A milk truck rolling slowly up Bridgeman Hill catches the sunset on its long, silvery side. The mud-splattered Booth Bros.’s truck reflects that sky behind and above me — ruby clouds — and that movable art mural is so wonderfully awesome I’m taken out of time, snapped back into the world only as the truck has nearly passed and I realize the driver has lifted one hand, waving a greeting.
I watch the truck continue its gradual roll up the hill, where pavement gives way to dirt road. As I descend down the hill, the village glows beneath that magnificent sunset — the granite town building, the long strings of electric lines, the houses well-tended or ramshackle — players in a landscape of cosmic beauty.
When the winter chrysanthemums go,
There’s nothing to write about
But radishes.
—Basho
Stony Soil Vermont 
Beautiful! Brett Ann, is there a way for someone who isn’t on WordPress to get an email each time you post? Brad
Hi Brad,
You should be able to follow by clicking beneath the cover of my novel on the upper right-hand side. If that doesn’t work, please email me at brettstanciu@hotmail.com. I just tweaked that link, and if it doesn’t work, I’d really like to know. Thanks for asking! I also really enjoy reading your fascinating blog.
— Brett
It worked! Thank you for the kind words about my site. I’ve been enjoying yours for several weeks. When emails with your posts appear in my inbox, gmail says the messages are from “Stony,” which isn’t very polite, but that’s technology for you. Cheers from the Connecticut River, where the soil is sandy!
Cheers from the snowy and stony land of my part of Vermont. Hearing your news about how my posts appear make me glad I didn’t go with my first choice — Small Woman Vermont — at the insistence of a friend. As usual, her advice was apt! Glad to meet you via internet world 🙂