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Experience a Quechee Hot Air Balloon Adventure!

October 18, 2019 by Corey A. Edwards

Quechee Hot Air Balloon RidesThere’s nothing quite like the beauty of Vermont’s Woodstock region during autumn, especially when seen from above on a Quechee hot air balloon ride! If you’re an unrepentant leaf-peeper, you’ll adore this new and expansive perspective on Vermont’s fantastic fall foliage.

There’s nothing like a ride aboard a hot air balloon. Floating high and silently like a cloud over the peaceful world below. If you’ve been, then you know what I’m talking about. If you haven’t, well – you really really should!

The serene, gentle beauty of a hot air balloon voyage is the real secret to its appeal. Planes are noisy, with air rushing past the fuselage and the sound of the engine. Hot air balloons make the occasional noise when the burner is activated but otherwise it’s just you and the clouds.

Also, most planes have enclosed and claustrophobic passenger compartments fully separating you from what what little view you have of the landscape below. Not so during a hot air balloon ride! A balloon’s passenger compartment is a large, sturdy basket suspended below the balloon and open to the air. It’s just you and nothing but a few ropes to get in the way of those eye-popping, expansive views.

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Mount Ascutney State Park – Views, Trails, and More

August 26, 2019 by Corey A. Edwards

Mount Ascutney, located southeast of us on the New Hampshire border, is a lone mountain rising up out of nowhere to a surprising peak of 3,144 feet. Views near the summit of this, the second-highest peak in Windsor County, are expansive, breathtaking … and reachable by paved road!

Views from Mount Ascutney State Park

This work, “Views from Mount Ascutney”, is a derivative of two “Mount Ascutney – Vermont” photos by Doug Kerr, used under CC BY SA 2.0

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Bookstock 2019 – The Green Mountain Festival of Words

June 14, 2019 by Corey A. Edwards

Bookstock 2019 The Green Mountain Festival of WordsBookstock, “The Green Mountain Festival of Words,” is the Woodstock, VT’s annual, summer literary festival. The event serves up features more than forty authors and poets of all genres – not to mention book fairs, workshops, and other special events in and around Woodstock village. July 26, 27, & 28, 2019.

Bibliophiles, wordsmiths, poets, and artists alike will find plenty to love at the 11th annual Bookstock Literary Festival. The annual three-day event swells the village with thousands of visitors and special guests. Including lots of best-selling and beloved authors.

Special Guests

A host of nationally and regionally celebrated authors are on the schedule for presentations, workshops, and readings on all three days of the festival.

Like who, you ask?

How about poet laureate of Vermont Chard deNiord, author and Former Governor of Vermont Madeleine Kunin, and “In The Wild” cartoonist Ed Koren, for a start? That’s just 3 of the more than 40 authors, poets, and other literary luminaries who will be in attendance at Bookstock 2019.

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Covered Bridges Half Marathon 2019

May 10, 2019 by Corey A. Edwards

Covered Bridges Half Marathon 2019June is just around the corner (if you can believe it) and that means it’s almost time for Covered Bridges Half Marathon 2019! This year’s event is set to kick off from the Suicide Six Ski Area at 8:15 am, on June 2nd, 2019.

The Covered Bridges Half Marathon is a popular, annual race that takes runners through open farmland, along the Ottauquechee River. The point-to-point, 13.1 mile, USATF-certified course runs eastward from Suicide Six Ski Area to the Quechee Polo Field.

The race gets its name from three covered bridges that make up part of the course: Middle Covered Bridge, Taftsville Covered Bridge, and Quechee Covered Bridge. (learn more about the area’s 7 covered bridges)

The Woodstock area sees some of its best weather of the year in June. Covered Bridges race day, which is always the first Sunday of June, sees an average high of 73ºF – beautiful!

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Always Something Fun To Do at Billings Farm & Museum

July 13, 2018 by Corey A. Edwards

Billings Farm & MuseumBallet performances and film screenings may be unexpected at a “working dairy farm and historic house museum” but you’ll find both – and more – this August at Billings Farm & Museum in Woodstock, VT!

Billings Farm & Museum is well known as both a Woodstock dairy farm and house museum. No one is that surprised to learn about its prize-winning Jersey cows, draft horses, sheep, and delicious, 100% raw-milk cheddar cheese. Folks come from all around to get a sense of life in the 1890’s and a taste of rural Vermont’s undying spirit.

The historic farm was established in 1871 and continues to practice 19th century land stewardship traditions. The restored Billings Farm house and barns contain exhibits that illustrate what life was like in the 1890’s.

But that’s not all you’ll find at Billings Farm & Museum!

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The Pentangle Arts 2018 Brown Bag Concert Series

July 6, 2018 by Corey A. Edwards

The Pentangle Arts 2018 Brown Bag Concert SeriesLooking for a fun and inexpensive way to liven up a Friday evening? How about an evening of food, drink, and FREE live music at a Pentangle Arts Brown Bag Concert! Brown Bag Concerts are held Fridays, 5:30pm, July 13th through August 31st, on the Woodstock History Center back lawn.

Pentangle Arts Brawn Bag Concerts are an annual series of free live music performances in Woodstock, VT. Area residents and visitors have been enjoyed the summer concert series for over 35 years, now!

The concert series is called “brown bag” because, although they’re free, donations for the Woodstock Food Shelf are encouraged. Fill a brown paper bag with canned food, pasta, oatmeal, or what have you to one of the concerts, and know that it goes to fight hunger. They even give away brown bags at the shows so you can take it home and fill it for the next show.

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Acres of Sculpture – Saint-Gaudens National Historic Park

March 26, 2018 by Corey A. Edwards

The Shaw Memorial at Saint-Gaudens National Historic Park

The Shaw Memorial at Saint-Gaudens National Historic Park
photo: Beth Stiner

Saint-Gaudens National Historic Park is is New Hampshire’s only national park and, as one of the least-visited parks in the country, apparently somewhat of a secret. Come see what you’ve been missing!

You may not recognize the name of Augustus Saint-Gaudens – but you’ll undoubtedly recognize his work. Saint-Gaudens created over 150 works of art in his lifetime, many of which remain iconic: The Shaw Memorial, Standing Lincoln, the Sherman Monument, the $20 Double Eagle gold piece. The list goes on and on.

Most of these famous pieces can be found in galleries and public spaces around the world … or just a short drive from our Woodstock B&B, in Cornish, NH.

Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848 – 1907) was an American sculptor primarily known for his Civil War hero monuments. Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site preserves the sculptor’s home, gardens, and studios. The estate was just his summer home from 1885 to 1897, but became his residence from 1900 until his death in 1907.

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Explore the ShackletonThomas Showroom At Bridgewater Mill

December 22, 2017 by Corey A. Edwards

ShackletonThomas Showroom At Bridgewater MillShackletonThomas is a Vermont based company specializing in artisanal home furnishings collected by such luminaries as Arnold Schwarzenegger and Kofi Annan. Their Workshop Store, located at the historic Bridgewater Mill in Bridgewater, VT, is always worth a visit!

We’ve told you about The Mill at Simon Pearce – but that’s not the only iconic showroom in the Woodstock area.

The ShackletonThomas Workshop Store in Bridgewater, VT is housed in the picturesque, 180-year-old Bridgewater Mill. Inside, you will find showroom, Furniture Workshop, and Pottery Studio. Visitors can peruse the exquisite offerings in the showroom as well as watch pieces being handcrafted to life through the windows of the workshop.

ShackletonThomas specializes in making fine handmade furniture, pottery, and accessories the old fashioned way: one by one and with extensive handcrafting. They are one of the few companies of this size in the country that still manufactures goods this way. ShackletonThomas has committed itself to preserving handcrafting traditions out of love and a fear that we are losing our ability to work with our hands.

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