Andrew & Dan Board the Vermonter

The Vermonter pulls into the station.

The day after our wedding, Andrew and Dan had to return to Washington, DC. They took the Vermonter from White River Junction in Vermont. It's a 12 hour ride. I drove them down Sunday morning. We had breakfast at P&H Truck Stop at Exit 17 of I-91.. It's the best place for breakfast (read articles about it here and here). I made sure the boys had lunch so that they wouldn't need to buy Amtrak food, and we finished the ride to White River. We arrived 10 minutes before the train. Now I could get my Amtrak photos! I took the portrait of the boys below, and it was time to board. (Note the hazy sky — we had not heard of the Quebec forest fires at this point, and I remember wondering why the usually sparkling Vermont air was dirty as if we were in Connecticut.)

Dan & Andrew just before boarding.

I took advantage of the time between when they boarded and when the train left the station to take too many photographs. Here are a few with a couple of links to more:

The boys board the train.

The Vermont leaves White River

The White River train station.

Note the cupola and copper locomotive weather vane on the train station in the photo above. I have a full size photograph of the weather vane on meeyauw's Photo a Day that is worth a look.

Engine 148 was at the end of the Vermonter.

A sad moment: the Vermonter was on its way to Washington

Link: my large photograph of the Vermonter Engine 111

    Andrew & Dan Return to Washington Set

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Wedding Photos by Matt

l to r: Andrew, John, me, Anna, Amelia

Me & John

l to r: Dan, Anna, Aaron

Amelia & Nate

Matt & squinty-eyed me

Amelia & Matt

Dan (left) & Andrew

Anna & Andrew

Little Ironman

John, me, Wingnut

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How I Went to King Arthur and Found My Future

John and me at the September wedding of my nephew

In January of 2009, the King Arthur blog had posted a recipe for pan de mie. It needs a special pan de mie pan, which I didn't have. Having nothing else to do and it being great weather, I went down to Norwich to the King Arthur store to get a new bread pan. I couldn't see the pan on the shelves as I roamed around the store. I got a clerk who told me that the pans were back ordered. And a man, who had been standing near by, said I could use his. I chuckled; we talked. And we roamed the store together. He had come to the store from New Hampshire to get a square spring form pan to make cheesecake for one. The store didn't have those either. But we talked about our kids, about cooking (which I really didn't do too much of), and we exchanged little bits of knowledge we had. I ended up buying a lot of brioche pans and mixes. He got more yeast.

We continued talking in the parking lot for so long that we went into Lebanon, NH for lunch. We never ran out of things to talk about, but I had to start my two hour ride home, so we reluctantly parted. We haven't been apart too often since then.

Yesterday, in Pageant Park, we were married. After being a widow for 16 years, I finally found a man who is fascinating, intelligent, outspoken, talented, tolerant, hard-working, giving to a fault, protective and loving. My children love him and the cats adore him. The grandchildren think he's the greatest thing around. We have expansive plans for our lives and are looking forward to the future. You've seen some of our adventures here in the blogs — many more await all of us!

I managed to take a few photos yesterday. Aaron took the wedding photos and they will be posted as soon as he transmits them to us.

Above: John and Catgirl walk on the beach
of Crystal Lake before the ceremony.

The view of Crystal Lake and the mountains
beyond it from Pageant Park.

Matt, Anna and Aaron chat while hanging onto the cars.

Left to right: Dan, Andrew and Xavier play volleyball.

Andrew

Anna

Ironman spends time with Daisy Dog (Anna’s dog).

Our Wedding Photos

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A Weekend in Old Saybrook, Connecticut

The Girls

On a weekend in September, John, Amy and I drove down to Old Saybrook, Connecticut to spend a weekend with Anna, Aaron, Aaron's family, Marcia and Suzi (Andrew and Dan couldn't make it this time.) The weather was good half of the time. The food was great and the company wonderful. Here are my girls: Daisy is Anna and Aaron's tiny dog. Anna is taking a picture of me taking a picture of her. And behind Anna, Amy is taking off her shoes to wade in the surf. It never got warm enough to go swimming. I'm posting sunset photos of this weekend on my Photo A Day blog. In the near future there will be birds, scenery, and sea life posted.

A Weekend in Old Saybrook Set

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My Clan

“Live Free or Die”

Little play New Hampshire license plates I found for all of my kids and their loves. There was no Amelia, but we all call her Amy anyhow. There was no Andrew and we have never, ever called him Andy. He’ll have to get used to it. And now you may have figured out Wingnut’s real name. And Amy and Matt are not in love but love each other. So here’s a silly gift you will all be getting if I ever haul myself off to the post office. The state motto really is Live Free or Die and it is on the plates. But the Old Man of the Mountain? Just a memory. He fell off Cannon Mountain in May 2003.

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Andrew & Dan Fly Home

We took Andrew & Dan to the Manchester Airport to fly home to Washington on June 16th. These were, unfortunately, the only photos I took of Andrew on this visit. Andrew is wearing the blue shirt. Dan is not.
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A Visit From Andrew & Dan

Andrew & Dan came from Washington, DC to visit all of us on the weekend of June 13th. We met at King Arthur Flour in Norwich, Vermont on Sunday and then wandered over to Quechee Gorge and Quechee Village for some sight seeing. The Simon Pearce store and restaurant are on the river and the falls. Dan, Amelia and Matt are on the balcony over the falls in the photo above.

A plaque in the building says, "This building is what remains of a brick structure built about 150 years ago. Woolen cloth manufacture was carried out here off and on until 1951. This mill is believed to have been the largest US producer of fine soft wool flannel for baby clothes. In the years following 1951, the building fell into disrepair until Quechee Lakes started its village renovations several years ago. John Downers Mill has been the focal point of those renovations, which included rebuilding a covered bridge, restoration of the J. C. Parker house, Tinkham house, Barron and Burtch houses, the Gage house, Marshland Farm, a church building and others."
The covered bridge into the village is a "Quechee Lakes Development Corp., 1970 Steel Stringer, 90', spanning Ottauquechee River on Waterman Hill Road in Quechee village. Not an historic bridge, but worthy of mention due to its size, design and prominence as the principal entry to the village from Route 4."

The falls power the Simon Pearce store and are a beautiful view.

I miss seeing Amelia and Matt every day. They are in the Vermont house.
I never did get a photo of Andrew on this day. Very odd.
But Dan, Amelia, John and Matt can be seen in the Quechee Village Set.

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My Happy Birthday

Friday was my birthday. And I'm not going to tell which one it was! I usually never talk about it at all. But this was an especially wonderful and loving birthday.

My children, so many friends and John all made the day exciting and fun. Wildflower & carrot seeds for my new garden, Flame-Broiled Sudoku, a reading lamp for when we lose power, a scallop dinner at the Weathervane in Lebanon, New Hampshire, cards, phone calls, e-mails, Facebook messages, donations to Northwoods from England (thank you, Ruth!), Connecticut (thank you, Anna!), Washington, DC (thank you, Dan!), and California (thank you, Marj!), an iTunes certificate . . . what a day! To make it more special, John came up from New Hampshire on Thursday and we drove back to his place on Friday afternoon (see the next post for the reasons why). These loving remembrances make a woman feel needed, loved and not forgotten.

The weekend continued with the gooslings hatching on the beaver ponds in Vermont. Matt has e-mailed me saying how the four babies are swimming about with the parents. It's going to be wonderful to try to capture them with my camera. And Amy e-mailed that my New Hampshire licensure for mathematics grades 5-8 has arrived at the house! And of course, there have been photos (this photo is of a cone flower seed head in John's field) and encounters with birds.

The weekend is winding down now. The Regional Educational Laboratory Program gave each of us participants a $25 Dunkin Donuts gift certificate. Of course, there are no Dunkin Donuts within 20 miles of Barton. But there are here in New Hampshire! I found one in New London, NH this morning and it was the best Dunkin Donuts I've ever visited.

Thank you, everybody! This is a year to remember — for so many reasons both professional and personal.

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Gay Green Leaders: GLBT organizers of Power Shift '09

Gay Green Leaders: GLBT organizers of Power Shift '09 talk about event, and why our community should care about being green: Gauge at Metro Weekly magazine - Local lesbian and gay news and interviews from Washington DC, Maryland, Virginia.

Read the article for the new update on Dan and Andrew!

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The Youth Inaugural Ball

Andrew and Dan went to the Youth Inaugural Ball, for those people 35 years of age and under, on Inauguration night in Washington, DC. MTV was there with cameras. The Ball began too late on a school night so we taped it on TV. In these three photos, I found Andrew!

On historic days like January 20,
Washington is a wonderful place to live!

Technorati Tags: Youth Ball, Washington DC, inauguration day
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Andrew, Dan and Matt Hike Mt. Pisgah

My son Andrew and Dan, both of Washington, DC, visited us and Matt joined them for a hike up Mt. Pisgah on Willoughby Lake on July 10. These are the only photos of Andrew and Dan from the visit. Matt took the photos, so you won't see him here. Dan wears the hat and the light shirt. Andrew wears the darker shirt.

A view of Mt. Hor on the other side of Willoughby as seen from Rt. 5A.

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Wingnut Is Back!

Remember when I said goodbye to Wingnut on August 5, 2007? It was such a sad day. But Grandson Wingnut has finally came back! He'll be here until August. We have so much to do that I hope we get to do it all. This is the camera that his mom got him for Christmas. He took the photo in the dirty side view mirror of my car on Thursday on our way to my nephew's house. Wingnut had to stay there for the evening because I teach at the college this summer and Amy was working that night. Amy, Wingnut and the cousins all went out for sundaes in Lyndonville Thursday night after work.

On the left is me on the left and third daughter Danielle, Wingnut's mom, on the right. We were bent over holding Sophie the Crazed Beagle because she wanted to jump. Wingnut got the photo then. I hate the photo — I've been sick (I finally succumbed to the grief and bewilderment of my mother dying this spring) and look bad. Danielle is going to Washington soon to visit Andrew.

So why is Wingnut Wingnut's name? He loves the game Wingnut on my Macs about flying aces. He needed a name for the internets, so that is what he chose. I am nearly healthy again. We missed the Lupine Festival in New Hampshire, the fiddle contest in Lyndonville and the library hours. But we're taking photos and reading a lot of books. Wingnut already has two posts to blog.

So what's up this summer? Andrew, Dan and Matt are coming the weekend of and the week after the Fourth of July. Hopefully Anna and Aaron can come, too. There is a lot of studying to do, reading, library programs (the theme this year is bugs!), Circus Smirkus, trips to New Hampshire and New York, swimming lessons, movies at the library, church, berry picking, chores, games, computer stuff to learn, photography, bike rides, hikes, and working in the school garden. I think that's enough, right? I had better get 100% recovered real soon!

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