She dreams of patrons streaming in for fresh-made sandwiches and an old-timey candy counter, but she learns they're boycotting the store. When she decides she wants to own and operate the old-fashioned village store in idyllic Dorset, population 2,036, one of the oldest continually operating country stores in the nation, she learns the hard way that 'improvements' are not always welcomed warmly by folks who like things just fine the way they've always been. In self-deprecating and hilarious fashion, Mud Season chronicles Stimson's transition from city life to small Vermont farmhouse. Louis: 'We're moving to Vermont!' The reality, they quickly learn, is not quite as glorious, often far too quaint, but, happily, worth all the trouble. These tacked-on sections are sweet but have no place in this so-called memoir.After a getaway in gorgeous rural Vermont, its mountains ablaze in autumnal glory, its Main Streets quaint and welcoming, Ellen Stimson and her family make up their minds even before they get back to St. To top it off, she concludes the book with a collection of recipes - seemingly from out of nowhere - as well as obituaries for her lost pets. They swim in Canadian waters, then stuff themselves on hot dogs and s’mores.

What? They rent a cabin and a pontoon boat.

In the eleventh hour, Stimson is bailed out by a buyer and she and her family of five take off on vacation. She even flippantly considers bankruptcy after a good friend explains that she has a failed business and that’s why bankruptcy exists - it’s “part of the system,” he says. Stimson has complained for more than 200 pages about how much money she’s spending and how the renovations to the house, the lack of sales at the store and everything else are bleeding her dry. That person could have insisted on solid transitions between chapters and removing much of the repetition.īut things really fall apart near the end.

Her collection of 11 “chapters” reads more like a haphazard collection of essays that would have better served her experience. Stimson tells her tales with clear-eyed, self-deprecating humor, which makes “Mud Season” a breeze to read in a single sitting.ĭespite the amusing anecdotes, Stimson’s first foray into writing books - in a previous life, she sold books - is more than a bit flawed.

Mud Season by Ellen Stimson