Down The Rabbit Hole...Track Road....Our favorite walk in Vermont....

My husband has commented often before his trip how he can't wait to go back to Vermont and Walk Rabbit Track Road...Up on the mountain there is very little traffic and lots of place to walk and and just soak in your surroundings.

When I was young this was a favorite road to bike down, in the center there is a little brook that we used to play in and fish in...The bridge is not what it used to be but the nice thing is the place is not filled with houses...perhaps they can't build along this road as there is a lot of wet land...It's very beautiful.

It was a nice walk and all the flowers and views were wonderful....My husband got a little annoyed at all the photo's I was taking so I reminded him that I did not rush him while he was in New Jersey and that he should give me the same space in Vermont...Photo's help me collect my memories and keep them to look at later.
G.G.

Ricker Pond in search of Loons.....

Many of our summer memories of visiting my parents in Vermont have times spent at Ricker pond...My parents would reserve campsites and we would spend a few days camping next to the pond.  The kids learned to kayak, and fish and ride bicycles here.  This was the big hill they would run down or bike down...This was the big hill?? This hill isn't big....The hill has not changed but they have...

We walked all our old paths and made our way to the small swimming beach.  My kids loved to climb this rock when they were younger.

So here at the top are the pictures from this trip and then we go back in time....I think that they put a much smaller bench in this year....I can't believe we grew that much!

We talked about all our great memories....listened for loons but did not hear them....and remembered the rope swing at the other side....Then we had a nice walk back and a long drive home....Where there was a wonderful dinner being cooked for us....
G.G.

Return To Owls Head Mountain.....It seemed like such a long hike when the kids were young...

Every summer when we visited my parents we would camp at Ricker Pond and go for a hike up Owls Head trail...The drive to get to Owls Head Trail ended up being longer than the hike...because there are no short drives in Vermont!

The nice thing was it was a cool day and there were no bugs....

Our favorite cave on the trail...The kids used to fit inside it....They don't anymore!

We got to the top so fast...I keep thinking it took hours to hike...but maybe it was that the kids were so little..What a great view.

My Mom and my daughter..I love this photo.  We got our favorite Grinders to have a picnic at the top of the mountain...A Grinder is a Sub sandwich....just encase you didn't know.

My very first selfie....I really don't like them!

It was a nice little adventure....Next up a visit to Ricker Pond.
G.G.

Blueberry Picking in New Hampshire.....

My Parents used to have a ginormous blueberry bush at their house...Every August we would visit and help pick blueberries and then after eating tons off the plant we would make blueberry pie...blueberry muffins and blueberry pancakes....This year their plants had been transplanted and moved and not producing blueberries...So we drove to New Hampshire to pick some....

If you have never been to Vermont or New Hampshire....If you are a true city dweller there is one thing you need to know if you ever visit...When a Vermonter says that it's just a short drive...Their version of a short drive is different than yours....A half hour to the nearest grocery store is a short drive....( I often laugh when people tell me they live so far from the store and really its like ten minutes away...I think they have no clue!) So if you have any type of motion sickness issues...(which my daughter and I suffer from)...Make sure you take your Dramamine or wear sea bands...Yes this short drive was not quiet that short Mom!  But the view is beautiful...

This blueberry farm was huge...The blueberries where huge...The kids loved it!

The house near the blueberry patch had a garden growing on it...I thought that was pretty cool.

There were so many berries it did not take long to have enough for pie and muffins and pancakes ( I really wanted pancakes :(  but didn't get them) and freezing.

After all that hard work we needed some ice cream....My favorite is Maple Walnut!

If you are ever out in New Hampshire in late July the address for the Blueberry farm in the photo above and here is a flash back when we just stayed at my parents and picked from their big bush of blueberries.
Yum!
G.G.

The things I saw on my morning walk...Yes Vermont is Beautiful...Remembering my childhood days..

When people ask me where I'm from I say Vermont....Oh Vermont where...Well on the boarder of the Connecticut river and New Hampshire...This little town...But really we lived on the mountain outside of town...Oh Vermont they say...It's beautiful there....Yes...It is beautiful...

I spent my youth up here wandering in the woods....lost in my own world for hours...The entrance to my adventures is now grown over.... My children never dared walk in the woods...They thought there might be monsters in there...No there are deer trails and hidden forts...and perhaps the spirits of Native Americans and tough early settlers...No monsters...adventures await I'm sure...I love Utah because the Mountains remind me of Vermont...Even though they are quiet different...The mountains here in Utah are much bigger you can't live at the top of them and look out too see the others across the way like you do in Vermont...But Mountains give me some comfort...we call Vermont "God's country"  and sometimes I think when I was all alone running through the woods as I child I played with the angels...

I was a tomboy growing up, here is my favorite tree to climb looking over one of my mothers flower gardens...I fell from it once...Thankfully I always land on my feet...

A little pool of fish....

I love this willow tree with the bench under it...I'd love to go sit under it with a good book and read..There is also a pond by it too....This field was empty when I was young and the bottom always flooded and had a little bit of ice in the winter and I would go ice skate on it...All the fields were empty when I was young, there weren't very many neighbors and my brothers and I would play baseball and kickball in the flat fields and sled on the big hills....

Lawns are a mix of things and dandelions are allowed to grow....I think that is why when everyone looks at my yard and wants to rid it of dandelions and clover I think you have it so wrong....Because I grew up in a place where your lawn is a big field not a little patch.....

Chipmunks are always running about on the stone walls....They are so cute....

This is the neighbors cat out hunting...But she reminded me of all our cats who have passed away...They would spend their days out in the woods and then come in at night...Now my parents cats stay in...It was nice to see a cat hunting in the woods...

How old are these stone walls?  Who built them?  I hope the stay there forever.....A reminder of the first people who decided to make their lives on the top of a Vermont mountain...

There is so much open space and quiet!  This is the field that I ran through barefoot every spring...I loved to see if I could run through the frozen puddles and welcome spring after a long cold winter...Then as I got older we had horses out in the field and my mom and I would race from one side to the other...I was never happy that someone decided to build a house in my field...

It's fun to go back and see a horse still in the field...It's nice to go home and just remember and relax...To have no schedule and to just enjoy the beauty of Vermont and of course to visit with my parents!
G.G.

My Mothers Garden....Where I get my Green Thumb from.....

I remember when I was young watching my mother in her flower gardens....She would weed, and plant and grow all kinds of flowers....I just watched....I wasn't getting my fingers dirty if I didn't have too....We had a vegetable garden that was huge and my brother and I spent enough time weeding in that...Hard to believe how much fresh food we had...Now looking back I see the blessing of it...But at the time it was just a chore...now my parents have small raised bed gardens..Fenced in to keep the deer out...

I love the lilies she has in the front yard by the crab apple tree....

My love of Hen's and Chicken plants comes from her...I think some of my plants out here are from ones she brought to me in New Jersey....And now I'm in the process of growing a bunch so that I can have a huge garden of them next year...I wonder at what point the pots of little plants will drive my husband crazy?  He hasn't complained yet...

I think we carry some green thumb magic...Things sometimes just grow that were never meant to grow...This year mom had a huge squash plant growing in the back yard by the woods and most likely compost area...She has said perhaps there are three different plants...Squash...pumpkins...how fun...I had pumpkins grow in my garden one year...watermelon another and some giant sunflowers....My lawn has some interesting flowers in it this year too... I'm sure to the annoyance of my neighbors....people like these perfect lawns everywhere but my Vermont soul craves something so different...

Beware if you decide to visit the garden with out permission....There is a ghost that haunts these woods and she is awfully scary....We call her "That Girl".....But you just never know....
G.G.