My name is Lucinda Jamison and I am a freelance writer with an outdoor-lifestyle focus featuring hiking guides, outdoor apparel and product reviews, food and thoughtful tales of outdoor adventures both on and off the trail.
The girls I cheered on last Saturday are true forces of nature…they are full of energy, they are unstoppable, they are unforgettable. My fear of the future is soothed by them. Their bright banter, their camaraderie and spirit, their sheer joy for life is a balm against the barrage of bad news and ugliness that so often floods the media these days.
Our motto has always been “don’t just travel, explore”, so we definitely took the road less traveled on a recent jaunt to Belize. Off the beaten path, we found a lush paradise with adventure everywhere.
In Vermont, we live by the seasons. And as Vermonters, many of us live close to the land. We grow vegetables in our kitchen gardens. We pick berries and apples, we gather nuts. We hunt waterfowl, grouse, woodcock and deer to fill our freezers for the winter. We collect sap and boil it down to make the best maple syrup found anywhere.
Tucked away in a misty hollow (called a cove thereabouts) in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains, Blackberry Farm is a hidden treasure, a culinary mecca and all that the label “agritourism” would aspire to imply.
There is simply no place in the world with the rugged beauty if Big Sur. Feeling the need to blow the dust off a long winter, we head south on one of America’s most iconic roadways.
We haven’t had enough nights in tents or under the stars. We thought there would be more campfires and definitely more S‘mores. And, even though we’ve eaten ice cream almost every day, there are still flavors we haven’t tried…
At the end of April, an unexpected turn of events changed my life. My position as a creative copy director was eliminated. I’d been working toward that title most of my career and suddenly, poof! It was gone. I was unemployed for the first time in my working life. Was it scary? Heck yeah. Was it stressful? Absolutely. Was it liberating? Extremely!
It’s THE cold-weather staple, an enduring badge of the season. As sure as fall pumpkins and brightly colored leaves. It’s become a forecast unto itself: sweater weather. Perfectly conceived for crisp days and down-right cold nights. Every style you could possibly hope for is right here. There, your wish for cooler weather has now been granted.
In spring, nature is renewed. The snows of winter retreat and on the freshening breeze the scent of damp leaves and green growing things begins to tickle our senses. The quiet of the woods, for months broken only by the strident cries of jays and the cheery chirps of the tiny chickadees, now echoes with the songs of returning flocks.
