another lovely day in the north
Aug. 4th, 2009 10:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
winterbadgerA simply spiffing couple of days.
Some of it has to do, obviously, with staying with such good friends.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
redactrice and shy_kat and I shared a house for several years before I hooked up with soccer_fox and they went off to explore the world. I've missed them very much, and it's really, really nice getting to spend time with them again.
And part of it is the place. You really can't beat mountains, woods, and water (in this case a huge lake, but oceans and even rivers will do in a pinch) for wonderful atmos, and although the Burlington area has McMansion and general suburb creep here and there, it's not quite as soulless (yest, anyway) as that around DC. And my glimpses of the city so far suggest it has a good deal of charm and character without a great deal of crime or violence.
Having en suite cat and dog helps, too, of course, and a setting full of birds and passing wildlife. :-)
Sunday it rained, so we didn't do the wildflower jaunt we had planned. Instead we drove down to Middlebury, another college town not too far away. We had a nice lunch in a tavern there, visited the folk art museum next to it, and wandered back home, chatting about this and that. Mel made us an excellent dinner (Asian noodle salad with all sorts of yummy veg from their garden), we watched a bit of television (travel program, of course :-) about France--Burgundy in one and then a travelogue of Rennaissance sites--most of which the grrls had been to!), we played Agricola again, and we all went off to bed (except Chris, who was staying up to work on some editing).
Yesterday we lazed a great deal, reading and playing on the Internet. We had lunch, played more Agricola, then the grrlz had a yoga class, so they dropped me in town to enjoy the center of Burlington, and zoomed off. I wandered about, appreciating the scenery (architectural, natural, and human :-) and did some window shopping (in the game store) and some real shopping (in a very nice used book store and a outdoor outfitters'). Then I settled down at a pub's outdoor table with a book and people-watched until my ride returned. We went back to the house, played a strenuous hour or so of badminton, had "another Thanksgiving dinner that couldn't be beat" (pasta with pesto made from their own basil, and spinach from the farmers' market with pine nuts and raisins), watched a Sherlock Holmes video, and had another good night's sleep.
Today has been gathering mulberries and strawberries in the backyard, then putting them on Chris's delicious french toast with maple syrup. It's so nice we may forgo Agricola until evening and head straight for the mountains, or forests, or lake (or all three!)
Some of it has to do, obviously, with staying with such good friends.
redactrice and shy_kat and I shared a house for several years before I hooked up with soccer_fox and they went off to explore the world. I've missed them very much, and it's really, really nice getting to spend time with them again.And part of it is the place. You really can't beat mountains, woods, and water (in this case a huge lake, but oceans and even rivers will do in a pinch) for wonderful atmos, and although the Burlington area has McMansion and general suburb creep here and there, it's not quite as soulless (yest, anyway) as that around DC. And my glimpses of the city so far suggest it has a good deal of charm and character without a great deal of crime or violence.
Having en suite cat and dog helps, too, of course, and a setting full of birds and passing wildlife. :-)
Sunday it rained, so we didn't do the wildflower jaunt we had planned. Instead we drove down to Middlebury, another college town not too far away. We had a nice lunch in a tavern there, visited the folk art museum next to it, and wandered back home, chatting about this and that. Mel made us an excellent dinner (Asian noodle salad with all sorts of yummy veg from their garden), we watched a bit of television (travel program, of course :-) about France--Burgundy in one and then a travelogue of Rennaissance sites--most of which the grrls had been to!), we played Agricola again, and we all went off to bed (except Chris, who was staying up to work on some editing).
Yesterday we lazed a great deal, reading and playing on the Internet. We had lunch, played more Agricola, then the grrlz had a yoga class, so they dropped me in town to enjoy the center of Burlington, and zoomed off. I wandered about, appreciating the scenery (architectural, natural, and human :-) and did some window shopping (in the game store) and some real shopping (in a very nice used book store and a outdoor outfitters'). Then I settled down at a pub's outdoor table with a book and people-watched until my ride returned. We went back to the house, played a strenuous hour or so of badminton, had "another Thanksgiving dinner that couldn't be beat" (pasta with pesto made from their own basil, and spinach from the farmers' market with pine nuts and raisins), watched a Sherlock Holmes video, and had another good night's sleep.
Today has been gathering mulberries and strawberries in the backyard, then putting them on Chris's delicious french toast with maple syrup. It's so nice we may forgo Agricola until evening and head straight for the mountains, or forests, or lake (or all three!)
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no subject
Date: 2009-08-04 03:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-04 03:41 pm (UTC)It looks like the weather is being really obliging, just one or two days of rain (for going to museums, etc. :-) and the rest sunny for hikes and lake stuff and drives around towns and mountains. Plus lots of badminton!