June in Vermont

June 3-15, 2026                                                              Most Recent Posts:
Moose River State Park                                                 Flat Tire Slows the Trip
St. Johnsbury, Vermont                              Pretty Sure Google Killed My Phone

I tried to do an entire month in one post and paid dearly for it as when I went to post it, Live Writer made me take all of the way too many pictures out and put them back in one at a time as it gave me error messages in random order for each photo. But here it is, let me know if it was worth the number of hours it took to redo the entire post.

In addition to the small size of Moose River Campground and the river itself, what I like most about being here is this area and all the things I love to do here.

Its main street is filled with gorgeous houses.  So it’s a wonderful place to go walking and get some exercise as are the side streets off of it.

The United Community Church has a labyrinth in its yard which I love to walk at the end of my walks around town usually on Saturday morning after going to the Farmer’s Market.

The gorgeous Athenium Library is a frequent stop for me.  It is simply beautiful and has wonderful programs.   Since I have been here for the summer before, they graciously gave me a library card.  It’s SO wonderful to be able to check out real books and set my kindle aside for now.

This room is through the door on the right in the picture above.   I just love the  curved staircase.  The library’s adult book discussion group is held in here if the RSVP ers are a dozen or less.   June’s read was Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaughey.    Everyone had read it and amazingly everyone liked it.

If a book you have put on hold comes in, they wrap it in brown paper and put it on this cart with your name on the spine for you to pick up.  It’s like getting presents at Christmas!

The architecture of down town (Railroad Street)  is wonderfully detailed in ways we sadly don’t do anymore

Of course I also love the local bookstore, Boxcar and Caboose.

Every Saturday morning I start my wanderings around town with the Farmer’s Market.

There seems to be something different every week.

And boy does Vermont have ponds and lakes.  There are more than a dozen within 45 minutes of the campground.  I’m absolutely serious when I say each of them has at least one pair of loons.   These pictures are a combination of Molly’s Falls State Park and Kaiser Pond.   Between the rains and the crud I got with its endless cough, I was only able to get to each one once.  Really have to make up for that in July.  Enough rain……enough coughing.

And here are the loons in front of the sign warning not to come near the nest.

I can spend hours watching them and hoping to hear their call.

I have never seen a loon doing the back stroke before.

Fishing

 

Taken with my zoom lens.

Not loons   but beautiful even if they are mallards

I hike at Dog Mountain, home of the Stephen Huneck Gallery, on several days in order to watch the blooming of the Pink Lady Slipper.  

I join the pack when I’m here for the summer and get this get Huneck art key or dog tag.

Gallery on the left, Chapel on the right.  From the rear.

You can read about the chapel at the website link above.

Many wildflowers to see on my hikes.

and ferns galore.

Foam flower precedes the blooming of the Lady Slipper so I know when I see them that I’m not too late.

Seems odd to call this butterfly the White Admiral.

And here they are, the stars of the show.   the showy Pink Ladyslipper.

Other fun spots on the trails at Dog Mountain.

Dogs are off leash here at Dog Mountain and there are tons of tennis balls for them to fetch and this pond to swim in.

It’s an outstanding setting.

And here’s home sweet home for the summer.

My favorite spot by the river.  Notice the rocks on the edge.   Those disappear when it rains which it has now started doing.   You can see the difference in the river level in the video at the end of this post.

Reading a book about Cape Cod while sitting by the river in Vermont.

Other books I read this month were:  The Midnight Train by Matt Haig,  The News from Dublin by Colm  Toibin,  Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McGonaghy, Transcription by Ben Lehrner,  Whistler by Ann Patchett, Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke, The Astral Library by Kate Quinn and Land by Maggie O’Ferrell.  I full expect some of these to be on the Booker, National Book or Pulitzer lists for this year.   Have you read any of these?  What would you think about my doing a separate blog post each month about the books I’ve read??

I also sometimes do yoga mornings in this spot.

In June there were two potlucks, this one with the Seasonals who are here from May to October and  were kind to invite me.  They are here for 5 months, I’m only here for 3.

Above is a work camper with a Farmer’s hand tan.  I’d never seen him with his sleeves rolled up before.    And to the right is Mac the popular mascot.

There was a second potluck for Father’s day but apparently I took no pictures of it or of the Bingo game that afternoon.  I LOVE Bingo and won 3 out of 9 games but not the big prize at the end unfortunately.   I did get this picture of the notice on the porch.

And this picture of Mary the campground owner and creator of the sign who did not want her picture taken.

As for the rain, those of you who follow me know that I got flooded out from this same site twice in the summer of 2024.  I went west in 2025 and they had a drought here.  So severe you could walk across the river and the grass was brown.  

This year we’ve had multiple days of rain in June and my mat and picnic table got swamped as you can see.   But so far (fingers crossed) no flooding.   Check out this video for the sounds of the river.  You can see most of the rocks are under water now.

Probably more of the same in July but I’ll let you know then.