A Treehouse, a little you-and-me house

When you come to Vermont, turn off your GPS device. On the Saturday they came to visit Fern Forest, Brandon and Mimi took the advice of the blind woman in the machine rather than heeding H’s advice to go around the Green Mountains. They also ignored the sign that said ROAD TO LINCOLN CLOSED and started up the gap, a narrow dirt road with steep hairpin turns. The road crew stops plowing and sanding around Thanksgiving and locals drag their sleds up the mountain or skin up with tellies for a heart-stopping ride down. We haven’t had much snow, so there was no frozen wall where the plow stops to deter these Cape Codders. It was late, and Brandon wanted to surprise Mimi with a Valentine’s weekend in the treehouse, and the GPS device said Lincoln Gap Road was the quickest route. He drives a 4WD and thought even if he encountered a bit of rough stuff, he could muscle his way through. I’d probably have done the same thing had I not known better. When I was traveling around Kentucky on book...

The new Hot Springs spa must have something to do with the good night's sleeps I’ve been having lately. I admit that I wasn’t in favor of getting a home equity line of credit for this top-of-the-line item that I categorize as a luxury rather than a necessity. But that was two weeks ago. Now, even when it’s 10F out, I peel out of my socks and slip on flipflops, wrap myself in a big terry towel and pad out to the liquid massage parlor. Nothing like being surrounded by 105F H2O swirling like lava in a volcanic crater, shooting fingers of wet heat onto my muscles sore from gym workouts. A plunge into the spa just before bed is better than popping a pill, better than a couple glasses of Cabernet, almost as good as a shot of Woodford Reserve. It took just a week after installing the spa before the request came from Melissa for a return visit to Fern Forest Treehouse. Melissa came up last fall from Boston for an overnight retreat from her work as assistant to Ophelia Dahl at Partners I...