HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM OUR NEW HOME IN ARLINGTON VERMONT

Enjoying the NEK with friends

 We helped our friends Bill Roddy and Judy Lowry with their Christmas tree. Then we had a lovely dinner to cheer away the darkness. Bill has built two chimneys and a woodfired oven for us. And he is still going strong. Judy is a master artist who gave us our wonderful painted canoe paddles and oars that will grace our new home in Arlington to remind us of our wonderful years in Brownington.

Starting to decorate...

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This was a fun project. Nice fireplace, but not using it. With an extra tv, dvd player and dvd, we have something (with sound) that substitutes for the real thing. Eventually, we will have a stove insert of some sort.


Lights and Lava lamp help brighten things up during this dark time of year.

First week in Arlington

Closing day

much cleaning, but a lava fire

my friend Susan's wreath is perfect

first curtains

final arrangement before the TV

John settled right in

Thanksgiving in Bennington with the family,
first time in many years and now more to come.

dining area and curtain to keep out the cold

backseat drivers

winter came early this year. 

Waiting for Arlington

What a change from the log house we have now. White, white, white.... outside and inside.  It's a nice little Cape style, well known to both of us, with 3.34 acres of mostly woods, small yard and a barn. Just the right combination for the next chapter.

Here is a link to the pictures from the web and the pictures we took.  Flikr album... Arlington, VT

We are waiting for the many steps to take place that will lead to the closing in mid November.
Meanwhile, 2 in of snow greeted us this morning. Too early, too early.

Digging up the Dahlias

I think we have a lot of Dahlias. I gave some away before this picture was taken.  Storing in the root cellar which can be kept at the right temperature and is not dry. But honestly, that is a lot of them.

Before they will see the light of day, we have to buy the house and create a flower bed in the spring. No idea about any of this, but it will all make sense eventually.

These were a combination of 2-3 yr old Costco plants and 1 yr old Home depot plants. They all did well.
THIS IS WHY WE GROW DAHLIAS.....
Thanks to the gardens at Campabello where we first saw them, and perhaps to the Roosevelts if they were grown there when they spent time there, I don't know. We just love them.  My winter crochet project will be to make life size dahlias from pink and yellow yarn I found.

Step One, find a house and barn

After looking in 3 towns in the Bennington area, we found a house and barn. We looked at 4 and the last one was the one. It is in Arlington which is just south of Manchester and not far from Bennington. We drove around Bennington and finally saw the monument, but what was better.... gorgeous homes around the monument, very old and classic. We will like it there.

We will move to this Cape style house with a nice barn. The closing will be in mid November.

BIG CHANGES SINCE THE LAST POST

From spring, through summer and into the fall, we have decided to make some major changes in our life.

• first we were going to open an Airbnb using the apartment and lots of left over furniture from the house to fix it up nicely. New flooring and a rebuilt chimney were the major renovations. 
• with a visit to Grand Isle in July, we recognized that it would be quite enjoyable to LIVE there. we met with a real estate agent and started looking at property. Trying to find a little house and a big barn brought us to a place that was simply shocking, and thus started us on the journey of house hunting that continues to this day. 
• but in the middle of the night, after realizing that taxes are very high in the islands, and the houses were not great away from the shore, I visualized living in southern Vermont closer to our families.
• Bennington area holds  our interest now, some place we have never spent much time in, some place that has the charm of Vermont, an academic community with a highly acclaimed medical center, a very rich historical background ( the monument is a big clue) and it is close to one of Vermont's outstanding fly fishing rivers, the Battenkill. So does this make sense? 
• all the family and some friends we have discussed this with are more than happy about the idea.

So today I started in the attic and had a great time throwing stuff out the window. The new pickup truck does help with trips to recycle and will be great for moving, towing the trailer, towing the boat and eventually towing the next Airstream trailer (Flying Cloud 23 FB); it's already picked out.

Here is the first load of the house clearing.

It Just Keeps Snowing...

winter deep freeze 2018

Jan 6, 2018   at 100 pm and it is -11 degrees. For weeks it has been below freezing  and lately below zero. Birds feed all day, deer look for any bits they can find, but the snow is very deep now.

This year's driftwood mobiles are working well for the perching birds like juncos, chickadees, and sparrows.

Woodpeckers are driving me crazy as they peck on the house, really removing quite a lot of wood bits, perhaps since it is so cold. We are hoping the warms temps on sunday, anything about zero would be nice. I think this what it must be like at the poles, north or south, just NOT for 45th parallel.