A winner! And more tales from Vermont…

The Giveaway Llama and I have consulted the random number generator, and we have a winner!

This lovely handspun yarn from a Vermont artisan goes to LEE! Wooo-HOOO and congratulations, Lee. (I’ve sent you an email so we can arrange the details.)

I can’t wait to see what Lee makes with this lovely stuff. And thank you to the wonderful folks at Montpelier’s downtown local yarn shop, The Knitting Studio, for all their help and kindness and laughter during our visit there.

Lush, Green Vermont

The day we went to the Knitting Studio actually started with a hearty and delicious farm breakfast served by our hosts Bob and Lee (another Lee!) at Hollister Hill Farm B&B. After washing up, Nicholas and I decided to go on a morning hike in the forestland surrounding the farm.

Up past the cow pasture…

And then down an old road straight into the heart of the forest.

We saw mushrooms:

And wildflowers,

And great moss-covered rocks,

And wee forest frog-folk.

click any of these to see a larger version

The forests were lush and deep and cool.

As usual, my favourite bits were the waterbits. We saw waterfalls and streams and ponds,

…and I got to soak my feet several times in little creeks and eddies along the path.

I just stood there, letting the water wash over my feet, listening to the sound of the plashing rivulets, the crack of branches as little live things moved about overhead, and the song of birds going about their business all around us.

Best spa treatment in the world, right there.

We walked back to the B&B, tired and happy, and then headed for yet another place Vermont is famous for…

Ben and Jerry’s: The Factory

Sometimes these factory tours are just plain dumb. I can assure you that by the time you finish watching the introductory movie in the cow-covered anteroom,

you know this tour isn’t going to be one of those dumb tours.

This one was FUN. Our guide was Shane.

The tour was fascinating. You get to go upstairs into a glassed-in balcony that overlooks the actual ice-cream making floor, and every thing is clearly explained, and the factory workers keep looking up and waving at you, and Shane keeps making dumb puns and apologising for them, and then he takes you into the Flavour Lab for some FREE ICE CREAM.

We got to try a brand-new, still-in-research flavour, and give our feedback on it.

And then, too soon, the tour is over. We were starving, so of course we went to the little cafe and had lunch.

I love being a grownup so I can have ice cream for lunch.

We then visited the Flavour Graveyard, where there are monuments to retired flavours.

Then we tossed our trash and went on our merry way.

(Our merry way at this point involved going into Montpelier, a little jaunt I spoke about in the last post. Told you this was a bit out of order, sorry!)

We made it back to the B&B after dinner in Montpelier about ten minutes before a huge thunderstorm hit. The thunder, the lightning, the rain were a bit on the epic side. Here is the lovely view from our bedroom window the afternoon we arrived.

Here is the same view, just a little over 24 hours later, during the intense storms.

The power went out, and so Nicholas and I spent the hours before bedtime just watching the lightshow outside, talking, finally falling asleep amidst the thunder.

It was a wonderful day, beginning to end. I’m sorry that so many people in that lovely area were flooded out or otherwise adversely affected by the storm. (Our hosts had to call the guests signed up for the entire Memorial Day weekend, as the power was going to be out for days and no power meant no flushing toilets, no water, and cold breakfasts. Small business people whose finances can be deeply affected by the weather…we city folks are seriously out of touch with that sort of life.)

Two more photos from our hike, because I love them so much.

I had to laugh when I saw this sign on this long-unused road which happened to be our hiking trail.

We obeyed the sign and went slow, I promise.

OK, one more and then I’m done for now. (You can see more photos here in my Flickr set.)

Words to live by.