Spectacular Views of Vermont

Crystal ice on trees this morning in Starksboro, Vermont in 5 degree temperatures.

As solstice approaches we realize that we are well aware that we are in a zone of darker, shorter days and longer, colder nights for the next few months. For many elders, talk of moving to the sun belt or at least towards lower latitudes becomes common. If nothing else it is comforting to conjure up fantasies and images of of places where the sun shines more than it is cloudy, where you don’t need a jacket to go outside now, and you don’t need to turn the lights on after four pm. But the real Vermonters, including my parents, who descended from generations of hearty Vermonters before them, stayed put. One of the things they realized was that Vermont IS a community that still has a working political system, has a healthy economy despite periodic fluctuations, and has natural beauty that is unheard of in most places. Above all else, the natural beauty is reason enough for me to second-guess ever leaving this place. Enjoy the Vermont pictures in our gallery. If you are interested in purchasing any photos you see, please send us an email. Prices are based on standard sizes in our Vermont Pictures Photography and Vermont scenery note cards.

Looking west from Charlotte Beach on Lake Champlain

Hills and meadows with Mount Mansfield in the background

Southwest view from Mount Philo in Charlotte, Vermont

Vermont fall foliage in Williston, Vermont

After a long, snowy winter in Burlington, it was fun to spot spring flowers popping up in a neighbor’s yard last week.  Snowdrops, those pure white flowers accented with emerald green leaves, sprouted and bloomed under the hemlocks along the side yard.    Snowdrops, a little woodland plant, originate from the Amaryllis family.  There are about twenty known species of snowdrops with Galanthus nivalis being the most common.  Galanthus from Latin means milk-white flowers.  This delicate and stunning little flower is one of the first in spring to push it’s way through the soil (and sometimes snow).  It shows up in late March or early April heralding spring weeks before the crocuses do.

Snowdrops are perennial flowers, which grow from bulbs.  Each bulb produces two or sometimes three flat, green leaves and a single flowering stalk, which supports a delicate bell-shaped flower.  The height of this plant is about six inches tall, which is perfect for nestling under shrubs.  The flower is delicate with a one-inch blossom composed of three separate lobes, which droop in a most charming way.  The juxtaposition of the pure white flower against the striking emerald green foliage is a striking combination; spring-like and hopeful.

Snowdrops naturalize well either by self-seeding or by bulb dividing.  These plants work well in rock gardens, near lamp posts and mailboxes, under trees and shrubs as well as lining woodland paths.  Hardy plants, they thrive in zones 2-9.  Since Vermont is a zone 4 area, you can expect snowdrops to thrive here.  While snowdrops are easy going plants, they prefer some shade and moist, woodsy soil.

Snowdrops are sold as green bulbs through local nurseries and online venues.  Since they are only on sale for a short time, it is necessary to order in the spring for fall planting.  Reputable online companies such as www.whiteflowerfarm.com and www.dutchgardens.com offer the bulbs for about a dollar each and ship sometime in August or early September.  Planting is easy.  Loosen the soil and plant 3-4” deep and 3-4” apart.  Group bulbs together as they look more significant and effective in clumps than as isolated plants.  Feed snowdrops in the fall with an all-purpose liquid fertilizer.  For a small monetary investment, some watering and a little nutrient support, you will have a patch of stunning flowers in the gray days of late winter/early spring reminding you that the lush spring and summer months are on their way.  Plant for your own enjoyment or surprise someone with a gift that will surely delight.

2010 was a good year but not a great year. There was steady improvement in the economy but more people getting food stamps. The Nissan Leaf and Chevy Volt rolled off the production lines. But then there was the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.  Hundreds of thousands of Americans served in the military and are still safe, but there were some notable extreme weather disasters, earthquakes, volcanoes and polar ice melted at an unprecedented rate. Let’s hope 2011 is a better year all around. Here are a few of my New Years resolutions:

I will go out on more dates and find views like this.

I will take more time to chill with Bald Eagles.

I will run more and take better care of my body and meditate like Buddha.

I will eat more apples.

I will grow and buy more flowers for my loved ones.

I will take more calculated risks.

I will take more chances.

I will find more cool Earth-friendly products to try.

If you like the new egear solar pull flashlights and want to help cold and hungry people, check out our products page! Looking for beautiful Vermont notecards? Vermont landscape photography? Delicious healthy vegan food recipes?

Today’s gallery is devoted to the beauty of nature and inspired by a lost energy policy.

Building an oil addiction that would lead us to erect thousands of oil rigs in mile-deep water was easy. Ensuring the safety and well-being of the world was not.

Even though we are 2,000 miles from the BP oil disaster in the gulf, we will feel the impact in the air, the water, the economy, the blame we all share in letting the oil industry get to this point.

Who is at fault? In any incomprehensible nightmare scenario there is always comfort in being able to  vilify someone, especially if they are holding the bag, so to speak, such as BP.

But let’s face it, the equipment that failed is another place to point fingers. The oil lobbies and Congress surely share some blame for an outdated and LOST energy policy. And perhaps easiest to blame are the federal regulators and their alleged incompetence, at best.

Let’s not forget you and I, with our oil-based lives, from clothing to cars, from chemicals to comfort, we have all grown dependent on massive supplies of oil.

Am I enraged? Horrified at the permanent destruction of the gulf and possibly the Atlantic coast? Saddened? Remorseful? Incredulous? Powerless? Yes, but all of these emotions won’t help us wake from this nightmare.

Does it make sense to continue this addiction to oil when there are thousands of more oil rigs, in the gulf alone, that could repeat this disaster? Does it make sense to continue to use oil as our manufacturing base when the supply is running out?

I will leave you to answer those questions on your own and hopefully share them with the world. For me, this disaster is a learning experience and wake up call that it is time to move beyond oil. For me and for anyone else who will listen. Let’s take a two minute break from Lady Gaga and think:

(Image: mirror.UK, Rolling stone)

What can I do? Let’s begin with sharing information that will help each of us Move Beyond Oil. One thing you can do is become a member of the Move Beyond Oil Facebook Community. Seize your power and share your feelings about our lost energy policy, beliefs and ideas on how we can ensure this will never happen again and most of all, move beyond oil.

All photos by LoveEarthAlways.com

In Honor of Virginia Powers Fay, 1927-2007

The Earth Tones Color Palette From Ogunquit, Maine

One of my house-designer friends talked to me many years ago about “Earth tone” colors for my house. These, he said would help my house blend with the landscape and become one and at balance with nature. When I was snapping these photos I couldn’t help but think of how the hues of sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean and reflections off rocks and life exemplified nature’s color palette. From Sargassum to magma intrusions in rock, to beach roses coming to life to sand tinted with purple manganese, they reflect the spectrum of Earth. There is no better place to see incredible light of Earth tones in their natural glory than the Marginal Way beside the rocks in Ogunquit, Maine. Translated from native american language, Ogunquit is “beautiful place by the sea”.

If you would like to learn more about the Marginal Way Preservation Fund, check out their website here. To buy our Vermont scenery note cards click here.

notecard collection

I felt the warm orange glow blazing over the horizon, coating everything with the promise of morning on the sea coast. Ahhh, the quiet. Fresh salty air and distant rush of the surf. This is the time to be outdoors. Getting up at 5:30 has its rewards, like the sunrise over the Atlantic by the Ogunquit Lighthouse.

The tide ebbs as the sun begins to warm my face. I can almost feel the plants and animals coming to life after the night and long slumber of the winter. I seem to be the only human witness to this magical miracle.

Tide pools seem to be frozen in place between me and the swirling grand Atlantic Ocean in the distance. Here in silence, I pause for a moment and reflect on the still microcosm in front of me. First we notice the green plants producing oxygen and food for animals. To a tiny rotifer, this pool is the universe and I am from an alien world intruding on it’s ephemeral existence. In a few hours this pool will be awash with a tumultuous and relentless tide. Only the strongly attached will stay intact through the furious assault of the waves on the rocks. But for now, all is calm and well.

The pools are a rich kaleidoscopic ecosystem of plants, animals and microscopic worlds that expand my imagination. The rich collection below is more than an Earth tones color palette. It is an interdependent food web and part of our complex scaffolding of survival here on the third planet. Here we see colored algae, kelp, colonies of shellfish, sargassum seaweed and many more diverse organisms at home in their habitat.

At first glance, it looks like everyone’s asleep in the pool, waiting for the next tide to come in, stir it up and pour more ingredients into the soup. Then I see a shrimp-like krill, scampering along the pebbles on the bottom, barely a quarter-inch long, far too quick for my camera. Other small barely visible beings paddle about.  Look closely in the center of the photo below. A small crab wedges itself between some pebbles. Crabs are a member of the phylum Arthropoda which means they are related to insects!

The real excitement begins when I flip over a rock. It’s a baby pink starfish seeming to wave a greeting with his hermaphroditic arm!  I remember from biology class that starfish are a member of echinodermata, with a tough exoskeleton. I turn the rock over again to give him back his hiding place in the salty pool.

Nearby is a sandy beach which offers even more diversity of life and landscape. Here we see “tracks” left by the snails as they move around feeding in the pool. And other animals such as snails, which are a member of the phylum Mollusca – the second largest group, after Arthropods.

Meanwhile, I find another starfish under a rock, happily siphoning water through his canals. Notice the orange sea cucumber, welks, kelp and seaweed as well. This place is a biology student’s dream. I think it’s going to be a great day!

I hope that you enjoyed the gallery as much as I did making it happen. If you want to see more photos and Earth-friendly products, please visit our online store. If you would like to submit a blog post to the LoveEarthAlways community, please send your ideas along to our email.

Every year it happens. The waxing sunlight seems to awaken everything from hibernation. The snowpack and soil thaws, melts and runs off to form rivulets, brooks, streams, rivers and eventually into the lake. Over-wintered birds become excited, foraging food and nesting for the mating season. Deer venture out of the deer yards to browse on tender young shoots. Small mammals venture out of their tree-homes to smell the air, very different than a month ago. Flowers sprout up as is to proclaim “SPRING!” to the world.

Indian Brook, flowing in Essex, Vermont

A female Cardinal sitting in the sun.

White Tailed Deer browsing in Colchester, Vermont.

A forest home for a bunny or raccoon family.

Spring flowers growing on the forest floor in Ferrisburg, Vermont.

If you like what you see, please support us. Whether it is local beeswax candles, cotton tote bags, water bottles, energy-saving Smart Strips or solar or hand powered devices, we have quality products and support cold and hungry people. Buy our Earth-loving products here at LoveEarthAlways.

Earth Day only comes once a year so when it happens we like to pay extra attention and raise awareness of the beauty and necessity of a healthy environment. Each Sunday we publish photography celebrating our connection with the Earth. Today we would like to add a twist.

This month we are asking you to vote for your favorite LoveEarthAlways photo from our top ten below.  On EarthDay we will be awarding prizes to ten people who provide feedback. Random.org will choose ten winners. Prizes include our Vermont Photography note cards, our natural cotton tote bags, LoveEarthAlways BPA-free stainless steel water bottles, an autographed copy of Suzan Tyler Decker’s Johnny Green And The Little Green Man, made in Vermont Olivia’s Croutons, and more.

How do you win?

1. Send an email to LoveEarthAlways.com naming your three favorite photographs from the ten shown below.

2. Select your prize preference from the list above if you have one! That’s all there is to it. And we will NEVER give anyone your personal information for any reason.

Make your top three choices now!

1. Addison Meadow

2. Camel’s Hump

3. Mallet’s Bay4. Field & Stream

5. Mallard Pond

6.  Fluffy Trees

7. Lake Marsh

8. Burlington Bay

9. Mt. Mansfield

10. Outstanding In The Field

If you grow up in Vermont you learn about maple sugaring because everyone either does sugaring or knows someone who does.  The tiny state of Vermont is the largest maple syrup producer in the U.S. and second in the world, behind the country of Canada. The labor-intensive work of maple syrup production fits with centuries of the Vermont agricultural work ethic. In order to make maple syrup or “maple sugar” as it is commonly known, holes are drilled into sugar maple trees, and metal pipes or spouts called “taps” are tapped into the tree. Traditionally galvanized buckets collect the sap which needs needs to be emptied and moved to an evaporating pan, where the sap is boiled. Nowadays, many maple sugar producers use plastic tubing to carry the sap directly to storage tanks, which lead to the pan.

This small backyard evaporator consists of a steel drum with a stainless steel pan on top of it. It burns local dead wood to produce heat that evaporates water out of the sap. It takes 40 gallons of sap to make just one gallon of maple syrup. The lightest syrup grade is called “fancy” and it has a very delicate but sweet flavor. The darker grades are Grade A, B and C which are amber and darker amber in color and richer in flavor.

There is nothing quite like the indescribably sweet steamy scent of maple syrup. Larger scale sugar operations have sugarhouses that require a fair amount of maintenance and technical skill to produce maple products. In addition to syrup, many sugar makers cook the syrup until it gets more viscous and serve it on fresh snow, known as “sugar on snow”, cook it further into crystallized maple candy, and formulate recipes into maple butter, fudge and other concoctions. Maple is a delicacy because of it’s refined flavor and intensive time and energy commitment.

Although LoveEarthAlways doesn’t sell Vermont Maple syrup yet, we would sure like to. You can find out more about maple production at http://www.vermontmaple.org/

Double date on the dock! Saturday morning we caught the two Common Merganser couples chatting and primping on the dock. It was a glorious morning at about 58 degrees capping a week of record warm spring weather. Alas, a cold front was moving in from the northwest, bringing clouds and cooler temps later in the day.

After chatting for awhile these two beauties took to the 34 degree water and paddled up the glassy lake, while diving for fish snacks and checking out the flotsam.

While were were picnic-ing at waters edge this busy little Downy Woodpecker had the same idea, lunching on some fare in an old tree. Woodpeckers are very persistent and surprisingly industrious in their pursuits. This one had family in the area working on other trees nearby.

A mallard threesome jets along fishing as they go… Often it is the male birds that are more attractive. In this case, I am not so sure I would agree. In a few weeks we will see momma followed by some beautiful little brown ducklings swimming up and down the shoreline, learning the tools of the duck-world.

Greta the Great Blue Heron is known for her loud SQUAWK! when flying but right now she waits for some action in the bay. She is a prolific fisherman and deceptively big and gangly when her neck is extended and wings are stretched out. She also known for leaving a queen-sized mess on her perch.

All photos: Glenn Fay, on Lake Champlain, LoveEarthAlways