"We survived winter!"

If you've been reading about this 'adventure' for a while, you might remember that back in September, Garret and I ate at the wonderful local grill/ice cream stand, 'Wahoo's'. A few weeks after I wrote about it, we went to go back for some ice cream one day and sadly found it to be closed for the season. Ever since, every time we drive by we look longingly at the little building, wishing we could stop for some delicious food and ice cream.

Well, yesterday, we were going to some of the nearby antique stores to search for a few odds and ends we needed for various projects/pursuits. We decided we'd get lunch while we were out, and on a whim I called Wahoo's. Someone answered! [Brace yourself, this is an exciting dialogue coming up]:

Wahoo's Girl:  Hello, Wahoo's!
Me:   Hi! Are you open for the season?
Wahoo's Girl:  Yup!
Me:  Okay, great!

I know, I know - that dialogue was so exciting that you probably fell of your chair, totally blindsided by the drama at play.  You can see why I'm a writer now, can't you?

As Garret pointed out, I missed out on a real opportunity not saying, "Wahoo!!!!!" when she said they were open for the season.  Ah, a regret. I try to live life without any regrets, but, that one is pretty major.  Oh well, maybe next year!

So, obviously, we went there, and despite the fact it was bit too cold and windy to sit outside and eat, we did it anyway.  There's something about a mere hint of summer (read: sun) that makes me incapable of not pretending it's ninety degrees out.  I pretend full on, too.  I'm like, sitting there shivering, going "It's s-s-s-so n-n-nice and w-w-warm out..."

Anyway while sitting waiting for our food, Garret said, "Hey! Looks like we survived winter!" And then I snapped this photo:

At Wahoo's Eatery in Wilmington, VT. April 2012.

He even looks cold.  But look at that beautiful blue sky!  The sweeping landscapes!  The gorgeous possibility of spring and summer!  

What sadly didn't make it into that picture was the hitchhiker looking for a ride just to the right of the frame of the photo.  Before I moved here I thought hitchhikers were mythological and existed only in the 1970's.  Modern day hitchhikers seemed like they were a mere concept that was on narrative reserve to be written into scripts/short stories as necessary.  But.. nope!  Apparently, they are real. I see them all the time here.  Seems like a really stressful way to get from point A to point B, to me. I don't know.

Anyway I'm prepping for summer and very excited about it.  It's true, we did make it through winter.  Prior to winter Garret said that if one of us was going to go crazy it'd probably be me. Honestly I figured he was most likely right and that I'd be stir-crazy being cooped up inside. But I really didn't feel that way at all, surprisingly.  Instead, we both enjoyed the time afforded to people who are forced to be indoors a lot, and in doing so we dreamed up a whole lot of new creative pursuits for ourselves.  But more on that some other day ;) 

Last night I got to work rearranging the deck so that it is kind of an outdoor mirror to our living room and dining room.  We now have the table to one side and two awesome benches that were downstairs at the house we're renting as a little seating area on the other side.  Now I just need some fresh plants, citronella candles, and lots of company! 

The deck in Vermont. 

I made the boring white table festive by using a tapestry as a table cloth.

The "living room" outdoors!

.lsm

BEAR ATTACK!!!

Okay, so, we didn't see a bear.  But all signs are pointing to a bear (or a dinosaur, or an elephant, or - something big!) helping him or herself (gotta be politically correct, people! we just can't just assume it was a he) to our garbage last night.

Garret took Murgy out before bed last night as is typical.  Murgy has a variety of barks and cries that she employs for different situations.  For example, she barks in this high-pitched "hello?!?" way when she wants you to do something with her.  She cries the saddest little mourning cry ever when she accidentally kills one of her moth friends.  And she growls if Garret or I are giving another dog attention, teeth and all. What an overly protective dog.

So anyway Garret takes her out last night and she's apparently doing her sad/curious/I Really Want To Go Over There cry toward the road.  Garret didn't think much of it because as of late, it's been apparent to us that Murgy is preparing to film her audition tape for Best Dog Chipmunk Hunter.  She always wants to go somewhere, because there just might be a chipmunk there.  In hindsight, I guess she was "spooked" but another reason this didn't get mentioned to me is that Garret was spooked due to there being new neighbors across the street who he didn't realize were home and yet were still watching TV and lighting candles in their house (GHOSTS!).

Well, this morning, Garret took Murgy out again (dogs! they always need to go out!) and he found a surprise at the end of the driveway at the very place Murgy had been crying toward.  Our garbage can, which is a wooden box that is supposedly "bear proof" had been knocked over, and all of the garbage bags have been ripped open.

The scene of the crime. BEAR ATTACK IN VERMONT!

The normally nailed down garbage bin, completely turned over.

We're figuring it must have been a bear because:

-  If it were a person trying to steal our identity by going through our garbage, this is a supremely strange neighborhood to go identity huntin' in and also why not just open the can like a normal person.

-  If it were a deer, fox, possum, turkey, beaver, or raccoon, the task of knocking the entire wooden box over (it's heavy!) seems a bit extreme/impossible.

-  As Hanna-Barbera allowed to enter the history books of cartoonish time, bears do really love pic-a-nic baskets.

-  On the other hand, Hanna-Barbera also taught us that not all bears are smart, as Yogi who was (no offense) no genius was "Smarter than the average bear." But then again, it doesn't take a brilliant mind to knock over a garbage can, just a hungry one.


Anyway, hopefully this does not become a recurring problem.  Our garbage is always tied up and everything.  We'll have to see if it happens again.

a winter walk around wilmington, vt

This sign is starting to pop up around Wilmington.  It's usually cloth and it's usually multicolored and it's usually flapping in winter wind: OPEN!

After a harrowing end to summer and a very work-filled autumn, it's looking like Wilmington is on the mend for winter, which is this area's busiest season due to its proximity to Mount Snow.

I was driving around today, an appropriately cold but gorgeously sunny and clear winter day in December, and I started to notice just how many signs either say "Open" or "Opening soon!".

It was a nice and welcomed sight so I decided to get out of the car and take a few pictures.

bartleby's books in wilmington, vt. december 2011.

Bartleby's Books:  This is a great little bookstore right as you arrive into Wilmington if you're approaching from the west.  We had visited the shop when we first came to check Wilmington out and I had fallen in love with it back then.  Unfortunately, it was totally destroyed in the flood, as their website details.  Crazily enough, the owners of Bartleby's also owned a book store in Brattleboro, VT which was destroyed in April in a giant fire that swept through the brooks house building downtown and closed several businesses.  It's been a wild year to say the least.

Bartelby's opened back up as of about a week ago.  We went in yesterday and it looks and feels almost exactly the same as it did before the flood.

Below is the sign inside the window of a carpet store just as you get into town approaching from the east.  I love the loud neon-ness of the sign.  This storefront was completely under water during Irene, and for the first few months we were here it was empty inside.

The building where Town Hall and the police station were housed is still gutted inside (they're both housed in an empty storefront next to the grocery store, for now).  On the side of the building, which is now decorated for Christmas, you can see the flood line.  the top line is 2011, the bottom is the last time this place flooded, 1938.  The 2011 line is over six feet high.

the flood lines on the side of town hall in wilmington, vt.
the 2011 line was caused by hurricane irene in september 2011.

the flood lines on the side of town hall in wilmington, vt.
the 2011 line was caused by hurricane irene in september 2011.

Along with "open" signs, signs like this one have started to pop up - Returning for Christmas! Opening This Winter!

'just bead it' aka beads needs in wilmington, vt - opening for christmas 2011.

gallery wright - reopening for winter in wilmington vt.

This sign started popping up everywhere early fall - "Wilmington - Where Amazing Happens".  They were absolutely everywhere for a time, and now they're actually beginning to be replaced by the signs that read "open" or "opening soon".  This is the only one I found that remains, and it's in a gallery that I believe isn't going to be able to reopen due to damage.  It was right on the water.

wilmington, vt. december 2011.

A sign at the other end of the same building.  "Kindness is like snow - it beautifies everything it covers."  There's a lot of positivity and love in this town.

"kindness is like snow - it beautifies everything it covers."

We first visited Wilmington in April, when it was an untouched, quaint, vibrant little town. We moved here a week after the town had been gutted by a hurricane.  Now, only three months later, so many people are back on their feet.  Standing there today, I couldn't help but wonder - if my little jewelry shop, carpet shop, or bookstore was totally ruined in a flood, would I have the positivity and energy to pick up and get back on my feet this quickly?  I don't know that I would have been able to not fall victim to a "why me?" attitude; I don't know that I would have been able to smile and figure it all out and be back on my feet in what really is no time at all.

2011 has been an incredible year.  Our journey over the course of a year has been more varied and ever-changing than any other year I can think of in my life.  A year ago, we were immersed in our jobs and our life in Brooklyn.  Last spring we said, "Hey, what if we move out of the city?" which became "Hey, wanna go check out Vermont?" which became "I really liked that area, somewhere between Bennington and Brattleboro..." and then just like that, it was "We found a place in Wilmington... we're moving there in the fall." It all felt kind of like we were throwing a dart into a dark room, hoping it would stick and that if it did, we'd be alright.  As much as we were following our hearts and our instincts, it truly was all a gamble, and there were moments - especially as I was driving away from Brooklyn with a car full of stuff - where I really thought "What are we doing? Are we going to be okay?"

That it was this place as opposed to the million other places in the US (or even the northeast) that we could ended up in after having uttered the phrase "Hey, what if move out of the city?", and that we ended up here specifically when we did, I can't help but feel sentimental about the fact that we were drawn here.  Here, a place that - when I really think about it - is a town-sized representation of one of the most important lessons I've learned in 2011.

In many, many ways this year has taught me that things will not always feel like they have a certain path.  That sometimes things will feel so uncertain that it'll scare the hell out of you.  Maybe things are feeling up in the air because in a terrible storm, yours was the shop that got flooded.  Or maybe you're feeling overwhelmed because you've just moved 300 miles away to a town you don't know on what was for all intents and purposes a whim.  Maybe you just switched jobs.  Maybe the structure of your family has changed through birth, death, divorce, marriage, or even distance.  We're constantly faced with changes big and small.  Life, it would seem, is a series of adjustments and evolutions - some invited, some not - all, at times, overwhelming.

And whether you invited the change or it snuck up on you, it births around you a new reality - a reality that you're submerged in full time, like it or not.  There's inevitably a fleeting moment right when the change happens where you feel like you have to stop - where you say, "I can't do this!" - a moment where you're ready to give up.  But even if you really believe that you "can't do this," chances are, you're going to choose to pick up and keep on going, no matter how hard it is,  usually because you frankly don't have a choice.  And then the only thing there is to do is to let yourself adjust to your new reality.  There'll likely be growing pains in the process.  You'll feel tired, and you'll probably find yourself missing the way things were from time to time.  It sure would be easier to never have to adjust.

But in the end, as long as you followed and keep following your instincts, that new reality that the change birthed will eventually become the familiar.  All of a sudden, in the midst of it all, you'll realize you're comfortable.  What once was new and scary is now just life.  Adjustments happened without you realizing it; you stretched, you grew, you became different.   "Who knew," you'll find yourself saying, "this is where we'd end up."  Standing in your same old shop, now polished and ready. Or finding yourself deep in work at a job that used to be unfamiliar.  Sitting around a kitchen table enjoying the company of family members who you didn't even know just a couple of years ago, who are now dependable presences in your life.  Or, driving, through a town that until recently you didn't even know existed.  A town that is now "home" and that's giving you a lot of food for thought.  Wilmington, where amazing happens.

mulled cider with spiced rum, topped with cinnamon whipped cream.

mulled cider with spiced rum and cinnamon whipped cream.

mulled cider with spiced rum, topped with cinnamon whipped cream.  it was omg delicious.

i've been wanting to do something apple cider-y for a while.  after all we're living amongst trees and autumnal colors here, and there's something about brisk fall air rustling leaves on trees that sounds a lot like a voice whispering "apples are delicious.  eat apples.  bake apples.  drink apples."  okay, maybe there is no omniscient narrator in the woods telling me what to eat, but there is something about cold air that makes me want (wait, need) cinnamon and apples.

sure, there's apple pie.  it's delicious and trust me i've baked more than one this fall (and even if that meant i only baked two, which i'm not even saying i meant, that means at least one pie per person living in my house has been consumed).  but while at what i call "the farm stand near brattleboro" but is actually called dutton farm, i saw a packet of mulling spices and knew that mulled cider would have to be in my future.  

i started dreaming up what creative/fun thing i could do with the mulling spices.  i mean, mulled cider should be enough, but something about the christmas tree in the living room and these wonderful new irish coffee glasses that garret's aunt rusty gave us made me want (wait, need) to make something especially delicious.  i got to thinking about those warm, apple, spicy cocktails that wine bars, etc. have around the holidays.  i'm not one usually for cocktails (a good glass of cabernet or a cold beer is more my speed), but make it fancy enough, and i'll partake.  so i dreamt this up.

mulled cider with spiced rum, topped with cinnamon whipped cream

          you will need:

- mulling spices.  these can be found near the apples in most grocery stores. they come in tea bags or as loose spices.  or, i suppose, you could make them. 

-  apple cider.  i got locally made vermont cider. 

-  heavy whipping cream 

-  confectioner's sugar 

-  spiced rum, such as captain morgan's or bacardi.  i got bacardi oakheart.  note! i know nothing whatsoever about what constitutes "fine" rum, but i do know it should be spiced for this recipe. 

directions:

-  put the cider and the mulling spices on a low heat on the stove and let the cider heat and simmer slowly for at least a half hour.  the packet your spices came in should give you instructions as to a spices/cider ratio.

-  when your cider has simmered a while, it's time to make the whipped cream.  throw some cream (about 1/2 a cup) into a cold metal bowl.  add two tablespoons of confectioner's sugar and a sprinkle (or two or three or four) or cinnamon.  using an electric mixer, whip the cream until it gets firm.  it takes about 40-45 seconds. 

-  pour your cider into cups.  fancy glasses or cozy mugs seem best.-  pour a shot of your spiced rum into each.  give it a good, good stir. 

-  top with whipped cream

 enjoy!

a few notes:  i'd like to say this was all as perfect as the starry sky over vermont on a clear evening (seriously that is perfection) but actually the rum in the drink (or maybe it was the heat) started to curdle my whipped cream ever so slightly towards the end of my enjoying the heavenly flavor of the concoction.  

also if these had been really fancy, i would have at least thought to put a cinnamon stick in each glass.  just sayin'.

also i should note that i thought this up a few weeks ago, but didn't actually get around to making it until tonight.  that's because liquor stores are surprisingly hard to come across here!  wine and beer are both sold in the grocery store, but liquor is sold in state-run stores and in my experience at least, they are few and far between.  i'm not a big liquor drinker, so the only other time this was a problem was when i wanted to make penne a la vodka and just made "pasta with tomato cream sauce" instead.  i believe (though this might be me making things up) there was a liquor store in wilmington that got flooded in the storm.  so on my typical traveled paths, the only liquor store is just outside of brattleboro, which is about a 30 minute drive for me.  not necessarily a drive i felt i needed to make for this cocktail, delicious as it may have been.  anyway today we went grocery shopping in brattleboro, and apples on the brain, i stopped at the store on the way back to get some spiced rum.

in case you are curious (i was) this wikipedia article on what alcohol can be sold where and when in the US is pretty interesting.  

some photos

hello!  we've had a busy couple of weeks and have another busy couple of weeks coming up.   two weeks ago garret's parents visited, and that saturday my mom, grandma, and garret's aunt rusty came to the house for dinner.  it's so nice to be able to have family dinners like that!

this past weekend, we were in latham on saturday to see my brother's band play a gig in troy (they were AWESOME!).  sunday garret headed down to the city to finish filming "called up" (congrats on wrapping!) so i stayed in latham with my mom because... surprise! i was too afraid to stay at the house in vermont alone.  i have faith in myself that i'm going to become less of a baby as time goes on, but for now i was a total baby, and therefore appropriately stayed in my childhood bedroom.

this weekend i'm headed to salem, ma with my mom, my aunt, and my cousin for our annual october salem trip.  we may or may not all be witches.

anyway, it's nice to be in proximity to home and family and be able to do all of these things at ease!

here is a very random array of pictures we've taken over the past couple of weeks:

that beautiful vermont foliage! we took this on a hike recently.

little murgs enjoying the deck.

murgs and headed down a path after taking in the view
at hogback mountain, between wilmington and brattleboro.

murgy's new chair.  we had this chair at our old apartment,
but something about where it is in the new house made it
her favorite.

a gorgeous sunset we saw one saturday night while driving
down the mountain.

the side of dot's restaurant, post-storm.  from what i've heard around town,
this is condemned and will have to be torn down.  

murgy's other new favorite spot - right in front of the fireplace.
(it's actually a gas stove that i call a fireplace!)
she gets herself too overheated and i have to physically remove her -
she loves the fire!

a storefront window in brattleboro, vt. brattleboro is big
on fliers - it always strikes me when i'm there to spend
a minute or two in front of the windows and bulletin boards
so that i know what's going on.
note the sign about marble ardvison.  he's been missing since the day
before irene - the search effort is ongoing.

settling in...

week three of vermont life is in full swing (has it really only been three weeks?).  i've done more than one grocery shopping trip, and we went out for chinese food.  surprisingly enough the combination of these two [seemingly insignificant] things has started to let it seep into my mind that this isn't an escapist vacation, but rather, we actually live here.  i'm happy to say that the realization is a rather lovely one.

therein i'm also starting to get used to the new realities of life.  groceries is a big adjustment, actually -- where in brooklyn i would just stop on my way home from work and pick up a few things here and there, here it [actually, literally] takes me forty minutes to get to a big grocery store.  there's a smaller one right in town (so, a fifteen minute commute) but as is with smaller grocery stores, i find the selection [logically] smaller and the prices a bit higher than the bigger stores like hannaford or price chopper.  so!  grocery shopping is a commitment, is what i'm getting at...

i've taken to making really detailed shopping lists, and i flirted with the coupon section of a newspaper last saturday at a coffee shop.  i haven't quite taken out the scissors and started clipping yet, but i could see myself being featured on extreme couponing soon enough.

going out for chinese food is a similarly lengthy commute commitment, but that, my friends, is a blessing in disguise.

all in all we're basically just getting into a groove, here.  we've both got our home offices set up -- mine is on the first floor of the house and garret's is on the third floor, so most of the time murgy hangs in the middle in the living room confused about whose desk to curl up next to.  i think in time, i'll win - i put one of her favorite couches in my office... prime curling up space.  you're welcome, murgs!

it's going to rain every day for the next seven days here, so i'll probably be posting again soon enough.

rain for the next seven days in wilmington, vt!

wahoo!

the view from our deck on saturday morning

this past saturday was one of those absolutely perfect autumn days - the kind where you're warm in the sun, cool in the shade, and a delicious breeze punctuates the air so you never get too hot.

saturday was also the first full day since we arrived that route 9, which connects bennington to brattleboro (and us to both) was open.  we took full advantage of this and hopped in our Brand New 1998 Subaru and were brattleboro-bound by late morning.

we were hunting for bookshelves for the house, mainly so we have somewhere to house all of the books, notebooks, and garret's millions-of-dvds in our home offices.

and after many old treasures seen, we were getting hungry.

on our way back into wilmington, we stopped at wahoo's eatery - one of the only wilmington spots that's open and operating right now.  i had read that wahoo's was helping with the relief effort, and i was excited to find out how.

wahoo's is donating 50% of everything they make to local flood victims.  which, let me tell you, is a big undertaking.  their food is amazing as is the quality, and their prices are hardly marked up.  i'd eat here any day, but i was especially happy to eat my bacon and pineapple cheddar cheeseburger (yes! yum!) knowing what wahoo's was up to.

we happily ordered, and even more happily ate:

our food.  mine: a bacon-cheddar-grilled pineapple burger.
garret's: a barbeque chicken sandwich.  garret, a huge bbq sauce
enthusiast, said this was some of the best sauce he's had.

after we finished eating, i said to garret "so, we probably shouldn't have ice cream on top of those huge sandwiches, eh?" but then again... it was for a good cause...

as we sat eating our ice cream (which might i add was wonderful), on awesome flat rocks that suffice as seating when all of the tables are taken, a parade of national guard vehicles drove by.  tanks, pickups pulling farm equipment, little humvees.  all camouflage, all driven by men in uniform.  as the trucks drove by, everyone eating at wahoo's started clapping, waving, and cheering.  the soldiers waved back, yelled out "hello!".  everyone was celebrating each other.  and i have to say, it was one of the more moving things i have ever experienced.  here we were on a gorgeous day, in the company of new neighbors, in a town that was just destroyed - and spirits couldn't have been higher.  everyone seems happy to be here, happy to help, and happy to keep on going.

wahoo's eatery in wilmington, vt.

the front of wahoo's eatery in wilmington, vt.

we're here!!

as of sunday 9/4, we're officially here in wilmington!  it's of been quite an adventure so far... 

wilmington, etc.


detours!
as you can probably imagine, the damage from hurricane irene (which i've noticed people here simply call "the storm") to roadways was extensive.  therefore, many roads here are still closed, including route 9 which connects bennington to brattleboro, and wilmington and marlboro to both.

getting around is for the most part doable, but it requires maps and planning.  google has actually generated maps that track which roads are closed so planning for alternate routes is easier.  this has come in very handy to us so far.

one of the many detours.  they may be
time-consuming, but i must say, the winding
roads here are very pretty!

sunday marked the voyage from my mom's house outside of albany to wilmington, and so we found our route, which took us to the tiny portion of route 9 that is open by way of massachusetts.

since then we've experienced many a detour - returning our u-haul in brattleboro on monday morning was so far the most extreme trip of the many we've been on.  we followed detour after detour and a 19 mile trip ended up taking three hours!

yesterday in an attempt to get to brattleboro without driving three hours, we found ourselves on a crazy detour trip through dover and into wardsboro.  at one point we came to a blockade that said "road closed - local traffic only".  garret decided to forge ahead to see if it was passable.  IT WAS NOT!!! we decided to turn around when we came to a point where the river had completely overtaken the road about 200 feet ahead...

i've been hearing reports that route 9 may be open as soon as friday 9/9, which would be helpful not only to us, but to the many people who have been hoping for the best on detours for a while now.

main street
the first night we were here, the police were no longer guarding the route through the town center in wilmington, so we [naively?] thought we could drive through, and did, to get to the grocery store.  the devastation here is truly unbelievable.  i had seen pictures.  but to actually be there, where we had been just months ago and soaked up the vibrancy of this wonderful little town, and to see it as destroyed as it is, was shocking.  i should have brought a camera, but i didn't.  nevertheless photos hardly even do the place justice.  to see actual buildings gutted, and to see the people inside already working hard to get them back up and running, was awe-inspiring.

the house!


breaking and entering!
so, we drive the detour through massachusetts and arrive at our new place of residence, where a key was to be left for us in the main office of the development.  i guess in all of the confusion and work of the storm, it slipped through the cracks that a key needed to be left for us!  the office was closed, and no one was around.  so here we are with all of our stuff, and no key!

i called and emailed the people who own our house, who unfortunately weren't home, but sent us an email that suggested we break in.  oh boy!!!

we got to the house and stared at it.  what to do?  then, i remembered that the previous times we had visited, a specific door off of the second floor balcony had been unlocked.  garret found a way up, but paused.  what if that door was no longer unlocked?  he'd be trapped on a second floor balcony and i'd be tasked with breaking into the house.

well, he took a leap of faith and - PHEW! the door was indeed unlocked.

i'm keeping it faithfully locked now... it's apparently easy to break in through!

boxes, boxes, boxes

murgy curls up to a box for a little nap.

i'm so sick of boxes and unpacking!  one astounding thing about living in a house though, is that there is pretty much a place for every belonging?  coming from brooklyn where we were somewhat forced to turn our belongings into decorations, for they had no place, this is a very new concept to me.

in fact, when i was putting things away in the kitchen (i always start with the kitchen - to me, it's the epicenter of the home!) i, out of habit, crowded just about everything into one cabinet before realizing doing so left me with several completely empty cabinets in other parts of the kitchen.

i'm sure i'll get used to this quickly and fill them all up fast!

so quiet!
my biggest impression thus far is how quiet and dark the nighttime is here.  i didn't know i was capable of sleeping so soundly.  the first night, murgy, who usually prowls the apartment and barks at shadows, didn't even move the entire night.  it was so dark, i don't think the little pup even knew what to do! neither did i!

------


i haven't taken many pictures yet, i've been so preoccupied with everything else.  so, more pictures will certainly be forthcoming, especially once i start to get rooms set up, but here are a few i've taken so far!

the empty truck in brooklyn!
ready to be filled with everything we own.
surprisingly enough (okay, okay, it's probably not that surprising)
we didn't even have enough stuff to fill it!

cooking our first meal here on sunday night -
hot sausage, fresh tomatoes, and garlic with alfredo sauce

we had to share one plate - we hadn't unpacked any others yet!