After years of going on vacations and dreaming of living in the places they visited, St. Louis native Ellen Stimson and her family decided to move to rural Vermont to be close to the mountains.
They bought a country store, decided to homeschool their youngest son, and began raising chickens. And soon learned that vacationing in Vermont is much different than living there.
"We bought the oldest country store in America," said Stimson. "It had been humming along since 1816, had beautiful wooden, gleaming shelves and big jars of licorice and a charming little bell over the doors. Didn't look at all like the kind of thing that can ruin you. And I pretty much drove it smack into the ground in just three years."
Stimson's new memoir, Mud Season: How One Woman's Dream of Moving to Vermont, Raising Children, Chickens and Sheep, and Running the Old Country Store Pretty Much Led to One Calamity After Another, is a humorous tell-all about learning to live in a new environment, often stemming from the differences of city and rural life. Differences, that in the end, Stimson is glad she has experienced.
As she put it: "I believe that when we live by intention, when we make conscious choices, we wind up with richer lives."
Related Events
Ellen Stimson Discussion and Signing
Friday, October 25, 2013
6:30 p.m.
Barnes and Noble, Ladue Crossing, 8871 Ladue Rd.
For more information, call 314-862-6280 or visit the Barnes and Noble website.
Ellen Stimson Discussion and Signing
Monday, October 28, 2013
7:00 p.m.
Left Bank Books, 399 N. Euclid
For more information, call 314-367-6731 or visit the Left Bank Books website.
Cityscape is produced by Mary Edwards and Alex Heuer, hosted bySteve Potter and funded in part by the the Arts and Education Council of Greater St. Louis, the Regional Arts Commission and the Missouri Arts Council, a state agency.