The Crown Jewel

I love being at Squabetty in the summer….but autumn has always had my heart. It doesn't hurt that Vermont’s trees put on quite a show…and we have a basin of trees and ridgelines to admire year in and year out. Crisp days, crunching leaves underfoot and mushrooms sprouting in the decaying litter of the forest floor; the smells, sounds and sights of a passing season: it never gets old. Squabetty is a cozy retreat from life with a fire in the fireplace or one of the firepits and  hot mulled cider at my side when the sun goes down. When the day is bright, I’m outside…putting the gardens to bed, hiking the many trails that criss-cross the property and the state lands that abut us. It’s the best time to fire up the nighttime saunas and brave the end of the season coolness of the pool. Here in the north country we hang on to what we can before the snows fly and winter descends. We bundle up and have cocktails on the porch before a roast turkey dinner with apple crisp for dessert. 

My fondest fall memory from being a kid up here is of splitting and stacking wood for the next year. All of us as a family, helping out, likely singing songs and making a daunting task so doable. And of course we’d have bonfires, the debris from the firewood cull. And so Squabetty to me was and still is about spending time with family - me, age 8,  sitting on my dad’s knee, my twin brother standing beside us at the dining room table, filled with my half brothers and sisters and their spouses. Angus playing the guitar and all of us singing the songs of our family - the ones that had been sung for generations and were now being passing down to us - sea shanties, songs from Scotland and sailing days. 

It is not lost on me how lucky we are. Squabetty is a blessing, a treasure I am thankful for everyday. Thankful that my grandmother found this place in 1931 and decided to buy it- an old abandoned farmhouse, high on a mountain in the middle of nowhere. What was she thinking? I never got to meet her; she died before I was born. I wonder if she imagined this place as the family gathering spot - the one that siblings travel thousands of miles to each year so we can be together. Blessed to be able to come here all seasons of the year…but autumn at Squabetty is the crown jewel.