Shelburne Museum Day 1

We considered visiting the Shelburne Farm today, but since the weather prediction was "iffy", we decided to tackle the Shelburne Museum instead.   It's a whole lot more than a museum!  

Briefly...it was founded by Electra Havemeyer Webb in 1947.  Clearly she had more money than she knew what to do with ;o)  I believe the "museum" covers 40+ acres, houses more than 150,000 items, exhibited in 39 buildings, many of which are historical.  While there are 2 - 3 art galleries, it's more like a "collection of collections".  It just goes on and on and on and after 5 1/2 hours, we ran out of time (and steam).

The grounds are quite lovely and incorporate 22 separate gardens.

The Round Barn from the parking area

Welcome Garden

We started by visiting the Pizzagalli Center for Art and Education.  There was a traveling exhibition called "Playing Cowboy: America's Wild West Shows".  There were displays regarding Buffalo Bill and his Wild West Shows, old movies, and bronze statues depicting cowboys and Indians, among other items.  This mural reminded me of Ray Martineau, Dan's dad.  I'm not sure he would be flattered, tho.

There was also a huge wall display showing dried bugs as art and wallpaper, of all things.

Kind of weird and freaky...it was seriously an entire wall!!!  I think this exhibition was called "In the Garden".

There was a nice view of the property from inside this building, which sits up on the hill.

One of the historical structures on the property is the Ticonderoga, a Lake Champlain steamboat.  

More on that in tomorrow's post.

We happened on the Prentis House and the Stencil House just in time for a tour.

The Prentis House

These were both old, historic properties that Mrs. Webb had moved to the grounds.

The Bostwick Garden was located in front of the Prentis House.

Throughout the property there was an exhibition called "Bench Space".  This piece was located outside the Webb Gallery, one of the actual art museums on the property.

"Chaise Gabion" by Celeste Roberge

And this piece, titled "Rocking PacMan" by Louise Lim was inside the gallery.

It's designed to be used by two people and you could actually tip over and fall out if the other person doesn't stop it with their feet.  The gallery staff actually encouraged people to use it.

We visited the Sawmill and the Settler's Barn and House, then the Dorsett House, which was filled with duck decoys.  Interesting but a little overwhelming.  How many decoys can a person look at and appreciate?

On to the Stagecoach Inn, which was filled with folk art sculpture, paintings and more.  Apparently Mrs. Webb started her collection with a cigar shop Indian.  At one time, this weathervane sat on top of the firehouse in Manchester, New Hampshire.  We guestimate it's about 6 feet long and it's the largest one in the Museum's collection.

"Fire Engine" attributed to J.W.Fiske Company (1873-1893)

From there we skipped the Stone Cottage, which was crowded, but visited the Schoolhouse, the Variety Unit which was filled with lots of different things including a collection of glass canes (seems quite impractical), dolls and doll houses and mechanical toys.  One section of this structure is the only building to be original to the property.  

We skipped the Toy Shop because we were running out of time and wanted to see the Hat and Fragrance Textile Gallery before we left.  There is a nice collection of antique quilts, 

along with some beautiful hooked rugs and a traveling show by Crystal Cawley, a Portland, Maine artist that creates some pretty wild stuff with everyday items.  She "works with paper, textiles, collected objects, and re-purposed materials, like library cards or old book pages."

Internet photo

Internet photo

We were about as far from the entrance as you could possibly get, so we hustled our way back before they locked us in for the night.

We only saw about half of the property today, so we'll come back tomorrow before we head home.

We decided to stop at the Tiny Thai Restaurant on our way home.  We got there a little early, thankfully!  It's very popular, probably because they serve a great meal.

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;o)

Vermont Quilt Show

We left the house around 11:15, under cloudy skies, and drove 15 minutes to the Champlain Valley Expo in Essex Junction for the 42nd Vermont Quilt Festival.  It's the oldest and largest quilt show in New England, which I'm sure Bill was not all that happy to hear.  He is a good sport, tho.

There was a large number of quilts to view, some of them spectacular.  I didn't spend a lot of time taking pictures but I captured a few.  These two quilted (not pieced) by a woman in Gorham, Margaret Solomon Gunn.  Paula took a class with her in April.

Of course, this was my favorite.  It's amazing how the quilter could make the circles actually look like honey.

 These were a couple of my/our other favorites.

"Won't You Take Me To Funkytown"

"Sunny Day Evolution"

 This one is really busy but we both really liked it.

This would be a great way to use up a bunch of scraps.

"Twinkling Stars"

Many of the stripped fabrics in this one came from men's shirts purchased at thrift stores.

"Layer Cake"

We spent a little over four hours, which included a break for lunch.  We each had a crepe filled with cheese and spinach and an Arnold Palmer to drink (half lemonade, half iced tea).  I purchased a small Laurel Burch bag which was very reasonably priced and two pieces of fabric to make microwave bowls for my friend Karen Ann (at her request).  

We left there really wanting a good cup of coffee, so even though we checked our app, we drove around and around and around.  We couldn't find any parking places near the coffee shops and it was spitting rain and pretty chilly (63*) so we ended up getting iced coffees at McDonalds.  *sigh*  We did find our way to Mallets Bay and parked in the only parking place we could find overlooking the water, even though it was restricted.  We sat in the car, drank our coffee and ate our oatmeal raisin cookies that we brought from Keepin' it Local in Shapleigh.

We left there, went to Shaws and bought items for dinner, then settled into our rental for the night.  We aren't very good night owls.

Another adventure awaits tomorrow.

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;o)

Hello Vermont

This trip has been planned since last year because I have had the Vermont Quilt Show on my bucket list for awhile.  I found a carriage house rental on VRBO, which allows us to cook breakfast and other meals, if we choose to do so.  Unfortunately, last Friday I went to the Dr. with an ear ache and was diagnosed with an ear infection, which turned into a great cold, which I then passed to Bill.  I have lost my hearing (in my "good ear), neither of us feels very good and we are both coughing.  To top it off, the weather prediction is for rain over the weekend.  Not the best of circumstances ;o(

But...we're here and we'll make the best of it.  Hopefully ;o)

We left the house around 10 this morning and the four hour drive was quite pretty and went by quickly.  Beautiful blue sky and mountains full of green.  VT is the Green Mountain State.

We arrived right at 2:00, retrieved the keys from the lock box and were pleasantly surprised at just how nice this little place is.  The owners are a young couple that live in the house near the road.  The husband and his father built this carriage house over the period of a year.  It is beautifully done with lots of granite and tile, soft colors and extra special touches like the beautiful ceiling fan and swivel tv with an electric fireplace on the other side.  It can be turned around to watch tv from the bed, or watch the fire.  Very clever!  They left some fresh eggs in the fridge for us and also provide some nice local VT soap.

After unloading our stuff and saying hello to Emily, one of the owners, we headed into downtown Winsooki (5 minutes away) where we ate lunch outside along a row of small restaurants.  We chose the Mule Bar, where Bill had a burger and I had a hot dog.  

From there we headed to Shaw's to purchase some Kcups for the Keurig (only to discover there were some in a drawer in the rental), some strawberries for breakfast and a salad for dinner.  

Next stop was the Burlington Bikeway, which wasn't the place we thought it was, but it was nice just the same.  It was a short walk along the bike path, which was super busy, to the Burlington Earth Clock.  Very cool!  

There's a circular stone in the center of the earth clock

and smaller circular stones in a semi-circle around the edge.

This is what a pano picture looks like when you wobble but they really are situated in an arc.

When you stand on today's date in the large circle, your shadow will point to the solar time on the smaller circles.

4:40 pm

This area overlooks Lake Champlain and the Adirondack Mountains.

There is a nice public beach, including kayak and paddle board rentals. Dogs are even allowed, as long as they are kept on leash.

Further along there is a picnic pavilion, restrooms and a short path to this treehouse.

The path ended shortly beyond here, in a neighborhood area, so we turned around and walked back, which took only about 15 minutes.

Lake Champlain and the Adirondack Mountains

The Earth Clock from the other direction

It was way past the time we settle down with our iced coffees and our books, so we picked up our coffees and headed back to the rental, where we sat on the deck and relaxed until nearly 8:00.  The sun didn't set until 8:46!

This is the view of the back yard and the chicken coop from the deck...very nice and quiet, except we discovered we were in today's flight path to the airport.

We considered going back out to watch the sunset but neither one us really had the energy so we ate our salad and settled down to watch tv.  I was kind of sorry we didn't go when I saw this view out the window over the bed.

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;o)

On The Road Again

Heading north today.  I'm sad our time in FL has come to an end so quickly but I'm glad we will be home with our families!  Always happy when our three days on the road is complete and we are home safe and sound.

Thanks Florida for a great winter; let's do it again next year!

Thanks for stopping by...
;o)

Saying Our Good-byes

It's not that we don't LOVE being closer to our families and friends, sleeping in our own bed and having a big, fenced yard for Titan to enjoy; however, we hate saying good-bye to Florida and the things we love here.  So, we take time over the last 2-3 weeks of our winter, visiting our favorite places and doing some of our favorite things "for the last time, till next year".  

On March 31st, we went to Full Moon Madness at Bocca Lupo's Coal Fired Pizza, our favorite pizza in FL. Their full moon special is a large cheese pizza for $7.50 (half price) with additional toppings for $2.50 each. We had a huge, delicious pizza for $12.50 with enough left over for lunch the next day.

This afternoon we took a walk over the Peace River bridge and back, a total of maybe 2 miles.  It was a nice, leisurely walk taking about 20 minutes each way.  We love this river, there's no place like it anywhere near us in Maine.

 We saw this anhinga drying itself near the Live Oak Point park.

We stopped at the car so I could change my shoes and pick up some money, then walked over to T.T.'s Tiki Bar and saw this Great White Egret near the boat loading ramp.

Definitely one of the things I love about Florida is the abundant wildlife.

We watched a dolphin in the water right in front of us the entire time we were sitting here.

There are a few other things I hope we can do before we leave...go to the beach, watch the sunset at Ponce de Leon park and have dinner at the Celtic Ray.  Either way, we will head home one week from today and look forward to our return in 2018.

Thanks for stopping by...
;o)