Yikes !!

In all my years of driving, I have never seen 2 cars totally ablaze in a short period of time. What's going on ? There didn't seem to be any apparent cause for the fires - the cars were simply stopped by the side of the road , completely engulfed in flames. And what's even stranger, there were no fire engines, emergency vehicles, or bystanders - just one single policeman directing traffic.And we never saw any fire engines or police cars speeding to the disaster sites, even though both wrecks were on major interstates !

What a strange start to our little mini vacation.

Just

monkeying around ...

Remembering

I love old cemeteries and there was a particularly nice one across the street from our Bed & Breakfast this weekend.

Since this is Vermont, the headstones are made of marble and still very well preserved. Most of them are from the 18th and 19th century. Here's a cheerful angel with a big heart; are the two doves on either side added to give additional uplift to the dear departed as she wings her way up to heaven ?

Love the little bosom of this one

A rather dour and grumpy face, but check out what's under the chin. I suppose it's supposed to be wings, but I interpret it as a big bow tie., especially since there's a neat row of buttons underneath.

Pretty flowers and a little billet doux - is she taking it with her to send a note back once she gets there ?

The inscription over the face reads " Remember Death " , but when I visit all those graves, I remember Life.

I like to imagine all the stories of the people who are buried there, what made them happy and what made them sad . Often you can piece together the story of someone's life by the surrounding stones - a baby who died or several small children taken from their families by what illness ? Often there are husbands who mourn their wives , but keep on marrying again and again. What dramas were lived, what gossip and meanness is buried here, what quiet, sometimes noble lives were played out in this little village ?

Their headstones , carved and placed with such care and - I believe in most cases - love, call out " Remember me, remember that I was alive, don't forget me..."

Our weekend trip

Judging by this picture, you would think we took a quick trip to Italy this weekend, wouldn't you ? But instead we went to New York and visited Kykuit, the marvelous Rockefeller summer house , overlooking the Hudson.


Three generations of Rockefellers came here for the summer to get away from the city heat and to enjoy golf on their private golf course and riding and driving their horses. Some of their vast fortune was spent on collecting art - most surprisingly, modern art. The entire basement of the house is an art gallery filled with all the modern greats - Picasso, Miro, Calder, Motherwell, Warhol, Grace Hartigan - it's an amazing collection.






There's lots of sculpture outside as well and we could have spent hours exploring the grounds, but we needed to move on - we had reservations in Vermont that night at this charming Bed & Breakfast.




And just look what's next door - the annual Library Book Sale !! Of course we had to hit that the next morning and came away with a big box full of goodness.
And then it was time for the real reason for this trip - the wedding !


The setting and the weather were perfect

The bride was lovely, the groom handsome and the ceremony made me cry - so many hopes, expressed so earnestly and with such feeling and so much love and fond good wishes surrounding this young couple who is taking their place in the long chain of people who came before - all of them bravely taking that step together into the unknown.

Some very funny speeches were made



lots of socializing took place and then the dancing began !







Could this be a little breakdance action on the side ?



And then a wedding cake appeared - what a wonderful party ! I think the expression on the children's faces says it all.

Crisis Management

I was all set to post about our fabulous weekend away from the farm, but instead I've just finished dealing with a veterinary crisis of major proportions - I'll spare you the details, but it made a grown man turn green and faint ! Real tragedy was averted , however, and the clean-up took only 8 hours - sigh.
Now to clean myself up and then I'll be back with some lovely pictures of our grown-up, non-farm weekend getaway.