The Old Tavern, Grafton, VT

My husband and I took an after Easter break and returned to one of our favorite places, The Old Tavern in Grafton, VT.  Through the years this has been our welcome respite place to return to and now that we live in Plymouth it is only 3 -4 hours away.  We can go more often! On our way there we love to take the back roads of New England and see what we can discover in the small towns.  If it looks interesting we stop and explore! We learn the history of the area but more than anything we enjoy the beautiful countryside.  This time we stopped in Jaffrey, New Hampshire and had lunch in a cute little cafe right on the main street across from the green. The hospitality was great and the homemade white and sweet potato fench fries were to die for! Jaffrey's claim to fame is that Ralph Waldo Emerson use to come here as one of the summer residents.  Mt Monadnock is nearby and he wrote the poem "Monadnoc" after climbing it.  Nothing else in particular about the town except that it is one of those beautiful little New England towns that we fantasize about living there.

Then we moved on and stopped in Keene, NH. This is a larger thriving town with many shops along it's main street.  My husband knows the owner of Monadnock Imaging so we stopped to see if he was there and while there I had some expert advice on getting some prints made of the photos I had done of the Habitat pieces.  Jeff's friend was not there but we had fantastic service and the images came out great.  I had personal service concerning sizing that would work with the "aspect ratio". (Only a photographer or one expert in this knows what that means)  I was glad I had help to know that one of the images needed to be 4 x 8, not 5 x 7.  I wouldn't have know that and would have been unhappy with the results if I had ordered the wrong size which would have cause cropping of the image. If you are looking for a good photo developing site, check them out at http://www.monadnockimaging.com/. They are in my favorites now!

So after a cup of tea in the local cafe, we continued on to Grafton.  The last time we were in Grafton, it snowed and upon leaving we hit a white out and ended up in a snow bank! This was in January. No serious damage was done but we were even more thankful when we realized that the alternative was to end up in the river on the other side of the road.  Entering Grafton we saw the spot where it all happened and were once again thankful that it was the snow bank where we landed!




Grafton in January



 

This time instead of snow (although there still were a few piles laying on the ground), the daffodils were in bloom. Although the weather was rainy and damp, it still was great to spend some time there again and to see the new life emerge after a long and snowy winter. Oh yeah, we couldn't leave without stocking up on our favorite cheese from Grafton Village Cheese Company (they make a 4 year aged cheddar that tastes like butter and lactose intolerant people can eat). We also had to visit one of the local farms to get our favorite maple syrup, Plummer's Maple Syrup.



A sign of spring at The Old Tavern!



Phelps Barn at The Old Tavern

So here's to signs of all things new and the hope they bring!