when the sun shines....

When the sun shines on a New England fall day, you take advantage of it. Last Thursday was bright and sunny and with Ana home from school, it was the perfect opportunity to head up to the pumpkin patch and corn maze.

Saturday was also a beautiful day, so we headed down to Middlebury to the Robert Frost interpretive trail. It is a trail about 2 miles from Frost's home and the woods were likely the inspiration for many of his poems. The trail is lined with some of his most famous poems, including my favorite, "Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening."

By the time we got there, it had clouded over and the woods were actually quite dark.  It was a lovely, "yellow wood" and we had a great time walking through the woods on cloudy afternoon. The leaves left on the tress and those covering the path shimmered so much they looked gold- and copper- plated. Many trees were bare, and in some places the woods almost looked desolate, but there was beauty in the desolation. It was a lovely, peaceful walk. It began to rain near the end, so we ended our little walk and headed back to the car.

(Ana running down the slope)

(Jack tripping down the path)

On the way home we stopped by a cute little candy shoppe near Middlebury.  It reminded me of the times when my cousin and I used to go to the local candy shoppe and by penny candies and then head home to gamble them in a rousing game of black jack in the bed of her dad's semi. (We were 12.)

They also had milk shakes, which are hard to come by in Ben & Jerry's home state. We bought the kids ice cream and candy sticks for dinner.

We headed home after the sun set, and tucked the kids into bed.

There is nothing quite like New England in the fall.