Some of you have been asking me questions in person and by email about my garden and where I live. I thought it might be nice to share a little piece of Vermont with you that I call home. I live in a little town (in the middle of nowhere...) called West Wardsboro, VT. It is located in an area that is frequented mostly by tourists. There are probably about as many second home owners as there are full-timers here in my area. I am 4 miles from Mount Snow ski area in Dover, Vermont and approx. 10 miles from Stratton Mountain ski area. We have lots of campgrounds, hiking trails, mountain biking trails and lakes for non-snow enjoyment. We have Lake Raponda and Harriman Reservoir both in Wilmington, VT with lots of boating, fishing and little beach areas. We have Grout Pond in Stratton with a beautiful campground and large pond for non-motorized boats and fishing. I used to camp there with the kids when they were younger for both the boy scouts and the girl scout troops.
In the winter, there is plenty of snow related things to do like ski, snowboard, snowmobile, cross-country ski, tube, sled ride and snowshoe. You could actually hop on a snowmobile or on a horse right from out yard and leave for days.
The picture above is a shot of my house from up our back hill near out apple trees. The apple trees are loaded this year too. We have a really beautiful view of the mountains up there.
This is our fire pit that we have on the side of our yard. We always burn a fire Labor Day Weekend and hang out by the fire. You can barely see the smoke in this picture. Darryl (my hubby) lit the fire last night (Saturday) and keeps it going until Monday. We usually have a ton of company this weekend, but I whimped out because I was so busy the last two weeks. I am going to invite everyone up next weekend instead...
In the background, you can see our barn and riding ring on the left and the red house behind the tree and wood pile for the fire pit is our guest house.
This is a shot of my horses grazing in the field. The one to the left is a grulla, named Night Rain (we call him Rain for short). He was born at night and in the rain, hence his name - Night Rain. We got him as a baby - only 5 months old. He is now 5 years old. The buckskin quarter horse to the right is my dear Mach - his full name is Mach's Hobo Boy...I know, I know, I didn't name him either. We got him when he was only 4 years old - he is now 11 years old. Mach is a wonderful horse that can be ridden practically anywhere. The only thing he doesn't like is going over bridges. He would rather go around and walk through the river than go over that hollow sounding bridge:)) This field is one that we look out at from our sunroom windows. There is also a beautiful patch of white birch trees in between this field and our larger fields out in the back that the horses can go in to.
Here is a close-up of Night Rain. Isn't he beautiful. He is just green broke which means that not everyone can ride him. He is still learning the ropes and needs someone more experienced on him. He is sweet as can be and follows me around like a puppy. He is very curious and likes to see what you are doing. He also LOVES his treats - apples, carrots, horse treats, etc.
Here is Mach chowing down...or "Mr. Mach" as I call him. He is just content grazing in the field and might just come over if you have a treat. He is a wonderful horse that anyone could ride. He is very safe and is kid proof. He doesn't take off and run with people (without being asked to run). He has traveled with us all over to many events. He has been in horse shows, gymkhanas (games on horseback), done barrel racing and team penning. For those of you that don't know what team penning is, you are in a large ring (like a rodeo ring) with 30 cows that are all marked with numbers 0-9 (three cows with each number) and you have 3 people on horseback. There is a smaller pen down at one end of the ring. The announcer calls out a number and you then go down and "weed out" your cows from the herd and try to get them down and pen them in the other end of the ring. It isn't as easy as it sounds because the cows like being in a herd and not separated. It is a lot of fun though.
This is a shot of one of the metal sunflowers that I have out in my gardens. This one is in front of my large rhododendron bush up out back hill near the apple trees and my blueberry bush. I have two more in another garden off to the left of our backyard that has my birdbath, hostas, burning bush and black-eyed-susans.
I was in the mood to decorate a little bit for fall today so I even did part of my hutch inside the house in my dining room.
The large sunflower that you see on the top shelf is actually handmade using felted wool. The petals are wet felted and the center is done with needle felting. I absolutely love this sunflower. I got it at the fair I did last weekend. The girl demonstrating next to me was showing how to felt wool and made this flower just for me when she heard that I love sunflowers...thanks, Cheryl!
Some of my Longaberger collection is showcased on these shelves as well. I have LOTS of baskets and pottery from Longaberger and just love them!
The pumpkins that you see were some that I purchased yesterday at a craft center next to the Garlic Festival that Darryl and I went to in Bennington, VT. We walked around for a good part of the afternoon and tasted lots of garlic creations. There were pestos, dipping oils, spice blends, sauces and lots of garlic bulbs. We ended up buying some Garlic Zucchini Relish that was delish. I plan on making some of my own tomorrow to see how that turns out. We also got two different varieties of garlic bunches to take home. We love garlic and use at least a little in almost everything we cook.
Speaking of cooking, stay tuned for tomorrow's post. I will be showing you some of our treasures from our garden, more of my home - well the gardens, and more cooking creations. I picked tons of blueberries again today along with strawberries and peaches. Darryl picked more zucchini and yellow squash. There are other goodies that I will share with you tomorrow as well so be sure to come back and check out more of my little piece of Vermont:))
Thanks for stopping by!
Lynn
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