LemmonBuggParty

I have always loved horses. I learned to ride when I was in elementary school. I am not sure why I stopped riding, but I have picked it up again here and there with my longest stint as a wrangler for a summer after college. While perusing the local listservs (that might be another blog entry!) I noticed a post about very reasonable horse back riding lessons. So I called.  I think we are doing something based on a 4-H program but whatever and however it worked out, it has allowed me to introduce riding horses to the boys.  The horses we are riding(I rode briefly on Tuesday) are Icelandic horses and very different from horses I have ridden before.  They are four and five gaited which means they have extra speeds. I am used to walk, trot, cantor, gallop. The horse we rode this week is a champion horse that came over from Iceland about a year ago. She is five gaited. Apparently their top speed is 40 miles an hour!  It was a sweet but short ride. William ...

 Lovely Thanksgiving Dinner with Maureen and Chris Dant, neighbors two houses down. A lovely table and roaring fire! Black Friday Hike! Boys in their day-glow orange - need the hunters to see us! Amazing Tree  Out to get our tree! Is this the one? I think this is it! Add caption It was a lovely setting and even more amazing that we cut our tree down and I mailed the check to the name on the poster! Trimming the tree

Thanksgiving is almost upon us and I have spent the evening baking brownie bites, chocolate chip cookies with espresso powder and for the first time, I made pecan pies from my grandmothers recipe.  Tomorrow morning will be for the turkey and the preparing of the asparagus casserole, another recipe that I remember so fondly that my grandmother used to make. When I think of Thanksgiving, I immediate think of going to my grandparents in NC. I can't think of a Thanksgiving we didn't spend with them. I can still see the buffet set with all the wonderful food at my Great Aunt's house in Monroe, NC. We would drive up to Southern Pines, NC to see my grandparents and then drive over the morning of Thanksgiving to be with all those in Monroe. There used to be a parade that we would go out and watch right outside of the house. I think my memories of the parade are intertwined with the photos I remember seeing of me and my brother watching it. For dinner Jim and I were at the "k...

Finally, they are here!  Mom and Dad arrived on Wed., Oct. 17th for their first visit to VT. I drove down to Boston to pick them up and we had a fun time catching up on the ride back.  Boston is only about 2 hours and 30 minutes away - just a short drive now, so come on up and visit :) The drive back through New Hampshire and Vermont was quite lovely. Lots of golden trees and a pop of red here and there.  We missed the full effect of the turning of the leaves but it sure was lovely.  The mountains here are wide and long - encompassing your whole view. Coming up over crest of a hill the view opened up to the green mountains. While Mom and Dad were here we visited, Quechee, VT,  Woodstock,VT, Lyme, NH, Hanover, NH, drove around the Dartmouth campus, had lunch and toured around Hanover, visited around Norwich, VT and drove down to W. Lebanon, NH so they could see my "shopping" run!  We toured back roads and highways all who's scenery was full of color...

It has been awhile since I have been here - I have missed documenting our adventures! We have been enjoying a lovely fall and now it seems to be a golden October. The boys are excited about the upcoming Halloween events. We have been told to expect up to 200 trick or treaters!!  But they have also been thinking about HMS Pumpkin Patch and the Halloween "tour" in Hudson that they enjoyed so much.  Time marches on. Thomas has lost his first tooth.  It was an upper front tooth that had a damaged root from rough play, no doubt with "the brothers"!  He was so excited and it happened at school so he had the coveted tooth chest hanging around his neck. William also lost a tooth, his last baby tooth.  Two ends of the spectrum. A couple of Friday's ago we hosted around 60 faculty and staff from Thetford Academy for a cookout. A good time was had by all. We also celebrated James' 9th birthday on Oct. 14th! He had a great group of boys over and they had a great tim...

 My morning walk to school with Thomas prompted me to get out and take some photos of the turning leaves and the scenery around me.  The first four photos are from a week or so ago of Lake Fairlee.  Turning leaves littering the gravel walk.  Side view of our home  Fog/clouds rolling past - view from across the street  The Thetford Hill Green - historic place - Congregational Church at the end.  Houses on the other side of the street with mountain view and low lying clouds  Another view of our home  View from directly across the street  Thetford Academy  Across the street from the Academy  Tie-Up Post