Got On Your Snowsuit? Your Boots? Then Let’s Go Trick or Treating! It’s Halloween!

Yes, it snowed last night. It snowed off and on all day. It picked up this afternoon. But the roads are still warm and so it's a normal Halloween in the Northeast Kingdom. Kids have put on their snowsuits, boots and mittens under their costumes and they are being driven into villages everywhere to get their loot. They will waddle up and down village roads and come home warmed by sugar.

Our old house (under major renovations) in the early afternoon today.

On the left is Ironman as Transformer. On the right is Catgirl as, well, Catgirl.

And now, above and below, we are all bundled up with sweatshirts, snowsuits, hats, mittens, boots, and the costumes!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYBODY!

_/\_/\_

The Willoughby Bog Hike

On July 30, Catgirl, Ironman, Wingnut and I hiked the Willoughby Bog in the Westmore Town Forest. It is part of the Willoughby State Forest. This is the only photograph I have of Wingnut on this hike! He kept disappearing or walking far ahead of us. I finally, here near the end of the hike, ordered him to stop and pose with the little kids. And what a contrast of ages and heights! Wingnut was terrific with the little kids this summer.

This hike is full of bridges, log walks and stepping stones to cross brooks and wetlands. The kids loved all these, as you can see below. Little four-year-old Ironman carried our snacks and supplies for more than one mile! After that, Wingnut carried them for the little guy.

In the photograph above, you see the beginning of the actual bog walk. This is the shortest and most interesting part of the hike. The bog here was full of blueberries and pitcher plants. Below are the many plants that we saw and photographed.

Above, the blue fruit of the bluebead lily (Clintonia borealis)

Above, a bracket fungus called a hoof tinder fungus (Fomes fomentarius) because it looks like a giant horse hoof. This one is three years old because there are three layers (cracks). One layer grows each year.

Above, bunchberry (Cornus canadensis)

Above: A purple pitcher plant (Sarracenia purpurea).. I didn't even know how important this plant was until John saw the photo the next day and got excited about it. He and I returned to the bog the next day so that he could see them. He taught me a lot about this rare plant.

Above: Shining Firmoss (Huperzia lucidula). John and I spent this evening identifying, and re-identifying plants. This plant, which I called a clubmoss, created quite a debate. Technically it is not a clubmoss but is often called a clubmoss.

There are signs all over the trails. We took the Back Loop Trail that made this hike just over two miles long — quite long enough for such little folk as Catgirl and Ironman. You can't get lost with the good signposts! There was also a great informational signboard towards the beginning of the trail. All of the guides and maps on the board were available at the Westmore Town Clerk. I never have picked up copies, though. I should.

The Willoughby Bog is dedicated to Erland C. Gjessing and a plaque stands at the beginning of the bog walk in his honor:

At the end of the hike, we saw a wonderful view of Wheeler Mountain from the trail. After the hike, we drove all the way down to Lyndonville and had lunch at MacDonald's! The kids all thought that was fantastic (there are no fast food places closer than twenty miles from the house, so we never go unless we go into town). We also went to Green Mountain Books in Lyndonville and got some great guide books, novels and activity books for the summer. It was a great day!

Wheeler Mountain

del.icio.us Tags: bluebead lily,Clintonia borealis,Willoughby Bog Walk,Willoughby State Park,Westmore Town Forest,bunchberry,Cornus canadensis,purple pitcher plant,Sarracenia purpurea,shining firmoss,Huperzia lucidula,bracket fungus,tinder hoof fungus,Fomes fomentarius,Erland C. Gjessing,Wheeler Mountain

Flickr Tags: bluebead lily,Clintonia borealis,Willoughby Bog Walk,Willoughby State Park,Westmore Town Forest,bunchberry,Cornus canadensis,purple pitcher plant,Sarracenia purpurea,shining firmoss,Huperzia lucidula,bracket fungus,tinder hoof fungus,Fomes fomentarius,Erland C. Gjessing,Wheeler Mountain

Technorati Tags: bluebead lily,Clintonia borealis,Willoughby Bog Walk,Willoughby State Park,Westmore Town Forest,bunchberry,Cornus canadensis,purple pitcher plant,Sarracenia purpurea,shining firmoss,Huperzia lucidula,bracket fungus,tinder hoof fungus,Fomes fomentarius,Erland C. Gjessing,Wheeler Mountain

_/\_/\_

The End of a Busy Day

After the tractor ride and after the chicken baths, Ironman thought he would crawl through the new culvert! I began hollering that he shouldn't do that. Who knew what animals might be calling that culvert their new home? But the other adults shushed me and in Ironman went! He wasn't in danger. The culvert itself is strong, and if there were any animals in there, they could leave by the other end. Trapping a wild animal in a spot where there is no escape is dangerous. This wasn't. Hearing my earlier hollering, Buddy came out of the woods where he was hunting to see what the ruckus was about.

Vacation Bible School day was over and we were exhausted!

_/\_/\_

A Scary Ride

After the great day at Vacation Bible School, Catgirl, Ironman and I returned home. John was grading the new leach field with the tractor. The kids love the tractor as much as Tractor Chicken does — not because of the grubs and worms that are uncovered but because they get to "drive" the tractor or, as on that hot July day, they get tractor rides. Catgirl loved this. Ironman? Not so much!

_/\_/\_

July Vacation Bible School Part 1

Vacation Bible School was only one day, in July, this year. It worked out very well. I was given "the older kids" for instruction and crafts — the first through third grades! I haven't taught children that young for so long that it was a wonderful treat. The theme this year was Jonah and the Whale. It was a perfect theme for a hot day. We spent half of the day at Crystal Lake State Park in the water. In the photograph above the children are learning a song about Jonah. You can see the whale and Jonah's ship that M. made for us. D. is teaching them the song.

And here is Jonah, above! He told the children his story and they were enthralled with his ordeal. You can see how much fun the children had as they acted out Jonah's story — it was one of the highlights of the day! Everyone wanted to be Jonah so they could be spit out by the whale.

We had arts and crafts after that. We made beach bags, sea shell picture frames, octopus mobiles and lots of other fun things. We also had puzzles, word searches and readings of Jonah's story from the Bible. You can see Catgirl above as she designed her beach bag before we went to the beach. Below you can see her creation:

Meanwhile, in the preschool room, the littler kids were doing their crafts. Ironman is wearing the orange shirt:

Another mother, R., took the kids outside for some running around games, giving us older moms a break!

We closed the morning with more singing that we acted out. Below, D is teaching them a new song and it required feet stomping and clapping!

We were starving by lunch time, but we had to go to the park for our picnic at the lake. It was a wonderful morning and I hope to help out next year, too. I just hope it is cooler out!

_/\_/\_

Happy Birthday, Little Ironman!

I was editing photos today from July 20, and I came across photos of Ironman and Catgirl. Ironman had chosen and planted nasturtium seeds earlier in the season and they had grown big and beautiful. Ironman and I thought we needed photographs of his first attempt at planting flowers. The photographs were great. The coincidence is that today, October 14th, is Ironman’s fifth birthday! Happy birthday! I hope your memories of this past summer are as rich as mine are! Your nasturtiums (below) were gorgeous and next year we will plant many more!

Earlier that day, Ironman’s sister, Catgirl, had dressed up her dog, Willow, in a Barbie cape and a headband. Willow was too busy with her bone to care about her costume! I love this photograph of this lovely young girl. I am looking forward to the birthday party tomorrow night!

_/\_/\_

Scout's Obsession

Scout watches the chickens.

Scout spent the summer on the couch on the sun porch watching the chickens. She became obsessed with watching them, and would even run to the living room windows to follow them as they walked around the house. Daughter Amelia was concerned about her dog's behavior, but it hasn't done any harm to Scout. We tried prohibiting her from the couch and that didn't work. No dogs are on the sun porch now because of the rennovations. The sun porch is here, but it is partially demolished and is being rebuilt. New French doors have been installed to go into the new living room. But with a wall gone on the porch, there is free access to the outdoors and these dogs can't be let loose (or they will disappear up the mountain). Scout is once again calm and behaving normally. The chickens are spending their days in the woods now so they seldom come around the house. Catgirl took this photograph with the Olympus Tough 8000. She also took the photo of her brother, Ironman, below. Got to love little boys!

Funny face!

_/\_/\_

The Barton Village Yard Sale

Catgirl & Ironman in front of the library during the village yard sale

 Barton Village has a village-wide yard sale on the last Saturday of every June. It's a great kickoff to the summer and the village road is very busy, nearly impassable (as you can see above). I took Catgirl and Ironman to it this year and gave them each $1 to spend. I thought that they would spend it very quickly on the first thing they saw. But it took them two hours! We had to visit every single booth for a mile on both sides of the road before they would buy anything.. They compared prices, too! In the photo above, they are standing in front of the library, which was having a book/bake sale. No cookies for these two kids! Catgirl got a paper and fabric doll set and Ironman got a Catholic saint's medal (he's into men's jewelry lately). Six weeks later, the paper dolls and the necklace are still being used and worn.
_/\_/\_

We Went to Circus Smirkus

At the end of June, I went to Circus Smirkus in Greensboro with Catgirl and Ironman. It was the first time they had seen this circus and they were thrilled to be able to sit on the floor (truly a ringside seat!) throughout the entire performance. I couldn't choose which of the 532 photos to post so I made a slideshow of the whole shebang. The show was one of the best that I've seen. I hope that if you live in New England you are able to see a performance this summer.

_/\_/\_

Wordless Wednesday: Nate & His Children

_/\_/\_

Arthur's Playful Visit

I hadn't seen Arthur in over eight years. I tried to keep in touch but I couldn't find him and decided he had died on one of his annual pilgrimages to India. But he didn't! He got in touch with Amelia last winter, who gave him our New Hampshire phone number, and we had a reunion. In early June he finally visited us here in Vermont (he's never been here in all this time — we are pretty much off the beaten track). He stayed over night, played with the kids, ate well, and solved some computer problems. He is going to build us a RAID server for the photographs! Here are (some of) the photos of him playing with the kids. I love the happiness on the kids and Arthur, and I love the sky. This sky produced the rainbows we had later in the evening. You can also seem Arthur sitting on the barn roof in this video. We had a grand night that night!