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

when you get lost in the forest and learn something about yourself

sunday k and i decided to go snow shoeing. as you know we live on fifty acres but in the middle of hundred thousand acres of state forest, trails right from our backyard. it was a beautiful mild sunny day as we headed out, we had planned to take the short trail, the one i ride the horses around. what we did not plan for is that all the trails would be non existent, buried in at least three feet of snow and heavy branches that have fallen on most of the paths. we kept going, ducking under trees, climbing hills.  taking lefts and rights and going straight till we clearly understood we had somehow got en ourselves lost. i head shed my hat, gloves and fleece by this point and feeling  silly that we did not bring any direction device such as a compass or gps. the problem with k and i is, none of us simply would say "well lets retrace out steps", in life i as much as possible never go down the same street twice and when k and i hike the mountains out west we nearly never double back since we both like discovering and seeing  a new place.

...so we kept going, somewhere between the quiet panic and the fact i was ready to shed every piece of clothing i had( the days prior  having had a fever) i simply was able to calm down and think straight. as we started to go down and deep incline, logic set in and i realized that if we are headed down deep someway and at one point or  an other we would be heading towards town. I was proud of my sense of direction, since i am terrible at reading maps, i knew we would be all right and started to enjoy the sunny sky and the gorgeous winter forest. i love how my gut instinct kicked in, if you are wondering about k and his sense of direction lets just say he can read a map like no ones business but instincts, well i am pretty sure we would be one with the trees by now:)!

our journey

i married k. thirteen years ago today and i would do it again,

 i would do it again my love

two minutes by the pond and a weekend

k will be home this weekend, not out of town. we will spend our first weekend together since spring, the two of us and the menagerie of course. there will be shared mochas, news papers and long drives there will be talk about mountains, jacob and porter. there will be kisses on the forehead and more kisses. there will be a tear or two maybe from memories or something that is too beautiful, their be the case of poison ivy and it will be him and me!

* last weekend in montreal i broke a camera lens and today my camera was acting out- but it seemed to like the pond and sun that was setting.

happiness in a walk

today i spend the day with my love k. it was perfect. we walked and made discoveries of a farm that once was. the sun and shade on our walk was welcoming. there was little wild flowers that made my heart happy, the harvested corn fields glistened in the sun. i felt a live, i felt lucky and love for my life companion.

our first walk on the property and rain

it has been raining for days now, and i mean rain. river now runs through it, that is truly what is happening to our neighbors down the road, the river is taking over their house and any minute they will have to say goodbye to it( very sad). our car is on the other side so and we can not get to it. all this and i am happy we have moved here it is very special and we can not wait to share this new adventure with you but let's wait till things are a little dry.

last from cucumber hill

i was not sure if my camera would see something that needed to be captured on our last week at cucumber hill, but it did. from the moment morning came and into the evening the fog transformed the landscape at the farm and it was beautiful. we have been taking tolstoy for half hour grazes to help his belly heal, watching k. with him i had to run for my camera. i am grateful for all that i was able to capture here at this farm, i am grateful for some memories that i hope will always be with me. i have mixed feelings but i will always know what magic happened here, will always remember that here is where tolstoy came into our lives and it is here that k and i got to taste a little of our dream and it is from here we find ourselves going to wide open pastures of a larger one(dream do come true).

*it is amazing how colors of grass warm up the pictures and how the lack of it like the one with tolstoy at the barn has a cooler feel.