October adventures 👻

Well, it’s been a minute! We’ve been busy winding down summer, prepping for winter, and knocking some items off the to-do list.

We went to see an abandoned Air Force base with some friends.

We’ve had a few more backyard fires while the weather held out.

We introduced Gremlin to the attic!

We’ve been eating a much healthier diet (and therefore doing lots of meal prepping)

Got out to see some art (Wolf Kahn self portrait at BMAC)

Planted 1.5 pounds of garlic for spring.

Hosted an online awards show from my basement.

Fixed up the basement for winter coziness (this was Dan’s project)

We’re looking forward to November and all that brings. More soon.

South Barre Bike Path

Yesterday I met up with my friend Michelle for a walk along a path I hadn’t been before, the South Barre Bike Path. I’d seen signs for it but hadn’t ever walked it. She really loves this walk and was happy to show it to me.

Google maps of start of path — A Google satellite view of the path where we started, on Fairview St.

We met up at City Hall park in downtown Barre and walked about 10 minutes to Fairview Street. Fair warning: the lower part of Prospect Street is a steep hill.

This is the entrance. The path is asphalt the entire length and flat. Our walk was on an early Saturday evening and we only met a few people along the way: a pair of cyclists and a person with their dog.

The path follows the Stevens Branch, and I could hear the water on my left. There are worn foot paths and some mown paths that lead to the water’s edge. One path goes to the Barre City Dog Park.

I like that there was vegetation on both sides of the bike path, which includes a tall tree canopy, swaths of goldenrod, jewelweed, bramble and wild grapes. Compared to the Montpelier Bike Path by the high school, this one has a more secluded feel.

The mid-way point is at the Barre City Elementary and Middle School.

This mile-long path ends up in South Barre at Bridge Street. Upon exiting, we can look over the bridge onto the water. Be careful because the traffic is fast here and the sidewalk is not wide.

We turned around and headed back after that to finish out a comfortable two-mile walk. Fairview Street is a quiet residential neighborhood. It’s a nice ease back into the bustle of downtown. Can’t wait to bring Dan here.

Pandemic in Springtime

News on the poetry front: a recent poem of mine was included in “Through the Window, Across the Road”, a publication of writing and art made created between March and July of this year. I’ve posted it below.

Pandemic in Springtime

March

I awoke on top of a mountain of sadness
With no place to go but down
the vista was splendid and it cut,
like roads winding through a valley of naked limbs 
Farmland smeared together through my prism of tears
This is all one long run on sentence
Driving down from the mountain along the edge of a jagged scream
I stay within the lines and I don’t dare veer
Not even for the deer
Not even to stop as I pass by a pen of spring lambs 
Pulling with their tongues the last of last summer’s hay

April

What business is grass, to stain this already strained world 
To live so close to the earth, the warmth of the worms’ work gives you life
How is Spring never closed for business? Why am I angry at air?
Feel punished for breathing, for singing? 
All I crave between days of snow and silence
Is to inhale the tang of manure 
as it lofts downwind from the fields. 

May

Robins fatten up, red bellies bursting with grub
The trading post of my life 
Fills and empties with homemade bread, seeds, masks
The economies of connection
banked with coins of despair and dubloons of hope, 
A taming of the wildness within, 
And a need to be seen 
New tulips sway in the breeze
Holding a scent I cannot yet consume.