Alice's visit

Alice arrived Thursday evening, making good time and not getting lost even once. I had to transform myself into a proper hostess, and got into cooking again. We had a quiche with bacon, gruyere cheese, and spinach  and a salad with lettuce (from the garden) and a tomato Alice bought at a farm stand just before she crossed the state line between NY and VT.

Friday (we had to keep reminding ourselves it was Friday, not Saturday) we breakfasted on My Favorite Egg Breakfast: carefully cooked bacon, steamed garden-fresh spinach on the bacon, a poached egg on top of everything.  A bowl of mixed berries on the side. And coffee, of course. Alice took a picture of breakfast! Alice was the ever-present photographer all weekend.  Be sure to see her pictures on Facebook!

We filled Friday with sightseeing: the weather was magnificent. The State House's Golden Dome glowed in the sunshine. The drive to Cabot Creamery was pure Vermont, uphill and down. We took a tour of the plant to get a glimpse of the cheesemaking process, but the treat of the day was sampling the dozen varieties of cheese they make. Horseradish cheddar (yum), Seriously Sharp cheddar (yum), Tuscan cheddar (so-so, tastes like pizza sauce), caramelized onion cheddar (to die for, not available in stores, only at the factory, and We Bought Some). Then back to Montpelier to stop in the Artisan's Hand craft store, to Hope Cemetery in Barre to see all the stone-carving, and to the Floating Bridge, which has seen better days. We forgot to go to the waterfall that's in a woods nearby. Well, it will be there next time she comes.

We didn't have much planned for the evening. After supper we started to watch Napoleon Dynamite, which I'd never seen, and with which I was instantly bored. With Alice's kind permission, I bailed.  I know, I know, I am just not with it where movies are concerned.

Saturday was stay-at-home day. Alice nagged me into letting her help with a little raking and yard work in the morning, but I had a memorial service to go to. Ted Marsden, a man in our contradance community who was also a math prof at Norwich, died unexpectedly on June 7. He was a born teacher, and a man who radiated both kindness and purpose. He had no children, but two nieces spoke lovingly about him. One said that on his 70th birthday the family asked for words of wisdom and Ted responded "Do what pleases you". He taught math, he taught teachers how to teach math, he danced (he was introduced to traditional dancing in the 60s) and he was always the first person to teach a new dancer the important basic steps. It was a touching, heartfelt and uplifting service that confirmed how special Ted was to so many people. His family came to Northfield from all over the country, and said they were astonished at the number of messages from the dance community, and at the number of dancers and musicians that attended Ted's memorial. Dance musicians played everyone into the chapel, and played at the reception afterward. Nothing rehearsed - just sitting down together, playing dance tunes Ted would've loved to dance to.

Saturday evening before supper Alice and I went down to Thelma's to see my horse (of course Alice has pictures), and then we went to Village Pizza. We were tired from all our running around the day before, and Alice had worn herself out sitting in the sun, and we turned in kind of early.

Sunday I fixed pancakes, too many of 'em. Yummy, though, and what we didn't eat for breakfast we divvied up so that Alice had a snack on the way home. We'd forgotten to stop for more decaf and Alice had to really s-t-r-e-t-c-h the supply that she'd brought to get enough coffee for the morning.

The Sunday treat was that the peonies burst forth gloriously. We sat on the bedroom deck and just took in the morning. I never sit on that deck, because there are always too many things that need doing. Thanks, Alice, for making me sit down a little bit.