The answer lies not in abruptly starting the diet journey, thinking that this is the fastest way, but instead in first paving the path ahead. Simply selecting a diet and ‘starting’ one day makes the assumption that we can arrange our lives around the new program, that we won’t have any significant obstacles, and that we can rely on our own self-discipline to keep us on track. In reality, usually the opposite is true. 3 steps are necessary to ensure that your diet will work for you, not the other way around. This process ensures the least amount of setbacks on the way to ideal weight because you are in control of each step of the program.

Read the 3  steps here http://www.hotmommagossip.com/2011/09/19/how-to-lose-weight-fast-at-home/

On September 1st, 2009, Vermont Butter & Cheese Company (VBC) celebrated 25 years of cheesemaking in Vermont and the accomplishment of being a leading creamery in US artisanal cheeses. The small creamery also introduced a new name and new packaging.

“Our new name is Vermont Butter & Cheese Creamery. This name emphasizes our position as a small creamery dedicated to making the best crème fraîche, cultured butter, and fresh and aged goat cheeses on the market. It also reflects our commitment to buy local high quality cream from the farmers of St. Albans Cooperative and our group of 20 local goat dairies,” said Allison Hooper, co-founder of Vermont Butter & Cheese Company.

http://www.vermontcreamery.com/

The Highland Lake Inn is pleased to offer many of Vermont Creamery’s fine products for breakfast for their guest’s dining pleasure.

After Pecco and Gale,s Inn, we stayed at another Inn in Cape Cod which was quite pricey and highly rated but it was not as good as the Highland Lake Inn Bed and Breakfast. So good value for money…

Check out some of our other recent Tripadvisor reviews at  http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g29727-d79158-r117788669-Highland_Lake_Inn_Bed_and_Breakfast-Andover_New_Hampshire.html

Regular readers probably already know that my sweetheart Marilyn and I are big fans of riding rail trails on our fat-tire tandem bicycle. Riding a rail trail is really the perfect bare-ground outing for us.

In what has, so far, been a ridiculously busy early summer for us, plagued by, it seems, almost constant rain and cold, we’ve had trouble getting in as many outings as we’d like. So when a free morning happened to dawn clear, sunny and cool, we decided we had to make something fun happen, if only for a few hours.

The Northern Rail Trail in Grafton and Merrimack counties is shaping up to be one of the best rail trail rides in all of New England. The stone-dust or gravel surface is firm and easy to pedal on (especially with a fat tire or cyclocross bike), and the scenery is beautiful.

This trail is particularly convenient. If you are traveling on Interstates 91 or 93, you are only minutes from a trail terminus, and access from I-89 is even faster. If your bike is on the car anyway, why not stop and ride for an hour or two?

I should note that Marilyn and I don’t particularly enjoy riding with a lot of traffic. Though the NRT essentially parallels either Route 4 or Route 11, you don’t often see or even hear motor vehicles. Much of the time you are riding through quiet woods and fields, alongside beautiful flowing streams and placid ponds.

The northern end of the trail in Grafton County (northernrailtrail.org) was finished first. It runs 23 miles from downtown Lebanon through Enfield, Canaan, Orange and Grafton.

Another 23 miles in Merrimack County have now been completed. This section runs through Danbury, Wilmot and Andover to end (for the moment at least) in Franklin. Eventually, the trail will continue on to Boscawen and Concord, though in these days of tight money and endless budget fights, who knows when that will happen?

Marilyn and I have been riding short sections of the NRT when we were in the neighborhood on other business. I believe we’ve done most of it.

On this particular summer morning, we pulled into the parking area at Potter Place, right off the junction of Routes 4 and 11, and started pedaling east toward Franklin. We only had about an hour to ride and hoped we could get in 10 or 12 miles or so. Not a “big” ride, but fun nonetheless. We haven’t been able to pedal much this spring and we weren’t sure how far our legs and seats would take us. But we need to start conditioning for some longer rides we have planned later this summer, so every little bit helps.

This section of trail is almost flat (most rail lines avoided hills as much as possible) and has a nicely packed gravel/stone dust surface. It runs along the Blackwater River, through pine and hardwood forests, skirting the edges of some beautiful wetlands. Gorgeous scenery for a summer morning.

We’d pedaled only about 2 miles before we came upon a lovely covered bridge we’d never seen before. At about the 6-mile mark we ran out of time and turned around at the Higland Lake Inn (highlandlakeinn.com) in East Andover, which looks like it would make a perfect overnight stop for a weekend getaway.

Someday soon, we’ll take two cars and ride the whole NRT end to end in one day. But for now, these section rides out and back are a perfect break on a busy summer morning.

Life isn’t a spectator sport. Get out and enjoy!

More trail resources

New England and New York are blessed with an abundance of old railroad beds, many of which are rideable on fat-tire bikes.

The best source for rail trail information nationwide is the Rails To Trails Conservancy (railstotrails.org). Just go under “Find A Trail” and click on either a state or a region to find listings. There are 392 open trails in the Northeast totaling over 3,200 miles. Visiting the website, I just discovered a new trail in Maine, the 85-mile Downeast Sunrise Trail that we are going to have to ride soon.

If you ride in the Granite State, be sure to get a copy of Charles F. Martin’s book, New Hampshire Rail Trails (nhrailtrails.org/guide.htm), which gives the history of the rail lines along with useful info for today’s bikers. The website itself also has some useful links to other trail organizations.

You may have already read of rides we’ve taken on the Cape Cod Rail Trail (mass.gov/dcr/parks/southeast/ccrt.htm) and Ashuwilticook Rail Trail (mass.gov/dcr/parks/western/asrt.htm) in Massachusetts, the Island Line Trail (trailfinder.info/trail.php?id=1) and Missisquoi Valley Rail Trail (mvrailtrail.com) in Vermont, the Airline State Park Rail Trail in Connecticut (pages.cthome.net/mbartel/ARRabout.htm) and the Aroostook Rail Trail in Maine. If you are interested in these past stories, they may be archived on this newspaper’s website. If not, you may find them at EasternSlopes.com or email me and I’ll send you a copy.

(Tim Jones can be reached at timjones@easternslopes.com.)

Original article at http://www.concordmonitor.com/article/265917/riding-the-rail-trails?CSAuthResp=%3Asession%3ACSUserId|CSGroupId%3Aapproved%3ABA4A9537C4BF4594E11F4B09D8217743&CSUserId=94&CSGroupId=1

Workshop Facilitator: Joni Cole http://www.jonibcole.com/

Location:  Highland Lake Inn, Andover, NH

$530 per person double occupancy,
$705 per person single occupancy, all inclusive.

This retreat is designed for writers who are looking for an intensive period to write, share their work for quality feedback and instruction, and make progress on a new or existing project. Writers of fiction and creative non-fiction are welcome. Participation is limited to six to assure personalized attention.

Aptly named “How to Write More, Write Better, and Be Happier, the retreat takes place at the beautiful Highland Lake Inn Bed and Breakfast, located in Andover, New Hampshire. Conveniently situated in the center of northern New England, the inn offers spacious guest rooms with full bathrooms, distinctive furnishing and amenities, and private television and Wi Fi access. Innkeepers Gail and Pecco Beaufays offer old-school hospitality and personal touches. Meals are included in the retreat package.

Workshop facilitator Joni B. Cole is the author of the acclaimed book Toxic Feedback: Helping Writers Survive and Thrive (“strongly recommended” by Library Journal), and Water Cooler Diaries: Women across America Share Their Day at Work ((“both fascinating and eye-opening,” Publisher’s Weekly). Her creative nonfiction has been nominated for The Pushcart Prize, and will be featured in her fall 2011 book Another Bad-Dog Story: Tales of Life, Love, and Neurotic Human Behavior. Joni runs the Writer’s Center of White River Junction, Vermont, and is a frequent speaker and teacher at writing conferences across the country.

to register please contact Joni at joni.cole@alum.dartmouth.org
or (802) 295-5526.

Sunday Evening
Welcome reception at 5 PM
Dinner at 6:30 PM

Monday
Morning and afternoon workshop sessions
Plenty of free time to write or consult

Tuesday
Morning workshop session
Depart after lunch

Program Fee Includes:
• Lodging
• Writing workshops
• Welcome reception
• All meals (Friday dinner through Sunday lunch)

Writers are encouraged to bring:
• Up to 10 pages of your manuscript to share (whether it’s a rough draft, a few scenes, or just the germ of an idea)

The workshop sessions will focus on:
• Narrative drive
• Voice
• Conflict and tension
• Character emotional development
• Deeper meaning of story
• How to get inspired and stay inspired

Choose from one of seven bike rides that will be led by various Rail Trail volunteers on specific sections of the Northern Rail Trail.  These rides will vary in length from 10 to 28 miles, depending upon the section chosen.  It is not necessary to ride the complete section chosen, but leaders will be going the entire round trip for each section if anyone wants to do that amount.  All section rides begin at 10:00 AM.  This is a great opportunity to try newly completed sections of the trail.

Please visit http://www.fnrt.org/ for more information. Details will follow on the site in a few days giving specific information about the trail section, leader, leader contact info., section starting points and lengths.

Two more miles of smooth surfaced trail were added to eastern end of the rail trail in Franklin in October.   In addition, the Friends of the Northern Rail Trail just completed work along the ballast covered rail bed of the old Northern Railroad between Potter Place and the town shed in Danbury.  With that work completed, the Northern Rail Trail now follows Rte. 4, essentially, up to Enfield then on to West Lebanon going north from its Potter Place trailhead in Andover and follows Rte 11 east to Depot Street in Franklin.   As always, no motorized vehicles are allowed on the Northern Rail Trail, except for snow mobiles in winter.  Now the rail trail is continuous through two counties for about 45 miles from South Franklin to West Lebanon.

Combine your biking trip with a Bike and Stay Package at the Inn for a wonderful weekend getaway!

(source:  Friends of the Northern Rail Trail, http://www.fnrt.org)

We often take for granted the remarkable annual ritual of bird migration. One morning, the bushes and trees around you are suddenly filled with singing birds that were not there just the day before.  But there’s an incredible story in their long, often hazardous journeys.

Go to learn more about this amazing journey and determine the whereabouts of your favorite species.

eNature.com has extensive birding resources for novices and experts alike.

Words flow like wine, hither and fro

The glass of merlot give my cheeks a glow.

Gail welcomed us with a big smile

And tales of romantic parties of a bygone style

Candlelight reflected in goblets fine,

The tuna Pecco cooked was just divine.

As were the berries, red and black,

To Highland Lake Inn, I will come back

It’s winter now and snow abounds.

I imagine Spring fields full of bird sounds.

Summer will come next with lazy days,

Spent writing in the evening haze,

Of red, purple, gold, and blue

Joni and Marjorie to their heart’s remain true

This writer’s group who met in March

Shared words and stories

Surrounded by pine and birch

Mountains green and clouds of white

Highland Lake Inn is a beautiful site.

Copyright 2011 All rights Reserved                      Denise M. Simpson                                   20 March 2011