An Outing with Mary

Mary had heard that the Carillon cruise on Lake Champlain was really interesting and so one October Sunday after swimming we headed north together instead of going our separate ways.  

We were early. Just before reaching the lake we saw the OPEN sign at a wood carving place and decided to check it out.

There was a large bed of Autumn Joy in the front yard...flowers I depend upon for the school vases.

Our first chuckle came when we found this fellow holding up one end of a bench.

I can also picture him as a mailbox with his tongue on a hinge so that his upper lip would drop down for mail to be placed inside.

If he was in France, he'd be a pass-through box and also have an opening in the back for retrieving the mail. Imagine him sticking his head through someone's stone wall...


As we approached the front door we were greeted by a bevy of birds...

And then we stepped inside!

The largest dalmatian sells for $2500.00...a little out of our price range.

There were plenty of dogs to choose from, but we learned that, except for his $20 red cardinals, the carvings don't hold up well outdoors.

If I bought the dalmatian, I'd also have to buy a bigger house!

I didn't bother to ask the price of the elephants...

 To have a living room big enough for one of these guys just boggles my mind.

I think it would be a giggle to have one in the garden, but not indoors!

How's this for an Easter bunny?

I like the green praying mantis (I think it's a praying mantis)...

but again, I'd rather see it hanging out in my garden than hiding behind my rocking chair. Couldn't even put it in a greenhouse because sunlight damages these critters.

 

Here are the vegetables I didn't grow!

Every kid should have a chipmunk in his/her bedroom...

Actually, I think the real ones are cuter than this guy.

It's the red squirrels I try to keep at bay. They're the ones who try to eat their way into houses.

Years ago I had to put a long sheet of metal under the shingles at the back of the house. It was a desperate attempt to stay the invasion. Fortunately, it worked.

The artist, Norton Latourelle, joined us. He was a little late arriving because, as he explained,  he had stopped to read my car.

He was expecting another group of people and soon other cars were pulling into his driveway. We noticed people taking pictures of my bumper stickers!

It was time for Mary and me to be on our way, but first we had to pass through the crowd outside. One fellow explained that he came from West Virginia and down there they would run my car off the road. His wife said she kept her Obama sticker on a magnet so she could remove it when in a parking lot to keep people from "keying" (scratching with keys) her car. And this is a country with freedom of speech...yeah, right.

Before we drove away, another fellow called out that he just had to hug the owner of my car. I never turn down a hug! They are good for the soul...

At the boat dock we realized that Norton might not recommend his critters be placed outdoors, but this fellow was doing just fine as he watches over Lake Champlain.

This is right across the lake from Ticonderoga. Our summer cottage is 14 miles south on the New York side. The bird is in Vermont.

And there was one of Norton's dalmatians...he gets to cruise Lake Champlain in rain or sun. Our day was a wee bit chilly.

Captain Paul Saenger has apparently been a history professor at the University of Vermont. It was his patter that made the cruise interesting. The section of lake that the boat traveled really doesn't have much to look at besides Fort Ticonderoga, built by the French, and Mount Defiance which looks down upon the fort.

The fort was the site of America's first successful venture in our Revolutionary War. Ethan Allen was a Vermont redneck with a batch of friends called the Green Mountain Boys. They rowed across the lake with a youngster who had often visited the fort to play with other kids who lived there. It was the youngster who knew where the outside sentry gate was located...and the sentry was snoozing. We took the fort from the British without firing a shot.

What was more important at that time was the capture of all the cannon at the fort. These were needed to fight against the British in the Boston area.

Later on the British took the fort back from the Americans, again without a shot being fired! They managed to drag a cannon up Mount Defiance. The Americans took one look and left.

Mount Defiance

On the cruise boat was a computer screen so the captain could illustrate his talk. Above is a picture of one of his pictures! I was surprised that it actually came out okay.

It shows just how close the northern end of Lake George (in the background) is to the southern area of Lake Champlain.

Lake George is higher than Champlain. The captain suggested that if we had an earthquake and that hill, otherwise known as Mount Defiance, split open, we'd have a great ride north to Canada!

Below is another picture of a computer screen picture...
the wooden pylons for this bridge can still be seen below the waters of Lake Champlain.

The Americans ran across the bridge they had built between the fort and Mount Independence, a hill on the Vermont side of the lake.

The guys who were supposed to blow up the bridge when the British tried to cross took a nap instead and the British were able to catch up to the Americans in Hubbardton, Vermont (where Bob lives).

It was the only battle fought in Vermont. 

We lost the battle, but it slowed the British so that we were able to gather our forces and defeat them later at Saratoga...and that was the turning point in the Revolutionary War.


The Amtrak train went by while we were on the lake. Francis and Marie-Annick will be surprised to learn that it was actually on time!

Vermont was never a British colony. It was a Republic before it joined the United States.

According to the captain, a fellow named Putnam was elected to Congress from Vermont. He didn't always go along with the way things were run in Congress, so they passed the Alien and Sedition Act. That let them throw him in jail the next time he bellyached about the government.

While he sat in jail, those darn Vermonters re-elected him!

After our cruise Mary and I crossed the lake on the ferry so we could stop where I knew there were a lot of cattails. I wanted them to go with the teasel Margery and I had picked at the end of our grape adventure.

This was the view across from where the cattails were growing. I just liked the row of hay bales.

Above is the dirt road leading to my house. The fall colors faded so quickly this year that I didn't get pictures while the trees were at their best.

Here are the last vases I created for school. The Autumn Joy grew in my front yard...

I sprayed the cattails with hair spray to prevent them from popping and sending seed fuzz around the classrooms.