Healthy living + good eats + balcony gardening + weekend adventures in the Pacific Northwest.
Friday, August 1, 2008
Vermont reunion
Last weekend we headed up to Barre for the annual family reunion for Matt's family. The drive up there is always beautiful, I love seeing the scenery change, driving past the large brick factories and towers that stretch from Lowell up to Nashua, physical evidence of the recent industrial past, then gradually turning to the more distant green mountains, layered with hazy dark blue mountains, physical evidence of a much more ancient glacial past.
As we drove into Barre, they were having their old home day, with a 5K race - the same time Mom was making her personal best time in the old home day race in Carver (huzzah!)
This reunion there were a number of Somaini distant cousins who we did not know as well. But we had a blast with cousin Candi and her adorable blond-haired,blue eyed baby girl Sydney (born one day after me, Aug 13th!) and cousin Bryan and his wonderful wife Gladys. Gladys' mom (also Gladys!) came too, and we had a fascinating conversation about genealogy and her family's immigration from Guatemala to Massachusetts, and her grandfather's immigration from Spain to Guatemala.
I had updated Matt's family genealogy binder to bring, and it was passed around, generating lots of interesting stories. That evening we slept at Bob and Terri's gorgeous home, and he had pulled out old photo albums and a fascinating video about the Barre granite industry and its connection to Northern Italy for me.
Bob runs the antiques mall in Barre, and their home is filled with an incredible array of antiques. They built their home a few years ago on a beautiful property set back in the woods at the base of a small mountain. Matt & I spent the night on their enclosed porch, surrounded by antique chairs, baskets, rugs - and a spectacular view of the fields of wildflowers and forest.
The next morning we briefly saw Matt's cousin Missy and her two cute toddlers, and then Matt & I headed over to Bruce & Sylvia Mitton's home in East Barre, where Bryan and Gladys, Candi and Sydney, cousin Tammy, and her parents John and Cindy all gathered for a leisurely lunch. And Brian and Gladys two "little puppies"... Ika and Falen, their two (enormous) Great Danes. Matt was in heaven playing with them. They are both merle-colored, which result from breeding harlequins. The merle color in Great Danes is a disqualification for the AKC - so we had fun chatting about color genetics and obedience training (they were extremely well behaved - a great quality, considering they are big enough to drink from the sinks and open the door handles!)
Matt's grandfather, who left Vermont at the age of 18 when his mother died and came to stay with his aunt in Quincy, MA, always had his heart in Vermont, and loved coming back to visit his siblings and their families over the years. Matt & I daydreamed about buying a place up in Vermont, or New Hampshire, or Maine, as we often do after our summer vacations. Even daydreaming about our future Massachusetts home is filled with the idea of land - and lots of it. Mom calls it her "Irish farmer" genes - that sense of land, a sense of home, a topophilia (love of place) that provides a feeling of connection to both a place and the idea of a place.
As we drove into Barre, they were having their old home day, with a 5K race - the same time Mom was making her personal best time in the old home day race in Carver (huzzah!)
This reunion there were a number of Somaini distant cousins who we did not know as well. But we had a blast with cousin Candi and her adorable blond-haired,blue eyed baby girl Sydney (born one day after me, Aug 13th!) and cousin Bryan and his wonderful wife Gladys. Gladys' mom (also Gladys!) came too, and we had a fascinating conversation about genealogy and her family's immigration from Guatemala to Massachusetts, and her grandfather's immigration from Spain to Guatemala.
I had updated Matt's family genealogy binder to bring, and it was passed around, generating lots of interesting stories. That evening we slept at Bob and Terri's gorgeous home, and he had pulled out old photo albums and a fascinating video about the Barre granite industry and its connection to Northern Italy for me.
Bob runs the antiques mall in Barre, and their home is filled with an incredible array of antiques. They built their home a few years ago on a beautiful property set back in the woods at the base of a small mountain. Matt & I spent the night on their enclosed porch, surrounded by antique chairs, baskets, rugs - and a spectacular view of the fields of wildflowers and forest.
The next morning we briefly saw Matt's cousin Missy and her two cute toddlers, and then Matt & I headed over to Bruce & Sylvia Mitton's home in East Barre, where Bryan and Gladys, Candi and Sydney, cousin Tammy, and her parents John and Cindy all gathered for a leisurely lunch. And Brian and Gladys two "little puppies"... Ika and Falen, their two (enormous) Great Danes. Matt was in heaven playing with them. They are both merle-colored, which result from breeding harlequins. The merle color in Great Danes is a disqualification for the AKC - so we had fun chatting about color genetics and obedience training (they were extremely well behaved - a great quality, considering they are big enough to drink from the sinks and open the door handles!)
Matt's grandfather, who left Vermont at the age of 18 when his mother died and came to stay with his aunt in Quincy, MA, always had his heart in Vermont, and loved coming back to visit his siblings and their families over the years. Matt & I daydreamed about buying a place up in Vermont, or New Hampshire, or Maine, as we often do after our summer vacations. Even daydreaming about our future Massachusetts home is filled with the idea of land - and lots of it. Mom calls it her "Irish farmer" genes - that sense of land, a sense of home, a topophilia (love of place) that provides a feeling of connection to both a place and the idea of a place.
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