I called Ron and Jiyoung Dailey about a week or so ago and told them they should put Bodin on a train and let him come up for First Friday this time because it was all about fly-fishing and duck decoys. So everyone came up and we had a fine First Friday. Bodin met Ron Duel, an 80-year-old master fly-tyer. When I told Ron that Bodin was coming all the way up from New York City to see him tie flies, he said he had a book with a fly-tying starter kit in it and a book that tells you how to tie and that he would bring it for Bodin!
And this morning, Bodin tied his first two flies.
The rest of the afternoon we ate and sat around the fire. Reese is a little pyro and spends the day finding things to throw in the fire. I'm worried about him.
Scott Frush came up from Albany with Brewster's doppelganger dog...Chloe. She looks exactly like Brewster in miniature. That's her hiding behind the chair. Just imagine Brewster's face and you've got it.
For some strange reason, my computer and my camera have decided they can see one another again and I have pictures to go with a post. Not as many as I would like...say, for example, shots from CNN's "Decision Desk" for the midterm depression...er...I mean election coverage.
I put up about a dozen pints of jalapeno jelly and then took off for the city on the train...the Hudson River in all it's autumnal raiment. Had dinner with Bev and Robert (who worked the election with me) and Ken Monday night at Cafe Loup, which was lovely as always. Spent two nights in a chic little hotel right at Lincoln Center and headed back home on the
train Wednesday morning (reading Angela Miller's Hay Fever all the way -- she's the proprietrix of Consider Bardwell Farm here. I recommend the book. It was fun to read about Granville and Pawlet and Roy Egg and the West Pawlet Fish and Game Club.) Which reminds me...I need to submit my invoice so I can get paid (CNN is notoriously slow in payment...I probably won't get paid till January!)
Got home and hit the ground running with two days to pull the second First Friday at the Pember together. Had a nice break from the Post-Star which ran a front page of the Arts section story on Tuesday about one of the artists we featured. The wooden bowls (over on the left there) were a big hit...turned by our neighbor Tony Mesaric, using local woods.
Had another 80+ people turn up (in a village of 2,000+ people, that's not bad), which was what we had hoped for. Battenkill Creamery (by the way, they were just named "Best Milk in the State of New York") served ice cream sundaes and a delightful time was had by all.
And last night...we went to the rodeo...YEE HAW! [Pretty horse...prettier cowboy]
New to us anyway. Picked it up for a song. A $99 song. It's a "Genuine Indian Brand Canoe" painted to look like birch bark, which I kind of like. It has a square stern, which I'm not as crazy about, but I guess it does give us the motor option. Not a whole lot more information available, even via Google, which is pretty strange. I guess that means "Genuine Indian Brand" canoes were made before the age of the internet. I know ours is 15 to 20 years old. They used to sell in the $300 range. Fiberglass, very flexible. All I can find, though, when I Google Geniune Indian Canoe are two people selling a similar vessel. Nothing else. Not at Amazon. Not on EBay. Not at Cabela's
We've been told (by Elmer, of course, who else?) that the best place to canoe around these parts is the Battenkill River. Since we still need to obtain paddles, it will be a little while, at least, until we launch.
And I finally got the camera to behave. So here are the newly mulched flower beds (which, only yesterday, had a dusting of snow covering them. Gone by noon.)
The plants were none the worse for their snow wear. This daffodil is just about ready to pop!
