When I left New York City for Vermont , I wanted it all . Land and garden , animals . We got goats and sheep , and pigs , chickens , turkeys and ducks . We jumped in .
Until . . .
Hawks ate the ducklings , ( solving the mystery of why there were no footprints in the snow ), the garden had more rocks than plants . The goats leapt the expensive fence , the sheep kept butting my knees backward , leaving me in tears . The pigs were escape artists .
We didn ’ t know the old ways . We read books , trying to learn canning and fencing and breeding , but slowly we discovered how much our neighbors already knew .
One day , while in Burlington , I purchased long baguettes for dinner . Meanwhile , the pigs made a break for it and were happily meandering down the dirt road ( Minister Book Road ) and ignored me as I drove home .
Our lovely , petite neighbor , in her 90s and dressed in finery ( including white gloves ) came along . She stopped her car , noticing my pigs-with-attitude .
“ Do you have any bread ?” she asked . “ GOOD bread ?” With reluctance , I said I did .
I handed the baguettes over , and she was immediately the Pied Piper , leading the pigs back to their pen . She dainty , they eager , following and nibbling the baguettes .
I felt so humbled . And grateful . — Margot Mayor
Painter Kathleen Kolb grew up in Cleveland , moved to New Jersey , attended art school in Rhode Island , and at 20 , visited Vermont and instantly felt at home . She said , “ This is what I want . I fell in love with Vermont when I was 20 , and it was a true romance .”
“ It was not just the landscape . It was a lifestyle . Since then , I ’ ve grown into Vermont and Vermont has grown into me and shaped me in profound ways . In making a life here I have had so many wonderful experiences of kindness from neighbors or acquaintances . That is part of living here .”
Like many young people at that time , she was disillusioned by urban society and hoping to create a different lifestyle in a rural subsistence economy . It was the much ballyhooed ‘ Back to the Land ’ movement , and it was so much harder than she thought . Kathleen got a wonderful , faraway sweet smile as the two of us remembered our unbridled optimism .
Kathleen continued , “ I had enormous respect for my Vermont neighbors who were rooted in the land . Many of us had a naïve dream of self-sufficiency . Like any romance , it has grown and changed enormously over time . I ’ m fortunate that my affection for this place has endured .”
“ The relationship I developed with this landscape , both geographic and human , has literally fed me on many levels .”
STORY MARGOT MAYOR ART COURTESY KATHLEEN KOLB
The paintings of Kathleen Kolb are jewels . Light glows from each building . These are paintings one can live with , love for years , never tire of . They have life and heart , and an enduring sense of a good life being lived within .
VTMAG . COM FALL 2022 29