a covered bridge I had never seen before. It is right near Downer's Corner.

The overhang keeps snow and rain from rotting the ends of the wooden bridge.

We have had chilly weather. Since my nose likes to run in the cold, I had left some Kleenex in the glove compartment of my car. When I reached for the Kleenex, I discovered that a mouse had been visiting. He or she had left behind the beginnings of a winter nest!

 A Canadian company wants to build a pipeline for fracked gas into Vermont and under Lake Champlain. I think using fracked gas is a horrible idea, obviously putting profit ahead of the planet. I learned that a protest rally was to be held in Montpelier and decided attending was worth the 2 hours to get there and the 2 hours to get back home.

This is the capital building in Montpelier

That's Norton from Norton's Gallery holding the sign with the dead fish. I had emailed them that, because of our conversation when I had been there with Elisabeth and Mary, I was going to be at the rally. It was the one evening they were going to have to relax, but since I was going they felt they needed to be at the rally too! The big sign in front of the capital says "No New Fossil Fuels."

The people "in" the bus are on the Public Service Board that approved the pipeline as well as our governor. When the people at the rally marched to Shumlin's office, right next door, there were people who got under this bus so it could be in the parade.

This was a clever way to illustrate the pipeline we were protesting.

These streamers hang outside my living room window to keep birds from flying into the glass.

It was a cold day, but the silver ribbons sparkled with color in the sunlight.

Elisabeth's visit

There are dog's on the roof, birds on the fence, and more creatures inside; it's Norton's Gallery. Mary joined us for this jaunt northward.

Afterwards we took the ferry across Lake Champlain and headed for the cottage.

I needed to gather flowers for school vases and knew just which hydrangea bushes could use some trimming.

We also stopped to gather cattails on our way home.

 

Another day's journey was a train ride to see foliage. Mimi came with us. We started in Saratoga and followed the Hudson River to North Creek. There we had 3 hours to wander and shop before the return trip. We went to a chocolate factory, didn't see chocolates being made, but we did buy chocolate turtles to eat on the train ride home. 

There was a cold draft aimed right at Elisabeth's head and shoulder. Mimi loaned her the hat. On the way home it was my turn to borrow that hat!

It was a nice train with big windows, but a little more heat would have been helpful.                  

                                                                                                                                                                   What a neat way to dress up a cement wall. It has taken 3 years to get this far and all sorts of people have helped, including children from the local school.

The cottage was cold. The train was cold. Elisabeth was going to be glad to leave New York for Vermont where there would be a wood stove and heat. 

                                        It was Columbus Day weekend and in Belmont that means Cider Days on the village green.

We were wandering through the Mount Holly Museum when we realized the cider press was being set up for another run of cider.

It was time to get closer to the action.                      

My William was one of the original organizers of Cider Days. Back then they would set up a trough so people could pick wild apples around town and dump them at  the village green in anticipa- tion of the cider press showing up. Now the apples come from a local orchard.

There were lots of vendors and our local musicians. That's my "rock" man below.

Elisabeth and I left before Cider Days came to a close. We wanted to see the chainsaw competition being held in Chester. By the time we got there the competition was over, but there was plenty to see. Listening to just a couple of chainsaws still in action, we decided it was just as well we weren't around when they were all going at the same time!

                                                      

We went searching for some of Vermont's covered bridges. Just as it was fun to track down lavoirs in France, traveling new roads is half the fun of finding covered bridges in Vermont. There are apparently 100 authentic covered bridges. I have the list and hope to find each one...

We obviously found this at the right time of day. What a reflection!

This is what's under the Taftsville bridge...

We stopped to see the Quechee Gorge, Vermont's version of the Grand Canyon. Some trees were still in their fall prime and then we found the longest 2 lane bridge in the world. It spans the Connecticut River. After that we took a tour of Saint Gauden's home in New Hampshire.

When a wonderful friend visits from across the "pond", two weeks just isn't long enough!