Charlotte Vermont

A day of shifting weather patterns, a few rays of sunshine, between soft rain falling. Last night a crescent moon, deer in the meadow, frozen in my headlights as I turned up the driveway. Night-sounds, the trill of peepers, an owl hooting. Nice to be home for a few days.

Though always wonderful to be on the road. Last week, the gift of a visit with family in the majestic Champlain Valley. A drive around Charlotte, south of Burlington, bisected by the north/south Route 7, laced with scenic country roads. Flat river valley farmland and overgrown pastures dotted with suburban developments, punctuated by a solitary peak – Mount Philo. Vermont’s first state park, not yet open for the season. On the western border, Charlotte hugs the shoreline where Lake Champlain begins to narrow. A Great Lake to us Vermonters – even if the other great lakes thought us too small for the designation – Lake Champlain briefly became the nation’s sixth Great Lake on March 6, 1998, but following a small uproar, the status was rescinded on March 24. A regular ferry connection provides easy access to and from New York, and other points west without having to go south or north to other bridges or ferries. A ferry ride with sweeping vistas ringed by mountain ranges, the soft Greens to the east, the rugged Adirondack peaks to the west, overhead a big sky. Underfoot, deep waters, wide open spaces. A sunny breezy day, small whitecaps on the water, goslings out swimming, wind-ruffled leaves. Along dirt roads – hedgerows of sweet wild honey-suckle in bloom.