Thunder on the mountain

Ripton was hammered by a sudden, fierce thunderstorm just now.

We received a flash flood warning, and weren't alone:

... A line of strong thunderstorms will move through Caledonia...
eastern Addison... north central Rutland... northwestern Windsor...
Orange... south central Orleans... southeastern Chittenden...
southeastern LaMoille... southwestern Essex and Washington counties...

At 531 PM EDT... a line of strong thunderstorms was located from
Stillwater State Park to West Cornwall... moving southeast at 25 mph.

"African American Women and Christian Mission in the Civil Rights Era" - coming up at the town church

Later this month is a new presentation at our community's church:

Friends of Ripton Community Church invite you to share in another Ripton Lecture Series. This lecture will be presented by Middlebury College Professor Mary Kay Cavazos. The topic is:“A Leavening Force: African American Women and Christian Mission in the Civil Rights Era”. Dr. Cavazos is also Ripton’s new
pastor and will begin conducting services in September. Please join us on
Sunday, August 21th at 4:00 pm for a great lecture, and help us welcome her to
our community.

Picnic Saturday!

This Saturday is a town picnic! It's the Fire Department's:

Annual Fire Department Picnic Saturday July 30, 12:00 noon to 2:00 pm
at Ripton Fire & First Response, 25 Dugway Road. The department will supply
grilled fare; side dishes from you are welcome. Come enjoy an afternoon with
your friends and neighbors!

Ripton Community Yard Sale coming up

The Ripton Community Yard Sale is coming up fast!

It's Monday, July 4th, and runs from 7am to noon.

Sign up, and reserve space by the Methodist church for $5.
Set up at home, and you'll be put you on a map for free.



Call 388-7442 to join (leaving message with your contact number is ok). Or email Roger Barkin: rogerbarkin at gmail dot com .

Thomas Jefferson: a Ripton talk this Saturday

Local Thomas Jefferson expert will give a talk at 4:00 pm, Saturday, June 18th, at the Ripton Community Church.
The topic:

In the context of Thomas Jefferson’s tombstone legacy, i.e.: Author of the Declaration of American Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom, and father of the University of Virginia, Chip Stokes will explain what Lincoln meant by his closing phrase of the Gettysburg Address; “Government of
the People, by the People, for the People. "

In the words of Merrill D. Peterson, Stokes “undoubtedly has the best collection of Jeffersonia in private hands in the United States or in the world."

Sponsored by Friends of The Ripton Community Church.

Had enough rain?

If you think we've had too much rain, you're not alone. One weather analyst says 2011 is a record-setter for rain. It's partly due to getting record amounts of snow this past winter.

Look how Vermont is doing, compared with the rest of the US:



I'd like to ship some of our rain to my Texan friends.

(thanks to Bill McKibben for recommending Jeff Master's fine weather blog)

Sanctuary Sunday coming up

Coming up this Sunday at the town church is "Sanctuary Reflections", a multimedia presentation by Jim Stapleton and Diana Bigelow .

The seventy-five minute program will feature readings from Jim’s recently
published book, Sanctuary Almanac, and a selection of Diana’s own songs.
During the 1980s the couple lived in the Mid-Hudson Valley at the John
Burroughs Nature Sanctuary where Jim was resident naturalist. In 1987 he
organized his natural history observations into a book-length almanac of
stories and meditations. Diana’s songs were written a decade later on the
Olympic Peninsula in Washington where the couple then lived. The songs share
with the stories a reverence for the natural world and offer a complementary
perspective on “sanctuary”.

That's this Sunday, June 12th.
Sponsored by Friends of The Ripton Community Church.