THE Longest Day of the Year – thank goodness - Vermont Country Store

Friday June 21, 2013
Site 27, Winhall Brook COE Campground
South Londonderry Vermont

 

We needed every bit of the Summer Solstice daylight to do the Lowell Lake paddle and THEN stop at the Vermont Country Store.

 

Tom and Diane told us that The Vermont Country store was just up the road a bit.  The store has been sending me their catalog for years after I purchased some elastic dish covers and parts for our butter churn from them in the early 80’s.   The catalog is always fun to look through.  Blasts from the past.  Sometimes the WAY past.  So we think it will be great fun to top off our wonderful solstice celebration paddle with a visit to see all the “practical and hard to find” merchandise they carry.

 

 

Although the parking lot is in the back and there is a back entrance with several things to see there, including the “dairy bar”, we want to come in through the front door.

 

 

 

 

This store is the original location opened in 1946 by  Vrest and Mildred Orton.  

It is right on the main road through Weston, Vermont and if you aren’t going the 25 mph speed limit, you may well get a ticket and you will probably drive right by the store and have to turn around.

 

 

We park the car, walk down the entry drive and come around the corner to find this wagon looking mighty picturesque in front of the Bryant  House Restaurant which was also co-founded by Mildred Orton.

The restaurant is in the 1827 home next door to the gray addition to the original red Vermont Country Store.  It is still open for business and has a new menu they say.   I think the colors choices on the buildings are excellent -  red to indicate the historic buildings and grey for the expansion section.

 

 

What a fun house this store is even for someone who normally HATES to shop.

 

If you’ve ever read the catalog, which is a hoot to do even if you don’t buy one thing, you’ll know that the Vermont Country store has a little bit of everything.   All those games from your childhood.  Coke in tiny little original bottles.  6 oz.  Compare that to our 2 liters of coke now.  No wonder we have such obesity.

 

Here you can actually still get Penny candy.  Is there anywhere else in this country that can still be done?

 

 

 

 

 

The entire store looks like an old general store inside as well as out. 

 

The walls, the wooden floors, many old framed photographs, ads, signs like this one below of the founder.

 

 

 

 

 

As most of you know, I’m not much of a shopper so I am glad to see a couple of chairs for those like me who might just prefer to sit a spell.  Today though I have a great time browsing through the amazing array of goods.  I know a true shopper could spend an entire day in here and still not look at everything.  I am content to just look here and there for an hour or so.

 

 

Lots of old things, many newer things but as they say in their catalog, all practical, useful and in many cases hard to find.

I find a nice display of Blue Willow dinner ware.  My great aunt Carrie had a set as her wedding china in the 1920’s.

 

 

 

Also in the “house wares” section I find this newer great beagle cup.  $25 for a cup is out of my budget but I can take its picture home for free.

 

 

 

David’s been having some minor stomach trouble lately and I think perhaps a REAL hot water bottle might be the thing.  He declines this precursor to the heating pad.  Good for boondocking  though I remind him.  Still no sale.

 

      

 

If I lived in a cold clime, I might be very interested in this smart red felt hat with automatic ear warmers.  Lots and lots of gramma looking nighties behind me.   They do have the warmest Lance nightgowns in the land I believe.  I bought one years ago and wore it for more than 20 years in the cold Virginia winters.   Well worth whatever the price given how long they last.

 

 

 

One thing we did want to get was some real Vermont Maple Syrup.  They have it set up so that you can taste test all 4 grades.  We opt for a quart of the Grade A Dark Amber.  YUM!!   Pancakes here we come!!

 

 

In this gorgeous old ice chest they have every kind of old soda you can even imagine.  Carrie and I have just read Stephen King’s novel 11/22/63 so I was surprised to see the Moxie soda and wanted to take a picture of it for her and any of you who have read the book.   I buy one and David and I agree that it tastes like a cross between root beer and cough medicine.  Not sure why it was so popular back in the day but I can see why it went out of fashion.   One was enough.

 

 

 

Speaking of Carrie, another thing that brought her to mind was an entire display of Gummy worms, bears and stringy gummy ropes.  She likes those gummy things although heaven knows why.  She didn’t learn that at the farm.  :-))   Sure wish she’d been with us though.  What a great time we would have had.

 

   

 

Speaking of great time.  Don’t you think David would look terrific in a pair of these long johns?  Just the thing to take care of the damp chill from all this rain.  Although if truth be told, I’ll take it over the 90+ degree version of summer.

 

 

 

But all the rain has made me wonder if we should have some rain boots.  How about these?  I do love cowgirl boots and look at those colors.   They are very well made and could definitely weather the storm.

 

 

 

While putting this post together, I notice that a lot of my pictures are of the huge candy section.  I didn’t post them all but am proud to say I didn’t buy one thing although I did a lot of looking and smelling.

 

 

 

 

 

So what did we buy?  Even we couldn’t leave this store empty handed.
We bought a quart of maple syrup, a bottle of Grandpa’s Pine Tar Shampoo which I love and have a very hard time finding, a bottle of Clearly Confident Anti-fungal cream for David’s toenails which are turning white for some reason (TMI??) and that bottle of Moxie which you must already have some amount of moxie to drink. 

 

We later find that we could have bought a half gallon of Maple Syrup at the Farmer’s Market for less than we paid for the quart here.  The quart price was about what we pay for it at home.  Word to the wise if in Londonderry, buy your unique things at VTCS but your Maple Syrup at the Londonderry Farmer’s Market.

Still, the Vermont Country Store is a trip down memory lane even further back than many of us remember.  We had a great time!!

 

 

 

On our way home we see two more great sights.  Not only are the wildflowers in bloom  along Lowell Lake but they are also blooming in the fields and meadows.  We pass by this corner filled with Lupine.  What a beautiful spot.

 

 

 

 

And finally, for years at the farm, Summer Solstice meant time to cut, rake and bale the hay in the fields.  It seems odd to see the spring wildflowers and the hay on the same day but it was fun following this hay truck down the last bit of our journey home.  Looks like good hay. Glad he’s doing it and not us.   It is just the right ending for our 2013 Summer Solstice Celebration.

 

THE END

Lowell Lake – a spectacular Summer Solstice

Friday June 21, 2013
Site 27, Winhall Brook COE Campground
South Londonderry, Vermont

 

You meet the nicest people at campgrounds.  

Our neighbors Tom and Diane from Massachusetts have come to Winhall often and they save us a lot of investigative time by suggesting things they’ve enjoyed seeing and doing here.   Most of the things we do for the next several days were suggestions they made to us.  And I was so busy listening and thanking them that over the course of the 3 days they were here I never once got their picture.   I’m really sorry about that.  One of the biggest drawbacks of doing a post after the fact by even a day or two is that some things you discover you don’t have, you cannot get.

Tom and Diane tell us about Lowell Lake.  We decide to celebrate the Summer Solstice with a paddle there.

 

 

 

Lowell Lake is a natural lake, undeveloped with no facilities.

 

No camping, no restrooms.   It is actually a State Park and I hope they don’t do anything to change it.  The park was created in 1981 when the state purchased 207 acres from the estate of Arline Weiss Gardner on the southern end of Lowell Lake.  The area included the dam, a cemetery and what they called an “informal car top boat launch”.   This is all here today along with a very small parking lot for those boat top cars.  A perfect lake in my opinion, natural and no motors.

 

 

In 1996 an additional 154 acres were purchased which included a former summer camp with a rustic lodge and numerous lakeside cabins, two islands and a residential structure used now as a caretaker’s residence.  Now there’s a job I might like to have.   The property includes some significant wetlands.

 

 

 

 

 

 

On a board in the parking lot they explain that there is a plan to rehabilitate and use the lodge and cabins but that has clearly not happened so far and they are falling into disrepair.  But if it does happen it will really change the character of this beautiful totally natural spot.

There is also a loop trail of 3.5 miles that circles the lake and from which you can visit the summer camp buildings and the revolutionary war era cemetery.

 

 

 

But we are here to kayak and experience the lake.

 

We tend to paddle around the edges of the lake to see what’s going on in that zone between two habitats.   What we find here is that this lake should be called Beaver Lake.  All day long we never saw one of them but their lodges are all over.  7 in all.  A couple are clearly old but the others look  like they might well be housing beaver families.   The architects have a variety of styles.  Don’t you think at least one of these guys would want to come out and slap his tail at us for noseying around so much??

 

 

 

 

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We spend the entire day here just drifting along by the banks discovering one thing after another.

 

The lodge and cabins from the camp.   One cabin has a green roof.  Not exactly the kind currently being designed but it’s pretty none the less.

 

 

 

 

  

 

We are really surprised at the absence of waterfowl on the lake.  True we are not there in the early morning or the early evening.  David hears a loon call but we never see him.  This cormorant is definitely king of the rock here.   No one else around but us paddlers.

 

 

 

Today may be the first official day of summer but many of the flowers we see are those of early to mid spring in Virginia.   

 

Mountain Laurel by the water reminds me of Ohiopyle.  This time VERY pink.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blue flag is abundant.

 

    

 

Not everything is happening along the shoreline.  Some of it is happening on top of my boat.  Apparently these lovers think it is still spring too.   I’ve never seen a chain this long.   Usually only two.

 

 

 

The banjo frogs are serenading us.  I can’t find them but this green frog poses for me instead.  Look at the size of those ears.  All the better to hear you with my dear.

 

 

 

In all this wonder, the huge highlight of this day for me is when we see these flowers. 

 

I’ve been trying forever to see pitcher plants and today they are waving their amazing flowery flags.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These two guys better be careful how closely they explore.

 

 

Once we’d spotted them with their flowers, we began seeing them everywhere with and without the blossoms.   Notice the other carnivorous plant at the base of the pitcher below.

 

Again once I’d seen the Venus flytrap they too were everywhere in huge clumps. 

 

   Growing on fallen logs.

 

 

Look who else has found them.  Clearly too large to be in danger of being trapped.  I didn’t see these blue damselflies until I was putting this post together.   What a surprise!

 

 

 

 

 

This has been a really exciting day for me.  I am definitely a happy camper.   But it’s not over yet.

 

 

David’s more of a tree man so he hangs out underneath this giant hemlock while I take just a ridiculous number of pictures of pitchers and their flowers and the Venus fly traps.

  

 

 

 

 

Can you help me identify either of these beauties?

 

  These little pink bells are thick along the shore in some sections of the lake.  

**update thanks to Sue Malone I now know the little bells are Twinflower.  And thanks to Jan Goldfield who identified the white flower as Arrow Arum.   I do have THE very best readers!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is beauty everywhere I look.

 

 

 

 

 

Just can’t get enough of these.  All too quickly the flowers will be gone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The clouds and the grasses are stunning.   This day is just marvelous all day long.   Everywhere I look is beauty.  I spend a lot of time just laughing out loud at my great good fortune on this special day.

 

 

 

 

Doesn’t this guy look like he’s telling me to buzz off?  If I used Picasa and learned my lessons at Rick’s IT school, I could have given him a thought bubble.

 

 

 

What a spectacular paddle this was.  It really does seem to me that I have the most wonderful experiences on the Solstices and Equinoxes.   They are special days for me and this certainly was one.

And this is only part of this Solstice day but clearly the later afternoon will have to wait for another post.

I hope you had a spectacular Summer Solstice day too.

 

THE END