Posts tagged as:

VT

Mike Aiken On Vermont

April 21, 2015

“I can’t fully explain it but Vermont is so unique, ordinary, unspoiled, commonplace, interesting, beautiful, astonishing and ghastly that I can’t get it out of my system. I tell people it’s like your favorite jacket or pair of jeans and every favorite childhood memory and adult romantic interlude rolled into one, wrapped in a psychotic’s vision of bizarre weather.”

I am happy to welcome an old friend, the semi-mythic former Vermonter Mike Aiken to this site; he will be posting whenever the spirit moves him, perhaps even with his own photographs of New England.

His comment above is perhaps the finest description of Vermont I’ve ever come across, and one I thought had been lost forever (last seen on our refrigerator door some eight years ago, and only recently rediscovered – originally sent in an email).

He lived in a caboose near the Canadian border for a time, and sold me some magnificent Lodgepole Pine poles for my own tipi experience in my formative years.

His first post is here.

He will also have his own tag (top right of each page), which will populate after three entries.

Enjoy!

Tagged as: friends, mike aiken, VT

{ 0 comments }

Late Winter Stream, Windham County, VT

March 13, 2015

Taken over 25 years ago, before digital. There is sometimes a beautiful, almost tropical color (opaline green ?) to both flowing and small pond water in mid to late winter – no idea how it happens – I chalk it up to snow melt, vegetation and the play of light from increased solar gain as we move toward summer. In any case, it’s a welcome sign of warmer days.

Tagged as: film, VT, water, winter

{ 0 comments }

Field At Dusk, Wilmington, VT

February 7, 2015

The evening twilight grows longer with each passing day at this time of the year. The phenomenon has long been observed, and commented upon, in these parts: “as the day lengthens, so the cold strengthens.” Well, until the end of January anyway, when, according to the hardier souls up here, winter is basically over. This photo was taken about 25 minutes after sunset (and about 30 minutes after the photo immediately below).

Tagged as: farms and fields, the boyd place, trees, VT, winter

{ 0 comments }

The Golden Hour (midwinter version), Wilmington, VT

February 6, 2015

Tagged as: farms and fields, the boyd place, vehicles, VT, winter

{ 0 comments }

Woodstove (the heart of winter), Plymouth, VT

January 24, 2015

I remain quite fond of these north country winters, harsh though they may be. Snowshoeing a quiet forest at dusk under a waxing moon, shoveling the driveway (ok – when the snow is light and the accumulation under 6 inches), feeling the solar gain on an early February day, or just the simple way the season turns you inward – its gifts are manifold. Perhaps the best though, are in the heat and dancing light of a good fire in a wood stove, (complete with a cast iron pot full of water to humidify the air) – these have carried me through many a winter.

Tagged as: abstract, book, current favorites, trees, VT, winter

{ 0 comments }

Route 7 Farmstead, Danby, VT

January 19, 2015

Tagged as: farms and fields, trees, VT, winter, yankee structures

{ 0 comments }

Icing Over, Danby, VT

January 18, 2015

A huge storm blew through New England over the past couple of days, and when I first came upon it, driving back home from west central VT, it was a freezing rain “weather event”. This road seemed OK – it was 36 degrees after all – but when I stopped and got out to take this photo, I nearly took a header. Route 30 over the mountain from Manchester to Bratttleboro was worse, but nothing compared to coming back down Newfane Hill Road, a dirt road that had become a glare sheet of ice in the time I was visiting a friend there. My 2006 Honda Accord was a champ though, the anti-lock brakes and the lowest gear kept me in a safe 1-3 MPH range for most of the 3 mile trip, and there was some traction over on the far right side of the road. The whole VT portion of the trip was stunningly beautiful, if a touch unsuitable for roadside photography.

Tagged as: farms and fields, VT, winter

{ 0 comments }

Jim Reczek, Warren, VT

December 21, 2014

Jim, my younger brother, passed away on 12/13/14, following complications in the treatment of a recently discovered CNS lymphoma. He was (is) an amazing soul, and leaves a HUGE legacy of caring for others.

He came back home after college to live with our parents, and stayed on to care for them following their retirements. He always said that it was an easy decision, and man of few words that he was, would basically just say ” ..well they took care of me..”.

Likewise, I may never forget the care he took, right before his final operation, to arrange continued snow plowing services for his elderly customers, AT THE NOMINAL RATES HE CHARGED.

Family and friends were important to him, and it seems that if you became his friend, you had him, like family, for life.

And he loved the outdoors with a passion, to the extent that he never seriously considered a career track which would have kept him indoors.

The photo above is from a road trip he and I took six years ago – it was the first one I thought of for this post, showing as it does a man comfortable and perhaps at peace with himself.

R.I.P., bro – you were and are loved deeply, by the many whose lives you touched.

Tagged as: autumn, family, rivers, VT, water

{ 1 comment }