Hogback Mountain

It finally happened. I was on Hogback Mountain shopping for Vermont things. I took my items to the cashier. The cashier asked, “Will you be using your senior discount?”

“No,” I replied firmly, snapping my SIT ID on the counter. “As you can see, I am a student.”

From there we descended three floors into the Southern Vermont Natural History Museum, which was pretty cool. On display are rescued owls and hawks, which at that moment were enjoying their lunch of dead mouse, skinned and frozen to perfection. Here is Molly communing with an ex-barred-owl [“ex” modifying the owl, not its bars], and me with a living but one-eyed saw whet owl.

The museum had a few other items of interest:

Molly and I haven’t been doing too much else. On Friday we had a small gathering of SIT friends for lunch [clockwise around the table are Natalia, Gift, Brandon, Ishmael, Lauren, Jess and Molly]:

Afterward, we drove up the road to see Kipling’s house, and Molly took some photos of a black horse on white snow.

Later we took a tour of the Green Mountain Spinnery and, feeling guilty for having taken their time, ended up spending too much money on hand-painted sock-wool. Nearby, across from the abandoned Santa’s Land, is a building in need of a little repair.

We’ve taken some drives through the countryside of, from left to right, Vermont and New Hampshire:

Here is Molly’s sleeping area. I call the photo Still Life with Bra.

It’s been a little chilly here, and Molly has been whining for some reason. She was invited to go for a hike today, but she declined.

But the so-called Blizzard of 2009 passed us by. Sadly, Katie is snowed in at home in West Virginia so I won’t get to see her in Delaware after all. Meanwhile, Mom is buried under a foot-and-a-half. Not Mom per se, but the ground around her. Here’s Ryan today. Note that the snow behind him is taller than he: