Now in Media, PA

A few days after beginning to write this blog, my husband and I decided to move from Williston, Vermont, to Media, Pennsylvania. With the possibility of a new career opportunity for him and having grandparents in Philadelphia, we thought that was the right next step in our lives, after living in Vermont for almost six years. That drastic change was the reason why I kind of abandoned this blog soon after launching it. I felt that my great source of inspiration, my Vermont community, was not going to be there any more to feed me ideas to write about.

I was wrong!

I am now in Media, PA and after seven months of living here and having time to mourn my beloved Vermont, I am discovering that there are lot of things to write about and that I am being inspired here as well! I have more time to write now that my kids returned to school and summer fun and 'un-structure' are over. So, hopefully, this is a new beginning for this blog and I hope to find new readers and friends interested in sharing ideas, thoughts, stories and experiences on the way!

More to come...

Harvest Festival in Shelburne Farms

Last week took placed one of the greatest festival in Vermont: The Shelburne Farms Harvest Festival.

What a amazing place and event, full of great people, delicious food, rural traditions and music! It's a magical place, and this is one of the those events where the word community takes a real form. You walk three steps and you bump into someone you know. It's awesome! It's like a party with all your friends! And it's a great opportunity to spend some good money, buying healthy, local food, some handmade craft, or a warm baked good.

Here is what I got that day:

• a Shelburne Farms bakery-made baguette
• a CD of harp and dulcimer - the musicians were right there playing, so it was a direct contribution to their own economy
• brownies to help Hands to Honduras, a local non profit
• lots of roasted corn (yum!)
• ham and Shelburne Farms cheese sandwiches (another big yum!)

Tickets were $8 for adults and $5 for kids, not expensive for a day full of fun and farm learning.

Here are some of friends I bumped into (and there were a few more I did not ask to take a photo because I felt too weird):

Shelburne Farms

hay rain

art in the middle of the forest

cars, cars, and cars (oh well, we had to get there somehow)

farm machinery

Cliff and Maria

Connie and Dominic

Peter Shumlim

(politicians never miss a chance to campaign)

Jeff, Bob and Pat

Roxana and hubby

Oscar, Kari and baby

with Lori and Lynn

Lucy and her daughters, Ella and Julia

Linda of Hands To Honduras

Marcela

Ruben, Estela, Ale and Bella

Megan of Shelburne Orchards

Kevin, Constancia and Lucia

Juan Pablo and Eduardo

Ursula and Florencia

dear Juanita

W

W is for Williston. :)

W is for Wal Mart. : (

W is for wait. : - \

W is for what. ????

W is for wind. : ()

W is for WoW. !! : ) !!

According to an article published by USA Today, Wal-Mart will announce Monday plans to almost double the number of its stores that use solar power to generate energy, with a next-generation solar technology! Click here to read the entire article and to learn what other green initiatives, such as installing wind turbines on top of parking lot lights, are being taken by the retailer giant and a few other big corporations.

I applaud the initiatives to purse sustainable actions. But I also think about the fact that they are looking into the company's ability to make big profits before painting one wall green. Nothing against making money, just remembering that when one has a lot, there are lots who have none (or very little). I do not buy that but I am glad that the environment is being considered at last (or should I said at least?).

802

When you see these three numbers, you know.

8 0 2.

Yes! You feel pretty much the same as when you read, hear the name, or connect with someone from, the most beautiful state in the country, the state I live in, the state we much love:

V E R M O N T!

By Glenn Russell for the Free Press, with his permission

If you think of 802 as a significant number, one that triggers good old - and current - memories, and one that you would love to see printed even on your clothes, check the website of UVM grads, designers and founders of TophDaddy Designs.

These two young ladies, Becky and Melissa, have created an cool company and a great line of clothing inspired by the idea of area codes as numbers that automatically make you think about a place. Or maybe about the many phone conversations you made to someone special over there.

Their designs are about connecting and going to the basics of picking up the phone or conversing face to face with people, stopping spontaneously someone on the street and asking why she or he is wearing an 802 shirt. Or a 212, or a 671 one, depending on what is wearing whoever you stop on the street. The whole world does not live in Vermont, Mariana.

When I interviewed these women for a business story printed today in the Burlington Free Press, they inspired me, they comforted me with the idea that no matter where you are or where you go, you can always connect with someone who has shared something in common with you.

I did not ask them if they buy organic, fair-traded cotton or if they manufacture their tees locally because the story was not about that, but the concept behind their company really made me want to spend my money on their products. I would totally buy that.

Courtesy of TophDaddy

Eat Local

did you check this week the Eat Local Week blog?

If not, do so!

There are fun stories on how individuals and families are trying to eat 100 percent local for one week and ideas on what to buy and how to prepare a local meal!

here: http://www.eatlocalvt.com/

And here some photos of the food festival in Shelburne!

Place

“We all want places to have identity and meaning built in. Vermont has a really strong sense of place. The landscape is such a presence. Life and work is oriented toward the landscape. It’s hugely unusual. You start to think Vermont is normal, and then you’re out there, and things are different. Really different.”

by Vermont author Rowan Jacobsen, as quoted in today's Burlington Free Press story by Sally Pollack "A Taste of Terroir." Click here to read the entire note.

So much to tell

There was so much I wanted to tell you about.

I wanted to tell you about my adventures Saturday trying to have a safety check performed in my bike before I start taking my daughter to her school, 1.3 miles away from home, twice a week. Remember I mentioned this idea when I wrote about how i did NOT buy my bike? Oh boy, what an ordeal!

I wanted to tell you about the radio show I've heard on my way to the garden this weekend on how happiness has to do more with the way we spend our money and not so much with how much of it we have. Interesting theory.

I also wanted to tell you about the story I published Sunday on the Williston resident who built himself a solar-powered pool heater and was swimming during Labor Day, the day the summer

was unofficially supposed to end.

I wanted to tell you as well about the story I published today on the ninth annual Vermont Small Farms Food Festival which took place yesterday in Shelburne Orchards. It was all about local, nutritious and simple food and fun, two essential ingredients of an uncomplicated life. I even have some unedited photos to show you.

I also wanted to give you the heads up on what I am working on this week: stories on the Eat Local Week, the new UVM store on Church Street and the new line of clothes featuring our state area code - 802- as art. Pretty cool stuff!

But I will remain somehow silent for just a few days. You'll understand later why, so come back to read if you want to know.

In the meantime, see some of the photos from Matt Wood's swimming pool heater. If you are a do-it-yourself, handy person, don't miss the story in the Green Mountain Edition of Sunday's Free Press (link above). You can contact him with questions, too.