Brattleboro has more than its share of quirky vehicles. Here’s an old Honda CB-360 with a duct tape and baling wire sidecar, a bunch of spare tires, an opaque windscreen, and a couple of jerricans.
Living near train tracks gives you a whole new perspective on world economics.
I read the other day that half of all Vermont timber is exported to Canada and then reimported as finished lumber.
Here’s a freight train going south full of Canadian lumber and other goods.
Once on a vacation in Monte Carlo (ah, the good old days) we watched a helicopter make dozens of trips to clear construction debris off a rooftop.
Today on our way back from our River Garden storage unit, we saw how non-tycoons do it. Three guys and some yellow tow straps, a giant dumpster and a logging crane… What could possibly go wrong?
The Retreat Tower
This morning we walked up to the Retreat Tower, built in 1887 by the residents of the then Brattleboro Asylum. We can see the morning sun hitting the tower from our living room windows.
Now, we’re trying breakfast at the Elliott St. Cafe, which also happens to be the HQ for the local 350.org chapter.
Sisyphus has traded his rock for an environmentally friendly electric leaf blower.
Two weeks in: Sunspots
Is this the real life, or is this just fantasy? Cosette says ‘real life’ in a superheated morning moment. Or maybe she says ‘what’s the difference’?
What’s on your Christmas list?
So far the weather in the 802 has actually been warmer than in our old 801… But that will likely change soon
As a very happy Bikram Yoga practitioner for the last few years at Bikram Yoga Sandy, I really wasn’t sure what to expect from my first non-branded “hot yoga” class last night. Bodhi Fit is within walking distance, however, and the nearest Bikram studio is an hour away. Soooo…
The class was very nice. Overall not as intense nor as rigidly structured as a Bikram class, but I got a nice workout, worked up a good sweat, and started learning a bunch of new postures. I liked the focus on relaxation and meditation, and most of what I learned in Bikram was transferable.
Ommmmm…………
Hot yoga in Brattleboro
Wine tasting
Yesterday was another beautiful fall day in Brattleboro. It was windy and there was a definite chill in the air, but the sky was blue almost all day, the last of the leaves are rustling and falling, and everything smells fresh and clean after the rain on Friday and Saturday.
We started the day at the Winter Farmers Market, held in the River Garden, which is an enclosed space between two buildings that is managed by Building a Better Brattleboro. We bought some frou-frou lettuce and fresh tomatoes, and ate brunch from the vendors there. I had dim sum from Cai, and Lee had a delicious piece of quiche. We shared a delicious but expensive bottle of currant-ginger juice, while a guy played the banjo and guitar… both very well… and sang. It’s crowded, and since it’s a crowd of strangers for the most part, it feels a little close. Still, when it gets to be really cold in a month or two, it will be nice to be able to walk to the F.M. and get whatever fresh veggies are available along with a just-right dose of back-to-the-land do-gooderism.
We met with our contractor and looked at floor plan ideas with him and his son the architect-in-training… he had some good ideas but we had some other ones, and so we sent him back to the drawing board for some refinements. We traded him our giant gas leaf blower for his petite electric one, and we both thought we got the better end of the deal, so that was nice.
We unpacked some more, rearranged, cleaned some, and then went to Windham Wines for a tasting. They used to have a wine bar open all the time, but now it’s only a private event type of place. The tasting was put on by an importer called Domain Select Wine Estates, and they featured a bunch of Italian wines all made from unusual varietals… I hadn’t heard of any of these grapes before tonight! We didn’t make extensive notes, but here’s what we tasted and what we liked more and less:
* 2009 Velenosi, Passerina Brut, $18: light sparkly wine, which we both really liked a lot. recommended to go with creamy cheeses, and creamy is a good way to describe the wine itself.
* 2010 Villa Angela, Pecorino, Marche, $17: tasted like white wine, not distinctive enough for us to spend that much.
* 2010 COS, Frappato, Sicilia, $30: a very interesting, very light red. I tasted an interesting mineral flavor. Recommended as a wine that could handle all of Thanksgiving dinner, and that seemed like a smart suggestion. However, $30 is a lot for us to spend, so I don’t know how much of this we’d actually buy.
* 2010 Velenosi, Lacrima di Morro D’Alba, Marche, $17:Lee wrote “amazing nose” on this one, and I agree… smelled wonderful to me. Tasted good too, but for me this was more about the nose than the taste. This is one we would buy and enjoy.
* 2009 J. Hofstatter, Lagrein, Alto Adige, $20: Damned with faint praise… all we wrote was “OK.”
* 2009 Vinosia, Aglianico, $15: We latched onto the word “inky” from the long drawn out description… liked this one quite a lot, and in this bunch it seemed like a good bargain.
* Velenosi, Visciole, $23 (500 ml): Wonderful dessert wine made from partly fermented cherries mixed with the Lacrima described earlier. Wow… a not-too-sweet dessert wine. Definitely on the list.
Nice wines, and we met some nice folks, all in a nice atmosphere. This, again, is why we’re here.
The Ice Pond on a late fall afternoon. The pond is accessible from the Brattleboro Retreat trails. Peaceful!
Looking up at the Harris Hill Ski Jump ramp.
Looking down the Harris Hill Ski Jump. It’s way steeper and scarier in person than in the photo. I was not exactly lost, but I didn’t know where I was either, when I came up on the back of the ski jump… cool!
The best way to get to know a place, at least a place like Brattleboro, is on foot. Today I went out for a much-needed run, partly on the road and partly on the Brattleboro Retreat Trails that are within easy run distance of the house. The next several pics are from the run. This stone bridge is on the side of the road just north of Grafton Village Cheese.
Being in hot water is a good thing sometimes. Our new house used to be a restaurant and so it has a lot of complex plumbing. We just had a very helpful repairman from Central Appliance come out to fix the washing machine but it turned out all we needed to do was turn on the hot water.
Brattleboro’s Stone Church, looking vaguely ethereal under this morning’s foggy gray sky.
Brattleboro Adventure – the Auckland Edition 