Owl Tavern

Here it is folks:   Owl Tavern New blog and new address.   You can find all the new posts at www.alexandrajump.wordpress.com

Owl

Yesterday on my way up to Bub’s place, I saw a beautiful owl land in a snow-covered tree.  I watched for a good 10 minutes until it floated off into the woods.  What a treat, an owl sighting in the middle of the day. What now it the message?

Owls are the bridge between death and rebirth, flying silently in the dark of night.  I have been moving through a death of sorts and am now feeling new life on the horizon as I settle in my new home.   The house has  been busy this past week and with Lulu’s departure, I am feeling a need to finish nesting.  My office and writing space is still in shambles, but most of the pictures are up and dishes are generally put away.

UVM gives us the week off between Christmas and New Years, however I am heading into the office today to tie up loose ends with work, which should have been completed before now.  I managed to get into work over the past few weeks, but the quality was certainly lacking with my mind on other things.

Other things like moving, getting my finances in order and getting ready for full-time work at Extension.  I hopefully will get a job description and a pay grade the first of the year and will be blogging 75% of my time and continuing farm safety stuff the remaining 25%.   No graduate classes this winter, I need to practice being still in my new space.

The business of the season and the change over at Solstice has me moved into a better direction.  The owl reminds me that when one part of our life dies off there is opportunity for new life to begin.

Christmas 2009

Christmas Eve Lulu and I took off for early service at the Stowe Church.  There was no way I was going to make it to Eleven and Emmie and I had butted heads more than once over the past few days.  She was trying hard to get the Lobster Bisque just right and I was trying to get the house ready for guests I didn’t really know. Emilie had a bit of  ‘tude to say the least and I was heading into a lupus flare up. Em had taken off and cousins showed up for a visit and I was a bit miffed with the fact she had left while they were on their way.  How rude.   So some readjustment needed to happen and Lulu and I headed to church while Em waited for her guests. That was a good thing.

On the way there Lulu and I saw three young ladies trying to hitch from Shaws market into Stowe.  Incredibly dark and not a good place to be trying to get a ride.  We swung around and called out to them.  The girls were on visas from Peru and were working up at Stowe Mt. Lodge.  They had taken the bus down to the market to get Christmas day meal makings and found the market closed for the evening.  They asked about Church and the service times and talked about how they all missed their mothers and how they were going to call them when they got back up the mountain.   Lulu and I had been early, so by the time we drove up and back down the mountain road we were in perfect time for the service, which was lovely.

Back to the house and Em’s guests had arrived.  Lobster Bisque for all and thanks to Lili for a support phone call to Em while sister and I were out at Church.  She helped calmed the storm.

Emmie had invited Kenny here, so Kenny’s father Wendell came too.  He lives with Kenny in NH and is part of the package.  Emilie calls him Sunshine because he is such a grump.  And he really is. “I am rude, crude and socially unacceptable, and I like that way and I am not gonna change”, says he.  Trucker, ex Diablos member and very opinionated.  (Ain’t we all?) But he managed to drink his coffee from my grandmother’s Wedgwood without breaking it. So he got points all around.

Jared, Kenny’s younger brother, came too.  We call him Puddy and he is a bit of a rough stitch. He makes really funny faces says really random things at really odd times.  Sometimes understandable, sometimes unintelligible.  Funny none the less. “Well fire it up!” was heard more than once.

Christmas morning we were 6,  all up and having tea and coffee and opening stocking type things in the dining room.  We all managed to get cleaned up in time for more guests to come for breakfast. Round one.

When I was little,  my grandparents always had guests at the Christmas table.  Folks who were not able to be with their families for one reason or another, so in this tradition I invited the family that owns Lui Lins Chinese restaurant in town.  Guozhen, Tongmei and their son Henry.  Tongmei said that in the 10 years that they have lived in this country, no one had ever invited them to a holiday meal.   They were able to come for breakfast, only because it was the only time they didn’t have the restaurant open.  Hardest working folks I have met in a long time.  They seemed to enjoy themselves here and liked the house. Breakfast now done by 10:30.  Round 2.

When our breakfast guests left,  the boys headed out to see friends up in Eden and the girls and I went over to Sue and Judith St. Aubin’s with a tenderloin roast ready for the oven.  St. Jude lectured me about missing her choir sing at Holy Something or Other’s,  but then I showed her the roast and got her to ease off.  Lili was there too, so a quick cup of coffee and visit, then back for round 4.  Lulu did a really good job with the roast, Yorkshire pudding and green bean casserole considering the stove cooks too cool. She pulled off the timing of the meal beautifully and some man will thank me that I taught my daughter how to cook a tenderloin roast.

Hanna, one of Emilie’s oldest buddies came by too, some unfinished business with Puddy who she had met over the summer.  Puddy had gone out Christmas Eve and walked to her house 4 miles away and then ran all the way back, which explained why Jewel had woken me and Lulu up well after midnight .

Hannah stayed a bit for dinner, round 4 done. Em and her crew headed out for New Hampshire and Kenny’s mother’s house.  Quiet for me and Lulu a very short time.   Round 5 was  Lulu’s best, best, best friend Jesse and her mum Jenny and my friend William.  Relaxing after a long day and chatting over knitting and a bit of spinning and wine and more Bouche Noel from Joyce. That butter cream frosting just could not be matched anywhere. 

The end of the day and the quiet of the house was wonderful.  Nothing better to be done in this new home of mine and most tavern like with all the friends, old and new, coming and going throughout the day.  The best part of the Christmas celebration was in fact the actions and the relationships formed over meals.  No one really had any money for gifts, so there were very few.  But we were rich, beyond words because the love and friendship in this home was in abundance.  And isn’t that the point of the whole thing?

What of other folks?

What would be a trip home for the holidays with Mum without the usual trip to the ER.   Emmie is ok and resting now.   She had emergency surgery 2 days before Thanksgiving to remove a huge ovarian cyst.  The surgeon was able to save the ovary and Emmie promised to stay out of the barn for 2 weeks.   She then went right into her college finals last week.  Then she really put all in to help me with the move.

Simply too much too soon and she was feeling really punk, running a fever and was having pain.  We checked to find a walk in or one of her old Docs, rather than off to the ER.  No luck, everyone told her to go to the ER.  She came to the office and was going to join us for the holiday party and Yankee swap, but she looked really uncomfortable to join in, so off we went.  In at 1:00 out at 4:30.

I must say that Dr. Goss was wonderful and Rebecca our nurse was a peach too. We have been frequent fliers in the Copley ER.  The kids and I have all gone in at various times, so that over the past decade I figure there are at least 2-3 trips in annually.  Mostly for stitches or broken bones, sometimes for complications from a flu or other nasty.   We have all learned that if you can laugh or sing in the ER, be positive, than the pain and the worry is lower.  The staff responds better to you and you get better care.  So my job was to not be a mum and talk directly to the staff, but to be supportive to my 19 year old who is now in charge of her own health.

I did pretty well, until the Dr. said, you need to go home and really rest and I interjected, “and let your mother take care of you”.  Dr. Goss gave the lecture of “she is grown up now”… yah yah yah  Emilie had remarked that she would salmon for dinner, so Dr. Goss wrote on the discharge orders ” Salmon for Dinner w/ dill sauce” We all laughed.    For the record, I picked up salmon.

Em and I tried to find a Dr. to see her without going to the ER because it really wasn’t a medical emergency.  None of the medical offices would see her and the emergency walk in center in Stowe did not take her insurance.  We called and were told that it was $107.00 to simply walk in the door.   There is a 20.00 Co-pay for ER visits and all the tests are covered on her policy.  We are so very fortunate to have that coverage.   But what of other folks?

I have insurance coverage with UVM and I pay 27 bucks a month for both me and Conrad,  Blue Cross/Blue Shield and the coverage is excellent.  The girls are covered though their Stepmother’s insurance from Memorial Hospital in North Conway. I don’t know what the deductions are, but I think reasonable.

Health insurance is a key that opens the door to good medical care.  Emilie is fine and is resting, but what if she needed more than a check over?  What if I didn’t have the security of insurance?  Would I have forked over the 107 bucks to walk in the door of the quick care clinic in Stowe?  Yes, but with a whole lot of stress about what tests they would perform and how much it would cost.  What if I didn’t have access to 107 bucks….

The health insurance bill being debated in Washington is so confusing, I think it impossible to really know, if passed, how it is going to make health care more available to all of us.  But this I know.  We live in a country with excellent medical folks like Rebecca and Dr. Goss and there must be a way that all mother’s can bring their children to get medical care that is affordable.

In

No pictures because the camera cord is, well somewhere here, but I have no clue.  What I do know is this:  I just love love love this house and it loves me.  How do I know this?  That the house loves me too?  Well, given that the house was built in 1823 ish, and was the Sears Tavern, you can be assured that there is some energy leftover here. The  house has been empty for a year or two and a tavern empty is nothing but a shame.

I have slept well here and have begun to remember my dreams again, which is a very good sign.  And most importantly I feel really comfortable here alone.  If the house didn’t like me, then I would be completely and totally be creeped out.  I have been in houses with negative energy before and this house has nothing but positive juju. At night I listen to the noises in the house and find great comfort. 

So most of the boxes are unpacked, but the dishes, cook pans and what-nots are still all over the kitchen and frankly, I got them out of the boxes, so yea for me and that is just OK for now. Emilie is here for the week and I have two more days at work, then home and Lulu arrives Christmas Eve Day.  So does Kenny and his father and brother.  Full house, which I love.

Last night, Emilie and I were so very tired, so off to Lui-Lin’s for pan-fried dumplings.  I extended the invitation to Tong-Mai and her family for Christmas morning breakfast before they open at 11:00 Christmas day.   Tong-Mai called this morning and they will join us for eggs and bacon.   Tong Mai has three small children, all who have been sent back to China to live with her mother and her mother-in-law.   However, the middle one, Simon is here for a few months and is pre-school age.  How she lives without the other two just rips me apart, but for what ever reason, it is what it is.  Tong-Mai and her husband work basically 7 days a week, and they are both studying to become American Citizens. He will take the exam in 2 years and she in three.  They are the American Dream.

Extending a Christmas morning invitation to share our blessings seems just right, all the way around. This house was a tavern on the Stagecoach Rd. and no doubt there were travelers that took rest and comfort here.  I am taking rest and comfort here too and on this Winter Solstice being so very thankful for the new beginnings and all the adventures yet to come.  I am glad to share hospitality and the hearth with others.

As for changing the name of the blog, what about Black Ram Tavern? There are over 100 readers a day, so for those that read this on a regular basis, I would appreciate your opinion and have put this silly little poll at the end.  Amuse me and give me your two cents.

Now, off to find the camera cord.