Wordless Wednesday: Our Wedding

May 29, 2010
Crystal Lake
Barton, Vermont

Photo by Aaron Kotowski

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Zacchaeus: 2011 Vacation Bible School

A VBS banner

In July, we had Vacation Bible School at the Barton United (UCC & UMC) Church. I was the teller and discussion leader of the story of Zacchaeus who hid in a tree when Jesus visited his town. I worked with the older children. We had quite a discussion about making choices and our faith:

Luke 19: 3-13 [Zacchaeus] was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was going to pass that way. When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, ‘Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today.’ So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him. All who saw it began to grumble and said, ‘He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner.’ Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, ‘Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much.’ Then Jesus said to him, ‘Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.’ As they were listening to this, he went on to tell a parable, because he was near Jerusalem, and because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately. So he said, ‘A nobleman went to a distant country to get royal power for himself and then return. He summoned ten of his slaves, and gave them ten pounds,* and said to them, “Do business with these until I come back.”

Anne's bulletin board for an activity

The tree that Zacchaeus sat in

Snack time behind the church under the ash tree next to Crystal Lake Outlet

Pastor Evelyn gives a puppet show

Agrimony was in bloom behind the church

We sat on the beach of Crystal Lake, at Pageant Park, as the children swam and played

We are all looking forward to our next Vacation Bible School!

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Pageant Park Trail

The start of the trail at Pageant Park.

About two weeks after I got my new glasses, I decided to take a fall foliage hike. Alone. John was busy working on the walls of the house and couldn't leave. I didn't want him to go. I had been having problems with depth perception with my new bifocals and had more problems moving about outdoors than in. So I wanted to take a short hike, get some foliage photographs, and practice walking outside. It sounds bizarre to say that you need to practice walking outside, but that's what I felt I needed to do. I didn't want John to see me make a fool of myself, which is what I felt might happen.

Looking across Crystal Lake to the east side where Route 5 follows the shore line.

I decided to go to the Pageant Park trail. It is only a mile from home (which is comforting when you don't think you can safely walk in the woods with your new glasses),  I knew the trail,  John and I had been married there just four months earlier, and I wanted to duplicate a photograph I had seen on the Internet. Blogger Carol (Carol's View of New England) had taken a beautiful landscape photograph of Barton Village . A wonderful photographer, Carol often comes here to Barton and photographs the area. This photograph impressed me because she said it was taken on the Pageant Park trail. I didn't know of a spot on the trail that was high enough to get the perspective that she had gotten, but I wanted to find the spot where she had shot it. The road above the park would be high enough, but she said she took it on the trail. So off I went on my hike.

Looking north to the beaches from the west bank of the lake.

We were nearly at peak color that weekend in late September. It had rained all week and I was afraid that the leaves had been rained off of the trees, but the color was good. The heavily overcast skies did not make for good lighting. I was grateful to get these shots of autumn color because I knew they would probably be the only foliage shots I would get this season. . The walk brought back fond memories of my life before John, when I would often hike about alone with my camera. Hikes are better with John, but it is good to reminisce at times.

The end of the public trail. I did not stop.

I quickly learned where to look through my bifocal lenses so that I did not stumble over rocks and into trees. I soon came to the end of the short trail where a landowner posted the signs you see above. The trail went around the chain, so I followed. There was a wonderfully secluded camp further into the woods. The only access to the camp besides the trail would be by boat. The people who come there for the summer must have wonderful times. I wanted to get much higher than I was, so I continued following the trail up. I soon came to this dire warnings painted at the base of the cliffs:

At the bottom of the cliffs. I climbed through the woods, around the slippery cliffs.

I found the trail that safely climbs through the woods and around the cliffs. I climbed until the trail ended and I could go no further. It was then that I confirmed that Carol had taken her photograph from the road above the trail. I know that road and did not want to take my car there. The rain would make the extremely steep, dirt road dangerous and I didn’t feel like taking the risk. I decided to return to the car and go to the village cemetery where I had gotten some wonderful photographs one other year.

The trail down and around the cliffs. The steep descent began past the two trees here.

Hiking downhill is always worse, for me, than going up. Bad knees, and now bad vision, make me very cautious. As I descended this day, I regretted coming up here alone, or without a rope. It was a treacherous walk downhill on the wet, slippery forest floor. I was successful, though, and got down without incident. The small hike had shown me how to use my bifocals in the outdoors, and I had gotten some foliage photos. I considered the afternoon a success.

Cabbage white butterfly

Back at Pageant Park, this cabbage white butterfly confirmed that it had been a good day!

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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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Cooling Off in Crystal Lake

Ironman found a maple leaf.

On May 24 (five days before the wedding), we took the kids to Pageant Park to cool off. We were having a heat wave. The park wasn't officially open yet, but no one stopped us from cooling off.

Ironman wanted a photograph of the leaf in the water. So I did.

Nate swings Catgirl through the air.

Amelia joins in.

Catgirl swings through the water.

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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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Crystal Lake

Last Saturday, July 5, Amy, Matt, Wingnut and I spent the afternoon at Crystal Lake. Here is a photo of the cliffs at the eastern end of the lake as seen from Pageant Park. Below are Amy and Matt reading in the sun. Yes, they got burned. None of my photos of Wingnut were good enough to post.

Technorati Tags: Crystal Lake, Barton, Vermont
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Short History of Pageant Park, Part 3

1936: A winter carnival was held here. 2,500 people attended this Winter Circus. There were dogsled races, sledding, hockey and basketball. Five airplanes landed on Crystal Lake, which had been plowed to make runways. The ice was also cleared for harness racing.

1937: The air temperature was 40°F (4.4°C) and it rained for the Winter Circus. The sponsors never held the event again.

1942: The Barton chapter of the FFA held a ski meet for six northern Vermont schools. The downhill and slalom races were held at the Pageant Park ski trail. Other events were held in other town locations.

A History of Barton Vermont
© 1998 Darlene Young;
Crystal Lake Falls Historical Association;
Barton, Vermont

Technorati tags: Pageant+Park Crystal+Lake Barton Vermont

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Short History of Pageant Park, Part 2

The Ledges

Cutler's gift mandated that the town maintain a road and provide upkeep for the park. The village trustees accepted the gift and created camp sites, a picnic area with tables and fireplaces, installed electric lights, and cut a trail to the spring.

This may be the original spring.
A trail to the ledges continues past this spring.

The Fourth of July, 1924: Cutler presented the park to F. Cutting, a village trustee, during a community picnic.

Technorati tags: Pageant+Park Crystal+Lake Barton Vermont

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