Welcome to summer, finally! This is something like the fourth day in a row that we've had sunshine and barely a shower to dampen the spirits. Apparently summer is going out on a high - if this new pattern holds.

The following came from Bev and Steve Allen this morning.

Last Sunday we took some friends over to Goldie's Gathering in Cabot for a really nice lunch. At last - a local place for breakfast and lunch on Saturday and Sunday. The dinner menu and specials look great, too, and the atmosphere is agreeably funky. They serve local and fresh products; the tomato on a cheeseburger tasted like it was just in from the garden! They're open 9-8 Wednesday thru Friday, and 9-1 on Sunday. It's very worthy of lots of support from Joe's Ponders; a great place to take company before a visit to the Cabot Creamery. Here's the website where you can check out the menu: www.goldiesgathering.com

Steve & Bev Allen

Thanks to the Allens for sending this. Definitely visit the creamery if you haven't been there, and there are other interesting things to see and do in and around Cabot, too. You'll find wonderful views on any of the surrounding hills - the trick is to stop when you reach the top of a ridge and look back. I particularly like to take a right just before the common up Danville Hill to the four corners which is the Center of Town historic site. Take a right on the narrow road through the fields, and at the woods you'll come to a place to park where you can stop and look around. This is where the town was first settled - remnants of the first meeting house, the stocks, and the never-used whipping post are there and down the hill to the right is the Center Cemetery where some of the early settlers were buried. After leaving this peaceful spot, continue up Danville Hill, but before you get to the very top, look back over the valley - it's quite beautiful, especially at sunset. Continue on this road to reach Route 2, and then stop at Goodrich's Maple Farm. Glen and Ruth give wonderful tours of their facility and explain in detail (and with a lot of Vermont humor - Glen is something like an 8th generation Vermonter) the process and history of the maple sugaring industry. You'll enjoy tasting and comparing the different grades of syrup and browsing in their gift shop.

If you enjoy local crafts, follow Rt. 215 north from Cabot Village and about a mile past the Cabot Plains Road turn (stay straight on the hard surface), you'll find "The Old Crow Craft Shop" sign on your right, but you'll have to drive into the woods a bit to the shop, it isn't visible from Rt. 215. Martha has some interesting things in her shop.

Further along this same hard surfaced road, you'll come to the intersection of the Bayley Hazen Road on your right. This is a narrow dirt road that will bring you to the Cabot Plains Cemetery. You'll be traveling on the actual military road built during the Revolution. This is also where the first settlers in this area built their farms - the Websters, Heaths, Lyfords, Scotts. This is the only section of that original military road that remains fairly unchanged, but is still used. There were no houses at all on this road when I was young. My grandfather owned a good bit of land on the west side - fields and a sugar woods. He planted potatoes, hayed it, and at one time grazed sheep there, and we sugared every spring. It was known as the Webster Lot since it was the land where the Webster family had settled in the 1700's. He made certain we all knew the history of the land and that there was a family buried under the maple tree that stood in the middle of the field. We were not allowed to disturb the ground around that tree. It is still standing, but has been topped off and a tree house has been built in it. I like to think the spirits of the Webster children buried beneath that tree enjoy romping there and perhaps play a prank on the humans from time to time.

Enjoy your trip to Goldie's and perhaps one of the side trips going or coming.