life lately: flowers and food and a fort

I had a busy weekend!  I'm leaving for Austin on Thursday, so K and I wanted to make the most of our last real "summer" weekend together.  On Saturday we headed down to Fort Ticonderoga, stopping along the way to take pictures in a beautiful field of sunflowers and to have breakfast at the Dutch Mill restaurant on Shelburne Rd.  I had delicious Eggs Benedict (of course!).  When we arrived in Ticonderoga, we first wandered around the King's Garden, which was gorgeous.  It was designed by Sarah Gibbs Thompson Bell, who actively supported preservation efforts and later became an advocate for women's rights (my kind of gal).  They were really lovely, and I discovered a new favorite flower (the corn poppy). I also LOVED the overgrown garden cottage in the back.  My camera died as we were leaving the gardens so I took a few photos of the fort with my Holga.  I'd been to the fort before, many years ago, but didn't remember much about it, so it was basically a new experience.

After leaving the fort we drove to Middlebury for dinner and a show.  I had seen that "The Journey of E: A Jazz Musical" would be at the Town Hall Theater that night, and I thought it sounded really interesting--an anthology of songs from the jazz age and an homage to Edith Piaf, with some historical narration.  So we stopped in for dinner at American Flatbread, where we had pizza and beer and it was great, and then we had after-dinner gelato on the way to the theater, where we bought some wine and settled in as the lights dimmed.  Oh. Dear. God.  Worst performance I have ever seen.  I'd have thought that everyone was drunk except it probably would have been livelier.  I cannot believe how terrible it was, guys.  It seemed like the actors were ad-libbing everything, and it just came off as lazy and unprepared.  I had been optimistic about the jazz singer, but she was only so-so and on the verge of bad.  K and I ended up sneaking out at intermission (and thank goodness there was an intermission, because I don't think we could have sat through the rest of the show).  Oh well, it was worth a shot.  Theater is so hit-or-miss these days.  I was kind of annoyed that I paid $15/ticket for the show, but K reminded me that the money went to support the Theater itself, and not the performers.  I felt much better knowing that I had done my duty and donated to the arts.  Anyway, it was a disappointment.

Tomorrow: Sunday at Hildene!