CertainSeason

The Long Cyber-Winter is Over!

For months...some of you remind me it's been since November of last year!...I have been able to post writing to this blog, but no photos. Alas, some, nay most and possibly all my inspiration to write comes from the illustration and the lack of that, at the very least, took the fun out of it for me.

So though I attempted to post photos by sending them to my friend Dan (with whom I do GayWisdom.org) that was pretty much an unworkable solution. Dan has many better things to do than to post my photos.

As it happens, it turns out that the reason I was having problems had to do with the server I was using. At one time I had three different servers on my machine (which I am told simply clogs the works in the end)...Internet Explorer, Firefox and Google Chrome. I almost never used Internet Explorer, was pretty wary of Google Chrome and stuck pretty close to Firefox. But when I had a PowerBoost done by Norton, the technician removed all of them but Internet Explorer.

And Internet Explorer was the problem. I can't tell you why or anything, but the moment I switched over to Google Chrome, I was, once again, able to post here.

Harrumph!

So I missed posting the chrysanthemum turnips Pat and Barb served us for New Year's Eve dinner in Maine...I missed posting about my little health scare in December when I went down to NYC for routine bloodwork and ended up in the hospital for three days!...I missed the holidays altogether (including my mother's quadruple bypass, open-heart surgery) and I've all but missed the weird winter we've had in which we've had more rains than snow and those rains nearly washed away our drive.

Worse, the lack of ability to write about what life is like here in the country (and anyone that tells you it's quiet and peaceful is crazy!) made taking pictures less fun and less urgent in my priorities. 

That's all over now.

It's been a long frustrating winter, blog-wise. I am pretty sure some people who had been following have given up on me. But we're BACK! 

Goodnight Irene

We were unscathed, personally, by the storm. In fact I know we've had higher winds. But the flooding in our area is not to be underestimated. And Vermont took a major hit. We went out to see what we could see last night, after the storm had long passed...and it was impossible to get into Granville proper. All the roads in or out were flooded...22...149...Church, North Street...even the road into Vermont....all flooded and impassable. We ended up having to go all the way around on 149, over the hills, over to 22N. And once we got into Main Street, the only way back was the way we came in. This picture (left) was taken this morning, when the road was passable again. The waters have actually gone down from last night (thankfully)...this is normally just a field of grass.

The Pember was high and dry atop the hill. But just across the raging Mettowee...a good four or five feet over it's banks, the Slate Valley Museum had been completely overrun by the river, at one point flowing around and through the museum itself. They were sweeping mud out all afternoon.

More pictures as soon as I can get my computer program to function properly.

Bill's Birthday Dinner

With all the stuff I document on here with photos, I can't believe this is the only picture I got from our dinner party last night. Pre-hurricane, plenty muggy, but all outdoors with Bev and all our Granville (well, not all, but many) friends.

Anyway...dinner was:

Tomato Tarts with assorted cheeses and pates

Beef Tenderloin in Bourbon Mustard Glaze with Horseradish Crema

Creamy Corn with Poblanos and Creme Fraiche

Boston Baked Beans

Panzanella and Tomato Pudding

Strawberry Vanilla Cake

Auction Acquisitions

Went to the auction at the Halderman house. There was lots we would have loved to have bid on, but finances being what they are...

Nevertheless, we got a set of pewter plates and cups, a beautiful set of ironstone platters and covered vegetable bowls, some nice braided carpets for the kitchen, a surprise birthday gift for my goddaughter/niece and these lovely Aladdin lamps.

Made some nice tomato tarts to take to Patty and Mark's, too.

Bill picked up some nice 1940s-1950s desk lamps.

Don't Ask...

This sign greets us every time I pick up Bill from work and drive him home (click on it to enlarge to be able to read the sign). The other side says something about reading Romans. One wonders two things with this clown:

1. How closely has he read Leviticus? Right across the street there's a field with two different crops planted in it (by some farmer that I am certain is wearing two different kinds of fabric)...wonder if he's over there stoning that guy all day...and,

2. Just how much same-sex marriage demand is he experiencing?

Oh well...

Meanwhile our garden is becoming more interesting...red onions (red zeppelins), white (actually, technically I think they're called "yellow cranes"). some really nice jalapenos, squash (always squash), tomatoes, cherry and Romas...and some itty bitty garlic. Barely the side of a single clove. I think I should have cut the scapes and harvested them earlier...

The beans are about done. Thinking about a fall garden...spinach, beets, etc. I still have another tape of radishes.

A Deed, Indeed...But Whose?

So the phone rang yesterday morning, and it was Mrs. Halderman, the wife of the couple from whom we bought the house. They have sold the farm...250 acres for $420,000 in case you were wondering...and are in the process of  cleaning out the big house. As she put it, she went to look through a drawer she "would have sworn was empty" and found some papers in which she thought we might be interested. And, indeed, we were...as it seems to be an original deed to the house with Lemuel Haynes' signature. At first I was of the opinion that it was the deed which transferred possession of the house to Haynes, but the date is 1825 and we're pretty sure he moved in here in 1803. It's going to take some more detective work, but it is a deed and it notes that "in consideration of the receipt of one thousand four hundred and twenty-five dollars" title was transferred to Lemuel Haynes."

Haynes' signature is visible, faintly, in the bottom fourth of the document, in the top of the blank space on the right hand side of the page, to the left of what look like what might have been a seal. The document is framed so that both sides of the document are visible...on the reverse is another notation about Lemuel Haynes and, interestingly, and puzzlingly, a reference to "Rutland, Vermont". 

The document is handwritten and in that 19th century hand that is difficult to read (and with all the use of typing and keyboards anymore, will probably become completely undecipherable to future generations!) It is not easy to read the text, so I am still trying to determine exactly what it means. But it is Haynes' signature. 

On a different subject, in the past two weeks, a vacuum, the lawn mower, the house water pump have all broken in addition to the toilet seal in the upstairs bath and the garbage disposal both leaking. Oh, and Bill's car has about $1,000 in repairs that are needed.

Wishing that deed had our name on it at this point!

A Little Tuscan Night in Washington County

The heat is on the wane and last night we celebrated Jody Somers' 40th birthday in his huge barn. No picture could do justice to the vista from this unfinished structure at Dancing Ewe Farm...the barn itself must be 60' by 150' with nothing less than a 50' peaked ceiling.The sweep of the mountains surrounding the sheep pastures at sunset wasn't diminished in the slightest even by the beatdown the sun was giving us. When it did go down around 7:30, the dome of the starry sky opened up and all you could hear as you walked in the meadow was the music of the bells around the sheeps' necks.

Tables were set up and the grills were fired and friends gathered to eat fresh two tomato bruschetta and white bean bruschetta to say nothing of a sampling of the cheeses made just on the other side of the far wall...delicious cacciotas (some flavored with truffles), pecorinos and ricottas. Stan Getz serenaded for a time but we finally persuaded Jody to give a little accordian recital (much persuasion and a few beers were required.) Breezes blew in across the meadow and cooled everyone off.

Roast pork, chicken kabobs, corn on the cob and potato salad was only made all the better by the good company and old friends gathered to celebrate Jody's 40th birthday.

In other news...the purple beans are in...

Red and Rain

We got the red Adirondack chair at the Pember Annual Dinner silent auction last night, along with a nice collection of books about the Adirondacks. Now we have a blue one and a green one and the red.

Rain is interfering with proper usage of our Adirondack seating, but the garden is singing. It is unseasonably cool. And wouldn't you know, the day I decide to put the Turf Builder on is the first day of a streak of rainy days. Dave is here. It's his birthday tomorrow so he is being treated to one of Billy's fine Boston Creme Pies.

Life is good.

 

Meadow: Before/After

They mowed our meadow this week. But then they did something we've never (in the two summers we've been around this meadow) seen...they plowed it. By all indications it means they will be planting it. In two years the only thing that has grown in the meadow, save for my dandelion greens (and the magnificent carpet of yellow they offer) has been alfalfa; feed for the cows. Stay tuned. The change is quite drastic.

BEFORE 

 AFTER

Happy Birthday to Me!

Nothing says "Happy Birthday" better than Boston Cream Pie...and roses from my sweetheart...a gray rainy day that is making the green all the more lush. The sun broke out ever so briefly...but the rest of the day is going to be Seattlish.

Actually it turned out to be overcast but little rain until the evening. Went shopping with Patty and we were joined by Mark at lunch in Manchester. Got a beautiful leather bag and some nice shirts and the Dorset Exchange. Much fun just tromping around Manchester and Dorset with Patty and Mark.

Mark gave me a flat of a variety of plants...what a nice birthday gift! Several tomatoes, fennel, cucumbers, bell peppers, bee balm, broccoli and beets. Got'em all in this morning (5/17)...it's just been perfect planting weather...wet, not too much sun. 

Turned over so much garden this year. The plot is twice the size it was last year. I need to get busy clearing the weeds from the rows, they're coming back with a vengeance!