Tales of Vermont

I have been thinking about my parents house in Vermont a lot these days as I am reading a book where the writer is living in an isolated house near Woodstock.
I have so many beautiful memories from life there.

In the summer, I used to leave the porch light on at night. In the morning the screen door below the light would be filled with the most beautiful moths you have ever seen. In the book, the woman mentions a lunar moth and how rare it is to see one and they only live for a few days.
One morning I found a huge lunar moth on the screen. It was perhaps 5" high and 3" across. It was that beautiful light greenish blue that is hard to find. She describes it as " like a shallow sea on a sunny day", beautiful. I had a ski jacket, when I was a young girl, this exact color. I vaguely remember begging my mother to let me get that jacket because of the color. It's the only reason I remember it, and the fact that it was a small victory won from a denying mother.

This moth was startling beautiful . I took photographs of it and have them somewhere. The photographs could never show how utterly beautiful the creature was. It hung on for 2 days. Perhaps it liked the warmth of the light and of the house. At night it is never truly warm in Vermont, as I remember. I examined it in every-way to try to understand it. It seemed not of this world. ...and that color! I didn't want to leave the house as I was afraid that when I returned it would be gone. That's exactly what happened . When I returned from a run into town, it was gone, but to this day, so many many years later, I have not forgotten it. I regret that I did not get to see it fly.

Thinking of the front porch in Vermont at night, I can picture the stars. Since there were no street lights or other houses around, the stars were at their brightest. They mingled with the tops of trees that safely guarded the house on all sides. I would sit very still with the porch light off and I could see the bats zooming overhead. They fly very differently than a bird. Their intent makes them stronger. There were so many Mosquitos and black flies that the bats were fat and happy, but never lazy. I never saw them during the day. I bought a wooden bat house from a fancy catalog for them. I had the then boyfriend up on a ladder installing it high on a tree as per the instructions. Before it went up, I painted the word " Bats" on it in red acrylic paint. I must have thought that it would steer the birds away from the exclusive club I had set up for bats only.
No bats ever set up camp in that house that I know of...perhaps it was too small for so many of them. Perhaps they preferred the caves back in the woods that I had seen and that had scared me so much. I pictured a sleeping bear with bats hanging upside down their cloaks pulled tight around them for a day sleep. I would tiptoe around these caves when I came across them trying not to wake anyone up but so curious to see what was inside.