Food For Thought

The Writer’s Retreat in Craftsbury, VT is now offering catered meals to support writers in their quest to plunge deep into their work unencumbered by meal preparations and clean ups.

Simple Chickadee Picnic

Although the Retreat’s kitchen includes everything necessary to produce delicious meals, for those writers who want to power through the day without pause, we’ve partnered with the Craftsbury General Store to offer you The Chickadee Picnic Lunch delivered to your porch in my great Aunt Hope’s vintage picnic basket.

Made fresh daily by the Craftbury General Store, the Simple Chickadee Picnic includes a bevy of locally produced delicacies: Choose either a chicken salad sandwich or a fresh humus wrap with local greens, served alongside VT made Jan's crisps, Sweet Rowen Farm cheese spread, House sesame broccoli salad, sliced apples with Vermont peanut butter, a slice of our cake of the day, our famous lemon crunch bar, and two VT Sweetwater sodas.

Deluxe Chickadee Picnic

The Deluxe Chickadee Picnic offers writers a more decadent/celebratory portion of Vermont’s artisanal foods. In this hamper you’ll find your choice of either a chicken salad sandwich or a fresh humus wrap with local greens, served alongside VT made Jan's crisps, Sweet Rowen Farm cheese spread, Duck Trap Smoked Salmon, House made sesame broccoli salad and kale salad, sliced apples with Vermont peanut butter, Dark chocolate from Liberty, a slice of our cake of the day, our famous lemon crunch bar, a bottle of sparkling water and one of the following bottles of wine, La Griviliere Cotes du Rhone, Hughes Picpoul de Pinet, or Poema Extra Dry Cava.

 *Simple Chickadee Picnic Lunch: $25. *Deluxe Chickadee Picnic Lunch: $50.

Because Vermont, especially Northern Vermont is one of the most exciting "foodie" places in the country, it seemed that the next right step was to offer visiting writers the chance to savor their meals as much as they savor their creative time.

Oh taste and see!

This Must Be The Place

Over the past few years I've published a variety of articles that celebrate Craftsbury, Vt (on many levels-- from the ground, the actual soil, up to the treetops)

Here are links to some of those stories about the human and natural community including the jovial 

folks at the General Store

the culinary prowess of the Volunteer Fire Department 

the people who mend the heart of our community  

the amazing trees 

its roads 

and tree lined roads

and ancient rocks 

and trails 

its secret history. 

36 Hours in...

Long a fan of the New York Times "36 Hours in...." but blessedly bound to northern Vermont, I began writing a series of stay-cation ideas for Vermonters and others. The monthly column, called "Our Other Towns" ran in the Cabot Chronicle and featured a "36- hour" style spread of itineraries, complete with a hand-drawn impressionistic map, showcasing some of Vermont's Northeast communities:

Newport

Lyndonville 

Burke

Jay

St Johnsbury

The ABCs of Craftsbury

The Craftsbury Alphabet Project is a locally-inspired and "crowd sourced" ABC of the distinctive historical, cultural and natural elements of the Craftsbury area.
In addition to helping recognize and celebrate Craftsbury’s uniqueness, the project’s purpose is to help promote a community wide consideration of our sense of place in way that is accessible to a spectrum of ages. Its second purpose is to work collaboratively with and raise funds for three of Craftsbury’s cultural institutions: the Art House, the Babcock House of the Craftsbury Historical Society, and the Craftsbury Public Library (an ABC of its own!).
The third goal is simply: to have FUN.

In the summer and fall of 2012, we placed fill -in- the blank lists, ("A is for ______; B is for ______") at the Art House, the Babcock House of the Craftsbury Historical Society, and the Craftsbury Public Library for the public to write in their ideas.

In November, former New Hampshire Poet Laureate and author, Marie Harris read from G is for Granite, A New Hampshire Alphabet Book, then shared ideas for Craftsbury's own Alphabet Project — an a-to-z list of things unique to area (to see a short slideshow of the reading please click here.)

In February 2013, local artists, Kristin Urie, Viola Reil and participants of the Art House home-school art class illustrated some of these contributed ideas.

Sarah Mutrux, executive director of the Art House digitized the images and designed an interactive poster (some letters have intentionally been left blank for others to color in their ideas).

The poster made its debut at the Craftbury Town Meeting in March 2013, and is available by donation from each of the three contributing institutions.


The Art House
The Babcock House of the Craftsbury Historical Society
The Craftsbury Library


Future plans for the Craftsbury Alphabet project include a picture book and a community mural, for which the the Art House is hosting two events this spring:

Tuesdays, April 9, 16, and 23
3:30 - 6:00 pm • $10 per day. Drop ins welcome.
Put your mark on this community mural project. We need your help to create a three-panel traveling mural inspired by Juilia Shipley’s Craftsbury Alphabet and designed by Burlington artist Tara Goreau. This collaboration can be paired with Heather Stearns’ tile making workshop to create tiles that will fit into the design and onto the surface of the mural. When finished, this mural will tour Craftsbury and beyond, and will coincide with the release of the Craftsbury Alphabet book that is in the works.

Saturday, April 13
10:00 am - 12:30 pm • $50
Heather Stearns of Muddy Creek Pottery in Wolcott welcomes students into her beautiful studio in the woods to create their own glazed clay tiles. Students may work with her to create 26 alphabet tiles as part of the community mural project, or work on their own set of tiles for their homes. Heather will teach carving, shaping, and glazing techniques. Tiles will be fired after they have dried and will be ready for pick up at The Art House within two weeks

For more information please visit http://www.vermontarthouse.com/

The News from Poems

Elizabeth Nelson © all rights reserved

This past winter I launched a new website, a resource for readers, writers, teachers, community newspapers and lovers of poetry to explore and use. The website, "The News From Poems" houses newspaper columns featuring poems of season and place by Vermont writers.

Whereas before the column was only available to the Barton Chronicle where it originated in 2007, as of February 2012 the column is now issued from a monthly blog, accessible for free re- publication in all of Vermont's newspapers.  Landscape paintings by Vermont artist, Elizabeth Nelson, accompany every page of the site, and there is a special section for educators, with suggestions for using poetry by Vermont writers in the classroom.

Julia Shipley takes part in "Habitat for Artists"

Read the latest about Julia's involvement in the artist community in the most recent edition of the Burlington Free Press. Here is an excerpt:

"Happy National Shed Week! Technically, that annual celebration doesn’t extend beyond the borders of the United Kingdom and ended July 10 this year. But, on the heels of America’s Independence Day, sculptor Simon Draper, a native of Wales, may be reconquering America one shed at a time.


His ongoing project, which he calls Habitat for Artists, has taken place in several states since 2007. It moves into Stowe, Morrisville and Waitsfield on Friday and remains until Sept. 25. In each town one of the wee structures, measuring six feet square and eight feet high, will serve as a temporary studio for rotating shifts of local artists.


Among the at least two dozen Habitat artists expected to participate is Julia Shipley, a writer with visual arts experience who farms a six-acre spread in Craftsbury. She’ll take up residence at the entrance to the Stowe Recreation Path in a shed hosted by the Helen Day Arts Center."

Continue reading at:  The Burlington Free Press

One Day Poetry Class at the Art House in Craftsbury Common

"Where do poems come from?"


Instead of merely hoping for inspiration to strike, let's spend the day playing with new ways to write poems. We'll experiment with and explore ten different exercises, and have a modest homegrown lunch* (vegetarian and omnivore options) to keep us fortified.


Bring: curiosity, notebook, pen, sunscreen


Art House
Saturday August 13, 2011
10am to 3pm


Class limit: 10