when the rain comes and your cup is spilling over ( happiness)

continued from here

the rain came as i sat there listening to the sounds around me and watching the three people i love the most laugh and giggle while they made parodies of me in their skits on our make shift stage. i laughed hard and somehow how it was as if the last of the sand in the hour glass that must have been me before the horse, the farm fell through. the page turned for good.  the fog came in and all at once k, elle and dylan said auntie you might want to take pictures.  even though rain still fell gently i gathered my things and asked if anyone wanted to go for a walk, everyone did and we headed out from our camp site down a dirt path and wooded stairs a canopy of towering trees drenched in rain surrounded us. this is  happy, i know it is.  i listened to everyone talk as they pointed to this and that as we walked. we arrived at the bridge over the river that we had spent our day swimming in,  the patina of the iron on the old bridge, the glistening wood from the rain fall,  filled my senses. we took pictures and walked some more to an abandoned house, a facade i had seen when we first drove in to the state park the day before. we took pictures of  what once must have been a beautiful farm house by the water and that hurricane irene tried to wash away last year, how beautiful was the sun setting through the windows. rain started coming down hard and everyone started heading back, but i lingered just a little longer, i counted the windows & green worn out shutters, some odd habit i picked up from childhood, like the amount of tiles on the floor or ceiling. i walked back behind the others completely drenched and content, for i was truly in the moment doing the very thing i needed & wanted to do.

when you find what you need in a beautiful weekend

i write to you as the house is quiet, the kids ( niece & nephew) gone to their uncles for a few weeks, k  in boston for a few as well. i am home reflecting on things, tidying up, not only the house but my mind and body too.

this was k and my first trip together in almost two years, farm life makes it impossible for us to leave together but we needed it, oh how we needed it. the night before we left for a weekend by the river in deep forest of vermont the odds were against us and it looked like i would have to stay behind when the vet was called for Tolstoy my beautiful draft colicked  but he recovered quickly and the vet said " i can't make the decision if you should stay or go but if i think you should go" the next morning we changed the horse pasture giving them pure grass instead of the wild mixed flower fields. packed the cars and went on our way. we were doing it going away like we had done so many times, kids ( niece & nephew), dogs and us.

we arrived in the town of jamaica, a tiny sweet town with the best camp store that ever was. we found our site, this not being the norm for us since we are back country hikers and usually do not stay at a camp ground of any kind, this one was a state park. our site had a lean to, a wood shelter to set your tent in but there would be none of that, instead we instantly decided it would be a  theater stage and every one of us would have to do a skit of some kind in the evening. we set up our tent, put things away and headed for a swim, the water was perfect the river beautiful. later there was dinner on the camp fire, card games, jokes, story telling and belly laughs.

 the next morning after breakfast we decided to go for a six mile hike to see some falls. the hike was beautiful, towering trees kept us shaded yet sun and glistening river were always by our side the last mile was an upward rock climbing hike arriving at the falls the scariest thing happened, grace our newfoundland collapsed k and i starting submerging her in water to cool her down as on lookers and the kids were nervous and frightened, k an i did not say a word just kept cooling her off, it took a while but she came through ( we believe it was heat stroke). honestly i tought i lost grace up there. when all was well again the kids swam in the falls trying hard not to look at the naked old man that was sunning not the view we were after:) our hike back was beautiful and we stopped midway to swim mid river, k, the dogs and i swimming there among trees and rocks, oh how lovely to have cool crisp water wash over you how easily we go on with our lives forgetting how much we loved to swim.  we made it just before the rain came and once it came it never ended but thanks to that lean to we hardly noticed as we laughed till we grew tired.

 * special thanks to our friend debbie for taking such great care of our animals, thank you!
*  i will have a second post about  a walk in the rain an beautiful fog

summer so far....great.

i am going to tell you that our weekend was nice a perfect mix of work and play. there has been so much laughter. I have been working hard in the garden, it is not big at all but i want continues crops
so i add between rows almost everyday. we have done some good stuff, like berry picking, walks, joke telling. we have shared some good meals, eaten our weight in fruit. we have given our big dogs baths, there has been show marathons, not really my thing but the kids keep reminding me it's summer, more play and relaxation that chores and work aunty.  actually today i have spent it mostly in the garden and them indoors,  it is hard to realize what is fun for me  is not exactly fun for them. i think i romanticize gardening and long walks that i can't imagine them not liking it so.  we did put up a tent, getting ready for a weekend by the lake in the mountains i can not wait and that is something everyone is excited about, i have been tempted to sneak in it right now with a good book.

did i tell you mondays are the hardest to share, they have become my favorite days of all days, perhaps one day i will put into words. we are waiting for noisette our duck to hatch ducklings, it was not our plan but she hid them pretty good and she has been so dedicated, do you know they hardly eat and drink so that they can keep their eggs warm, incredible mothers.

i can feel that my post will become scattered and that my thoughts and pics might be all over the place,
please forgive me it seems like i can't do summer well and keep focus too, but i love it here my little place for story telling. i have also started to use instagram, i am very nervous telling you since i love how i am able to share vignettes here on la porte rouge it quiet and intimate, but if you would like to see daily tidbits from the hill then you can find me on instagram under laporterouge ( wow i am actually shaking).

dear friends, thank you for being here, honestly you guys are incredible wise and kind.

a cracked window for the heart

 last week with a heavy heart  i drove from one country to another i tried to concentrate on the music and the kids laughter that was coming from the back seat but nothing could stop my heart from aching. so  i drove on, then i saw the driveway that for  many years i had passed by, when i did i would say one day  i will stop and take photographs. well as i came close to it i knew that i had to take this moment. as i did snow started to fall, big beautiful gentle, kind flakes, i could feel the heaviness begin to disappear and realized that this was the window being opened and my heart began to breathe. this has been the way i work through things for as long as i can remember.

* i have combined the photographs with some taken on long walks this week through the forest.

a pie, a ride and summer

i will be taking elle and dylan back to montreal. in alot of ways this always seems like the end of summer. The last week elle and i have filled it to the rim of things to do but the other day, i could have not been prouder of elle.

 she is a foodie, yes it is true and as a child without filters she can go to a restaurant  and say things like this out loud this is not what i expected, but it will have to do or this is just beef  even some salt and pepper would have made it bit better  or although i have never had this this way they are pleasantly good. well being a foodie she enjoys going on tastespotting site , soon she realized that everyone the past few days were showing peanut butter pies for mickey, she wanted to know more and remembered me mentioning it. she wanted to make a pie for mickey too. it is a no bake pie but a complex recipe of folding in, double boilers, and so on she did it all. i was not allowed any where near the kitchen even tough we were running late for horseback riding, she kept at it. we left it behind to cool in the refrigerator as we went to our friends, elle was going to ride.

 her horse was a gorgeous mare palomino registered name is nothing but gold and you could not help but notice how glistening gold she was in the sun, but her other name was rien. elle got on the horse and started walking, trying to remember everything she was taught, how to hold the reigns, her posture, the way her feet should sit in the stirrups and so on. she was doing well and i started to relax ( splash my horse which she rides is the easiest going) rien had some spunk before elle even got on. well rien kind of got to close to kim another horse and did not care for the encounter and decided to take a run, elle handled it so beautifully and after a few little skip hearts beats she got rien to stop all while elle kept her composer and put to practice all that she had been taught. i was so proud of elle, i often am but what a day for her.i drove home picked up the pie and we gave it to our new friends Debbie and Larry and their guest to enjoy.

i will see dylan for first time in weeks and just for a night before we head home to montreal, the drive through vermont is one of my favourites, then in montreal i will be standing at the passport office to renew my passport, how i ever let expire i do not know. when do get back either that night or the next day, i hope to keep summer going a little longer, yet i know here in vermont one must prepare for winter and my list to insure that all les animaux and i will have a safe one is very big. yet one cant not forget the fall in new england and although some of it will be spent in France, i look forward to the view from the hill very much and it looks like many blogger friends will be joining me for fall in vermont!

oh that was long one, i know- i am going to miss the kids !