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- Me & Scott.
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- Mt. Greylock
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- A Walk in the Snow.
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- Balloon Flight.
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- Me & Scott.
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- Me & Scott.
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- Snow Shoeing.
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- Stripping paint.
I have chronicled my life in pictures (nearly 6,000 images) for the past five years, and now, on June 21, 2011, on this glorious Summer Solstice, I begin the blog that has been dying to come out for years.
I am a city girl trapped in this country lifestyle… and you know what? I like it! My husband and I may be “livin’ the dream” because we bought an 1860 farmhouse on 33 acres – but falling in love with our place in Cambridge, NY has not been without its growing pains.
No doubt, it is beautiful here, but after living in cities big and small for twenty years, with access to everything, you really have to adjust to being 40 minutes from anywhere. Yes, in town you will find everyday conveniences like a grocery store, hardware store, post office… but when you have to work, or you want to go out, it’s 40 minutes.
In the city, we went out all the time, and we traveled – now we spend all our money maintaining our land and home. There is always something to be patched, repaired, replaced, painted, sanded, stained, mowed, plowed, weeded, chopped, chainsawed or hauled away.
On top of that, the economy started to tank shortly after we arrived, so that didn’t help with the transition. There was loss of business for my husband, and two layoffs for me.
But with each passing year, the scale weighs a little heavier on the side of love for this place we now call home. We’ve made some amazing friends, we have plenty of visitors to our country ‘B&B,’ our land and the surrounding farmlands are not only beautiful, but bountiful, and most importantly, we have each other and we have our dogs.
Priorities have shifted and I have renewed my focus on the things I have always loved – photography, writing, baking/cooking and daily hikes/snowshoeing (only now I do it with my dogs).
This city girl is definitely falling in love with the country lifestyle. Take a Morning Walk with me – there is something beautiful to see everyday.
To contact me: heather_coton@hotmail.com
Morning Walks 
One idea, and I’m not sure if you are doing this already, but tweet your links to your blog, it might help to get more followers! Love the pics btw. I’ve had a renewed interest in baking myself with all my “time off”. Have you tried doing gluten-free stuff? Hard as hell! Still waiting for our Karaoke get together.
Thanks for the tip – I will send out my first Tweet! I have not tried gluten-free. But my friend Stephanie has a great GREAT blog that focuses on this. You should check it out. http://www.glutenfreebynature.com/
Terrilyn said her brother keeps asking about the Karaoke too! You and more in-the-know than I so I guess suggest a date…
Lovin it! Hope to see you up in your coutry world sometime.
XO,
~Lily
Anytime you are looking for a country get away… just let us know. Most of our friends that come here just call and ask – I’m not sure we’ve ever invited anyone?!! 🙂
Hey, I love the premise of your blog. Great dog photos and a perfect morning walk section. Well done!
Love your site and all the fresh food! As a child I lived in Rupert, VT not far from this area. Brings back so many memories. I loved it so much I named my yellow lab Rupert.
Thanks for checking in Rosemarie! No, you weren’t too far from me when you were in Rupert – it truly is beautiful here.
Yes it is. We lived in a little white house which sat in front of the Rupert train depot in the 1950’s. The house is still there but the owner unfortunately altered the original charm of the house now. When I was a baby my Mom used to work part time in the depot picking up packages that the freight train would drop off. She would hold me in her arms while she was waiting. It was easy, all she had to do was walk across the grass to go to work. All in all Rupert has pretty much stood still in time from those days though.
Did you see this post – https://heathercoton.wordpress.com/2011/10/13/riding-the-rails-sort-of/
We were in Rupert just a few weeks ago and biked right past the depot! From the looks of it, the depot is now somebody’s home??
Actually I do know that the Rupert Depot was converted into a house by the crew at HGTV a while back. It is up for sale at $199,000. If I was in the market to move up there, heck I would buy it. What a memory that would be! There used to be another barn type structure on the corner of the property that was the Pof H Grange. It was quite the social place and I was a child member. Grew lots of squash and pumpkin for competition. The building was torn down several years ago.
Meanwhile I am definitely going to try some of your recipes!