Honeymoon in Vermont

The romance of winter in southern Vermont... first snow this year, November 8, 2004 ... one half inch. Ronnie came by Hickory Ridge House and said: "I woke up this morning and smelled snow... you know how the air gets?" And she called it within 12 hours. She's a good judge of snow... we ground up a lawnful of leaves into a fine powder... put the herb garden to bed for the winter. And, finally, cleared a level path up to the cross-country ski trail before packing up the tractor.

When the flurries hit, I was setting the first fire of the season in the parlor fireplace. And, by ten o'clock, the sky was bright and clear, with a crescent moon, and a million or so stars so clear you could make up a whole new batch of constellations... lookit, there's Libby (named for my mother-in-law's smile)... and, of course, the mind-clearing smell of cold winter air and seasoned applewood smoke wafting from the chimney.

About that moon. Why honeymoon? I read somewhere that, in medieval times, the practice was to give newlyweds a month's supply of mead (wine made from honey), and send them up to a cabin in the woods (not unlike the cabin at Hickory Ridge House), for a month, that is, one full moon. How romantic.

Honey. Moon. Vermont.