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Summer ends early in the Green Mountains. Usually a front comes through in mid August and something subtly changes. The chirping of crickets replaces birdsong as the birds are busy getting ready to head south. It is a bittersweet time of year with some of the nicest weather imaginable but with the certainty that it will soon be Autumn. All the flowers were early this year does that mean Fall will be early as well? This is the heart of our Wedding Season and we have several more in September with the last of the season on October 2nd. The gardens have been very nice. We have been working on these gardens for six years now and can truly say that they are rounding into shape:-) we have had a succession of Poppies, Iris and Peonies followed by Daylilies, Shasta Daisies and Enchinacea. Now its Dahlias and Glads giving most of the color and the vegetable garden providing the excitement! This really is what Charles lives for.
Chef Lee remains the food maven and as usual we are looking to source everything that we can locally. We served grass feed beef at a wedding last week and will serve it again in October. There is a difference in taste and texture. All our salads come from Lilac Ridge farms and are picked the day of the wedding. If you saw Food Inc. you caught Amanda on the big screen. We had a Gelato Cart at our two most recent weddings, locally made and really good. All our veggies and tomatoes are locally grown, the eggs get laid about half a mile away, the maple syrup comes from our neighbor's trees and your guests can go to the source at Brattleboro Farmers Market on Saturday morning if the are so inclined http://www.brattleborofarmersmarket.com/ . All of our groups are back for which we are very grateful. Many of our groups are spiritually oriented and Cooper Hill is a marvelous place at sunrise or moonrise. We had a wedding on the last full moon. It is very unusual to be able to watch the moon rise in the east then turn around and watch the sunset. It's nice in the winter too when the moon rises over fields of snow.
Summer and Autumn bring golf, horseback riding, hiking and swimming it the West River. Ray Klass' photography workshop will be here again in October, Klass Photo and Flamingo Yoga was here in April and next fall. Our year begins and ends with the beautiful folliage of Autumn and the snow starts the cycle again.
Wildlife update: This has been a banner year for small critters with a superfluity of chipmunks. Maybe that's because the foxes haven't been doing their job. Both our nearest neighbors have lost chickens to the fox . No question who the guilty party is, we have seen him with the evidence in his mouth! We have flocks of turkeys. They are fun to watch but not terribly clever. We also had a deer in the garden last week...also not smart. We have seen a couple of Orioles this year, something new to us at least. Be careful on the roads and don't trust your GPS. It doesn't show moose or deer in the road
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