My Pumpkin

After 220 kids at the front door last night, we stopped counting.

Hyde Park Village is definitely a Halloween Hot Spot!

British Invasion - The Main (Street) Event

This evening, the middle of this annual 3-day British car show, Stowe's Main Street was closed to traffic, and transformed into a block party, featuring the Beatles tribute band, BritishMania. British cars, parked diagonally, lined both sides of Main Street for 3 blocks. It was a chilly Fall evening -- and it was fun!

My iPhone Photos:

We got a block party goin' on!

At 6:30, show cars were still arriving

BritishMania performed in front of Town Hall

Their generation, their music

Who are the Beatles?

Rockin' out to old Beatles tunes!

Main Street, Stowe

July 3rd Gala and Farmers Market Celebrate Independence Day Weekend Festivities in Stowe

Vermont is the Northeast's most acclaimed location for farm fresh foods and regional craftsmanship. To celebrate this distinction and bring many of the best local artisans together, Spruce Peak at Stowe Mountain Resort will host a series of Friday Farmers Markets beginning July 3. This first event will be part of a gala day filled with activities, live music, food, and fireworks to celebrate the Independence Day Weekend at Vermont's premier resort.

The Farmers Market will take place from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Spruce Peak Plaza. In addition to more than 30 purveyors, activities will include: U-Paint-It Pottery all day, Cooking & Garden Care demos from 1 to 2 p.m., fly casting instruction at 3 p.m., Hillbilly Horseshoes, and fireworks to music at 8 p.m.. The Resort’s summer attractions will remain open until 7 p.m.. They include the alpine slide, bungee trampolines, a climbing wall, and the Gondola ride up to the Cliff House.

On-mountain restaurants, including the Cliff House, Golf Cottage, Schuss gourmet takeout shop, Solstice Restaurant and Hourglass Bar will serve native cuisine lunches and dinners.

The markets are scheduled on July 3 and 24, August 7 and 21, and September 4 and 25. Artisans include; Green Seed Herbals, Farmer Sue, South Mountain Crepes, Rory Jackson Art, William Boote & Corrine Chatelan Wood Fired Artisan Breads, Vermont Birchbark Arts, The Nutty Vermonter, Storm and Sunrise Jewelry, Sage Farm Goat Dairy, Shelmandine Design Sauces, Clear Light Art, Tony's Old Style Maple Syrup, Lana Parkhurst Pies, Gizmos Pickled Plus, Deborah Aschenbach Baked Goods, Peter Kitonis Furniture, Boyden Valley Winery and others.

VERMONT CELEBRATES CHAMPLAIN - The Lake, The Land, The People

2009 marks the 400th anniversary of French explorer and cartographer Samuel de Champlain’s travels by sail, oar and paddle to the lake that now bears his name. All year long, special opportunities are planned for young and old alike to celebrate and commemorate the anniversary of this historic occasion, the spectacular natural resources of the region, and the many peoples who have worked, battled and made their homes in the Lake Champlain Valley.

Celebration Events: This is the place to find out what’s going on, where and when. And, if you're a Vermonter, here's how you can get one of these special license plates:

55th Annual Sunrise Service and Festivities at Stowe Mountain Resort, Sunday, April 12th

Easter Sunrise Service – Mountain Gondola
The Mountain Gondola will be open to the public between 4:50 a.m. and 5:50 a.m. with complimentary lift tickets and a Sunrise Service Program for all attendees. Please plan ahead and arrive early for this event. The Gondola Barn doors will close promptly at 5:50 a.m.

Easter Sunrise Brunch Buffet – 7 a.m. – 1 p.m.
Start your day off with some spring skiing, then stop at the Cliff House Restaurant and enjoy a gourmet buffet!

Easter Egg Hunt at Spruce Peak – Spruce Plaza 9:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. A great family event, with Easter eggs hidden all around Spruce Plaza.

Carboard Sled Races At Spruce

This evening, after the resort closed for the day, the trails were all swept, and everyone clocked out and changed into their 'civilian' clothes, the resort's employees gathered at Spruce Camp, the new base lodge at the bottom of Slalom Hill and West Slope for the annual employee Cardboard Sled Races. The competition goes back years, pitting resort departments against each other, each building sleds with only 3 materials: cardboard, plastic bags, and duct tape. The races began at 5:30 p.m. and were followed by dinner in Spruce Camp and an awards ceremony for the 3 fastest and most creative sleds. This was the first at Spruce, after years at Midway base; and, it seemed there was universal agreement that this year's Race and venue were the best ever!

Presidents Week ends with the 64th Annual Stowe Derby

Tomorrow, one of the highlights of the winter calendar is the annual ritual known as the Stowe Derby. At precisely 10 a.m. competitors will be launched down the Toll Road in waves of five skiers every thirty seconds. No big deal right? Heck Toll Road is easy. Oh yeah just one other detail -- the skiers will be on skinny little cross country skis and the next 10-15 minutes of their lives will be rather challenging. 

The race begins as a dash down the Toll Road and then once competitors reach the Mansfield Touring Center they begin an additional 13-kilometer journey all the way into the Village of Stowe. The race began in 1945 as a challenge race between two legendary figures in Stowe history -- Sepp Ruschpp the founder of the Stowe Ski School and first president of the resort and Erwin Strom a world famous mountaineer who had a farm in Stowe. Ruschpp, a former national Austrian X-C Champion triumphed easily on his dash to town and a tradition was born. 

Now some 60 years later the thrill of the event remains a draw for some of the nation’s best X-C skiers. Virtually everyone who lives in Stowe has done the race at least once. A new wrinkle that has been added in recent Derbies is the creation of the Derbymeister category. Derbymeisters do the race to town on skating gear and then return to the top of the Toll Road and do a second race this time on classical skis.

National Ice Carving Competition at Stowe Mountain Resort

Some of the country's best amateur and professional Ice Carvers will compete by creating frozen masterpieces in Stowe this Saturday, January 24. The nationally sanctioned NICA event comes at the conclusion of Stowe's week-long Winter Carnival, an annual celebration around the ski area since 1922.

The Ice Carving Competition will take place between 11:00am and 3:00pm in the Spruce Peak Plaza, with an awards ceremony and après ski party from 3:00pm to 6:00pm in the Great Room inside the new Spruce Camp at the base of Stowe Mountain Resort. The theme of this year's event is 'The Wilderness' and all magnificent ice sculptures will remain on display around Stowe for the duration of winter, or until they melt.

About NICA
Formed in 1987 as a Not-for-Profit Organization, the purpose of the National Ice Carving Association (NICA) is to promote the art of ice sculpture through education, competitions, standardized judging and exhibitions. NICA sanctions ice carving exhibitions and competitions throughout the United States.