I must go to the hills again

FINALLY! Today was one of those Vermont days for which we all live. There was no way I could continue to sit in the house in front of this computer. However, I couldn't jump in the car and drive somewhere to go up something interesting like Hunger Mountain or Camels Hump. Not enough time and my wrist is way too sore for poling up something. So I headed out the back door and up to Cheney field, a large open expanse of field that now is owned by the town but used to be where the Cheney farm was. I have special affection for Cheney farm because one of the descendants who grew up there was a member of the parish. He had the most amazing blue eyes.... he lived a very simple life, one would say poor, but he was a sweet person. He died in 1998 (?) and his ashes are now in our columbarium.


I decided to park myself in the northeast corner of the field, up close against the forest that leads to the mountain ridge to the east. Looking north, here, one can see the Worcester Range. The large bump is Hunger Mountain which, amazingly, I haven't gone up yet this summer. Fall, I will.


Looking to the west. Beyond the ridge is Camels Hump. When you drive over the ridge, you can see it, but from here, you have to get much, much higher in order to see it. The group of buildings to the right of the picture is our school complex; right by it also is the Catholic church. The one road you can make out in the middle of the photo (not to be confused with the powerline cut further to the right) is the one that leads up to Naomi's house. Her family lives about 1800 feet above where the church is located. Today makes two months since Naomi died and it has been a year now since she was diagnosed with Ewings. I spent a bit of time looking out that way....


We sit on top of a mountain of slate. Here's one of the quarries, right up behind the church. Someday I need to bring down some small pieces down as coasters. It still amazes me to see all the slate.

So I stayed up on the field for about an hour, reading, gazing to the north, west and south and simply enjoying the beautiful day.

Then I came down the former ski area liftline (when I first moved here, the towers were still up for the chair lift). It is incredibly steep as is most of the ski area. The university closed it in the early 1990s because insurance cost too much. My brother came here in the early 1970s to compete in nordic skiing and jumping and went off the jump at the university and ate at the predecessor of the restaurant where I had lunch (breakfast actually) on Sunday.

Now the thunderclouds are building up in the west. We'll surely get a storm later on. I read somewhere that the eight inches of rain we had in July would translate to 15 feet of snow. How about that!