Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Along the Battenkill to Manchester


I miss our drives in New England for the simple beauty of these farms...


... and then there are reminders of the sheep of Oregon...


but these are wonderful working farms and not just country homes of city dwellers.


When I was growing up in Texas I never thought of New England as a rural part of our country ...

... but it is, perhaps the most rural part of our Country.


Boston and the surrounding area is very much "Big City" and yet most of the surrounding area is simple and unique.


Density of population does not exist in the countryside and forests...


... and yet there are reminders every now and then that this is a place of retreat from the city...


... in the midst of corn fields...


... and harvests.


Where you can swim in a quarry ...


... or shop in a famous online "cutting block" factory.


The towns are famous for old retired mills...


... and great fishing in rivers like the Battenkill and it's feeding streams.


This is where silos are the skyscrapers...


... and churches are small and old as our country...


... and the covered bridges of the past are monuments today.


New recreations in old places...


... where the respected past...


... is honored not with a distant cold whisper...


... but a cold swim.


There are plenty of monuments to the patriots of the past and this is the cradle of the United states where patriots like Ethan Allen, John Hancock, John Adams, Samuel Adams, Daniel Webster, Henry David Thoreau, Benjamin Tucker, of Massachusetts, was a proponent of individualist anarchism. A modern example of this individualist spirit is the Free State Project in New Hampshire, and The Second Vermont Republic in Vermont.



Then there are our friends Jim & Doreen who give so much to the advancement of humanity in their respective professions ...


... and still know how to enjoy the simplicity of New England and specifically...


Vermont. So they treated us to a wonderful gift...


... dinner at a great restaurant with a model covered bridge...


... stone walls and fresh flowers...


... called "The Perfect Wife" - Magnificent


On the way back to their Home in Vermont I tried a new picture taking technique, zooming while taking a slow exposure picture - interesting result.

No Scrabble

Quote of the Day ~
"As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler; solitude will not be solitude, poverty will not be poverty, nor weakness weakness." ~ Henry David Thoreau

2 comments:

Michelle said...

before you start talking about my parents your captions make a beautiful poem!

sbvpav said...

great blog paul; one of your best perhaps it is beautiful vermont and our dear friends the hogles :)

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