Guess who forgot about setting the clocks back last night, both external and internal? That’s why I got out of bed at what I thought I was 7:00 this morning and jumped in the shower so I would be ready to leave the house at 8:30. As I was standing there with hot water pouring down over my neck and shoulders, Rick came in and told me that it was really only 6:00. Well, I was already wet so going back to bed was not an option at that point. So, here I am in front of the computer instead. Aren’t you lucky? This is one of those random-not-planned posts.
We have plans for today. We enrolled in a cheese making class at a creamery about an hour’s drive from here. We get a tour of the farm and then make our own round of cheese which they will store and age for us. I think we get to pick it up sometime after Christmas. Should be a fun day.
Yesterday we took care of all the leaves carpeting our front yard. I think they make a lovely carpet but if left they will kill the grass. In the two years that we’ve lived here we had someone professional come and blow the yards of leaves. It’s a lot of leaves! It’s also very expensive as you might imagine. This year we took Johnny Jr. (who has a mulching attachment) and drove very slowly over the leaves mulching them into tiny pieces that just disappeared into the grass. Good for the grass; good for the pocketbook. It worked like a charm. We’re very pleased at how well this worked. Here you can see before and after.
We also replaced our little wood stove in the sun room. It was old and tired and needed new stove black. You couldn’t dampen it down to burn efficiently and it ate wood like it was candy. Our new stove will burn very efficiently and heat the sun room and kitchen area very nicely. Here they are side by side for comparison. The difference is like night and day. (Pun intended as I took the photos at different times of the day obviously.)
The man who installed it is also the chimney sweep that didn’t show up last week in our deluge of rain, so that was handy. He took a look at both chimneys and gave us a reasonable quote for sweeping them soon. They need it if the amount of chunky soot that came out of the little stove’s pipe is anything to judge by. We need to break it in so we had two little fires in it yesterday. What a difference! The tiny pile of wood burned for a very long time, giving out the kind of warmth that only wood can provide. Cozy.
As I type our little turkey family is out there in the front yard pecking away at the seed I threw down yesterday afternoon. It’s pretty light out there now at 6:59 a.m.
The trees are still beautiful. The colors are now all burnt yellows and oranges since we’ve had some pretty good frosts.
Gorgeous color, crisp days, frosty nights and cozy fires. What’s not to love about this season?
Happy Halloween everyone! Two weeks ago we went to the Blaze event at Van Cortlandt Manor in the Hudson Valley. It was just the ticket to get us in the Halloween mood. I saved writing about it because I thought it was perfect for today.
It was a crisp Autumn evening with no moon. Perfect weather for viewing this pumpkin extravaganza. Van Cortlandt Manor is in Croton-on-Hudson, New York. Over 4,000 hand-carved pumpkins are illuminated, either by candles or electric bulbs in over 20 different themes.
There was a graveyard with skeleton heads and hands rising out of the ground.
The manor house itself glowed eerily against the night sky.
Its double staircase was lined with grinning pumpkins.
Intricately carved pumpkins were everywhere.
This gentleman was kind enough to point out the way we should go.
Over 700 new pumpkins are carved each week to replace those that may have rotted. That’s a lot of carving! Some of the pumpkins were really “funkins.” The funkins were used when the display had to stand up to making it all the way through all three weekends of Blaze without rotting. Made from polyurethane foam they are the perfect medium for the detailed carving of this prehistoric crowd.
Watch out for the giant snake!
Tombstone effigies taken from the Sleepy Hollow graveyard (which is only a few miles down the road.) Perfect!
Celtic knots.
A creepy graveyard filled with glowing tombstones was the perfect foil for a miniature Stonehenge of pumpkins!
We also passed these sailors rowing merrily along in their boat.
It took about one hour to make the complete loop, stopping at times to take a closer look. A pumpkin-perfect night. The only thing missing was the appearance of the Headless Horseman who had a previous engagement just down the road.
If you want to watch a video clip from Martha Stewart’s show about the Blaze event and how they make it happen, follow this link.
Have a safe and spooky Halloween!
Warning! Photo heavy post ahead. Before you start this post let me warn you ahead of time that it may take you as long to read as it did for us to take this hike (4.5 hours).
Last week Rick took a few days off and rather than go to Andy’s lake cabin as we had planned, the weather was so glorious we decided to stay home and do things around here. One of those things was to take a hike. We used to be great hikers and back country campers, loading all our goods needed to survive for three days on our backs. It’s been some years since we’ve done any serious hiking. Mostly just around the cabin (which can be pretty strenuous at that altitude.) But nothing much since we’ve lived here.
Rick picked a hike from our book Hiking the Jersey Highlands that was a “lollipop” loop around two lakes (Surprise Lake and West Pond). Lollipop meaning you hiked up the stick part, looped around the lollipop and rejoined the original trail again. It was stated as being 4.1 miles. Don’t you think that’s kind of a long hike for us since we haven’t worked up to it?, I asked Rick. Nah, not a problem he replied.
Here is an image of what our GPS recorded on our hike so you can get an idea of where we’re headed.
I should have read the trail description myself before we left. Truly, I really should have. But I didn’t. I should have.
Most of the trails I’ve hiked in the past have been well maintained and easy to follow. What’s to mark? You just follow the path, right? So at first I thought their way of marking a trail was quaint: painted on a tree. A few walking sticks were left leaning against the tree for anyone’s use.
Follow the little blue (and white) blazes ... follow the little blue (and white) blazes ... I hummed to myself to the tune of follow the yellow brick road.
or arrows. Whatever.
The trail at first was hard to see as it wound its way through a mostly flat forest bed and we missed a few blazes. Probably because there we so many leaves on the ground obscuring what might exist of a path. Soon after the path became quite steep and stayed that way for a while. Well, I knew we had to get to the top of Bearfort Mountain somehow so I was expecting plenty of “up.”
The trees on the way up were putting on quite a show. I had plenty of time to stop and admire them as I let my seized-up calves relax again.
Needless to say, it was a gorgeous day for a hike. The temperature was in the high 60’s, the humidity low, the sky blue.
The trail got rockier as we went.
I swear, I may have lived and hiked in the Rocky Mountains for a good number of years but I have never seen so much rock. We went up and over this one. It would not be the last. Oh no. Not the last.
Scrambled up this one. I’m coming, honey! We changed trails and were now following yellow blazes. If you look closely you can see them on the trees. Yup, that’s the trail.
Love the color of these leaves!
Soon we were at Lookout Rock with gorgeous views over Greenwood Lake. We had started the trail at an elevation 680 feet and were now at 1,220 feet. We stopped to take it all in.
The guidebook calls this type of rock formation “puddingstone.” Whatever you call it, the trail went right along the top of it. I’d never been on a completely rock trail before!
Looking back down the trail we just came up ...
and looking up in the direction we are going!
Another view out over Greenwood Lake. Our house is somewhere to the left at the end of the lake.
This part of the trail was easy going. What came next was not.
Amen.
This next bit was the most grueling part of the hike. We went up one rock ridge only to come back down the other side, then through a hollow at the bottom. Repeat about 7 or 8 times. Sorry no time to take photos. Too busy concentrating on getting up and over.
We did come to an interesting ridge (which thankfully we did not have to manoeuver over or around) where the rocks were standing on edge. We think the pieces had broken off from the larger rock and over the centuries had fallen. Just like someone had sliced it into pieces. Fascinating.
Wild blueberry bushes turning red made a great frame for this tree.
Finally we reached Surprise Lake at 1.2 miles in. Surprise Lake is a deep glacial pond almost a half-mile long. Still too early for lunch, we pressed on.
The terrain changed quite a bit after we left Surprise Lake. Gone were the up-and-down rock ridge climbs for awhile. Good thing too. My legs and arms could stand a break. We started to see lots of rhododendrons lining the trail, something that seems odd and out of place to me in a forest. They seem too exotic somehow.
It was like walking through something from a fairy tale with all those twisted interlocking branches. I kept expecting to meet Hansel and Gretel along the way. Creepy.
The trail, though relatively flat, was very rocky so you had to watch your footing at all times. This is not the place to twist your ankle, trust me.
It then became very mossy. Moss grew in great hummocky clumps on rocks, along the path and around the bases of trees.
This rock was completely moss covered and I had all I could do not to let myself lie down upon it and take a nap. The moss was so thick! It reminded me of a golf course with its spots of different shades of green.
Then again, maybe the chipmunks and squirrels play golf with acorns as balls?
Really, the scenery was spectacular when one wasn’t busy scrambling up and down huge rocks.
Oh dear. I spoke too soon. One last slide/scramble down this part of the path. See the yellow blazes?
Whew. At long last we reached our lunch spot. We took the path to the overlook and sat down to enjoy lunch. I give you West Pond! (and Picnic Muffuleta sandwiches.)
After lunch we continued on our way, refreshed and somewhat rested. Good thing because just after the lookout and back on the main trail we had to tackle a very difficult descent.
They were not kidding.
Back up again. Still on the trail according to that blasted blaze in the middle of this rock.
We were quite amused by this blaze. It would seem a bear was trying to erase the blaze in hopes that some newbie to the trail (that would be us) would lose their way and be likely prey. Very sneaky. But it didn’t quite work.
Still with me? Don’t give up yet, we’re getting closer and closer to our goal. Can’t say I blame you if you bail out now. I wanted to at this point. Just send a helicopter in after me thank you very much. Revisit the map at the beginning of this entry (if you can find it that far back) and track our progress.
Rick was always out front as I tended to lag behind to take photos such as this. Sorry for all the backside shots, dear!
oops. Looks like they want us to turn here, wouldn’t you agree?
This was along an easier part of the trail. We went from walking on rock ridges to walking alongside them through very different vegetation than we had been. Scraggy pines were now added into the mix of hardwoods.
Finally we joined the Appalachian Trail for a short while. Now we were following white blazes. Did you guess we’d be rock climbing again? Just where is that helicopter I ordered, hmm? At the 2.5 mile marker we’ve now reached the highest elevation of our hike, 1,410 feet.
This condo for birds had some space for rent.
We also came across this sign hanging on a twig.
Thankfully the residents had vacated the nest before we arrived and we had no close encounters with the hornets.
At this point we could see other mountains in the distance. (You’ll need to look closely at the faint blue shadow just above the forested hill.) It felt really cool to be standing on part of the Appalachian Trail. Although I was tired and my legs ached, I was so glad to be here in this moment.
Soon we rejoined the main trail again and were once again following the blue blazes.
It was pretty much all down from here which should really be easy except for the fact that our legs were really tired. Going downhill with shaky legs on slippery rocks is nearly as bad as going up. We soon reached the forest floor again and with that our hike was over.
After we got home I looked up the summary of the trail.
I couldn’t have summed it up better myself. If I had read this first I think I would have been hesitant to attempt it. Would we do it again? Absolutely! It was unlike any trail I’ve ever been on. Now we can’t wait to go in the spring when the rhododendrons are blooming! Imagine how beautiful that must be!
I took this photo afterwards from across the lake. The arrow shows the ridge where we were when we had the view of Greenwood Lake.
I hope you enjoyed our hike as much as we did. Thanks for joining us!
uhm, not me. The plastered one I mean. Although I do like my wine ... No, I was speaking of the weather we had on Saturday. Really windy and nearly two inches of rain. The leaves at times rained down like wet confetti and stuck to the windows, deck—you name it—driven there by the wind and the rain. It toppled my mums. The tree tops swayed alarmingly to and fro and I had visions of a power outage. But none occurred.
Here is my shadow (in baggy robe) trying to get some of the leaves decoupaged onto the deck from this morning.
I didn’t really mean to get myself in the shot, it just happened that way.
Today was the last farmer’s market in Warwick for the season. boohoo. We hadn’t been in several weeks and were surprised (and extremely pleased) to see a few new vendors. Mainly the mushroom vendor (hurray!) whose farm is not far away and hopefully will continue to sell their wares straight from their farm. We left our email just in case they follow through on this. She had Hen-of-the-Woods, oyster, lobster, creminis, white portabellos, and king oysters. Tomorrow we will be making a mushroom risotto from the Hen-of-the-Woods that we bought and the kings.
The other vendor had this ...
... and this that made its way home with me. Hey, I couldn’t resist local alpaca (spun with bamboo) now could I? Soft and squishy, this will make a nice scarf.
I also bought a bunch of veggies that I plan to cook a stew with in a few days when the weather is supposed to be really cold. We’ll miss the Sunday market in Warwick until it returns next Spring.
Today we also dismantled the poolside cabana. We flicked off all the little spideys hoping to make it their forever home from the screens and curtains, hung the curtains on the line to completely dry, and folded them up to store away until next year. The cabana frame still stands as it’s bolted down.
In doing so, we discovered this cool caterpillar. It was about 4 to 5 inches long and to me looks like a piece of tinsel off a Christmas Tree. It’s body sparkled so! I have no clue what Mother Nature has in store for someone who hasn’t blossomed into a butterfly at this late stage of the season. I ran my fingers down its porcupine back. This one has some natural defense going on for sure. I’m not sure the photo really captured its glitz.
That was my day today. And by the way, what you see in my blog is my real life. Not some made-up existence (which is blog fodder for another day). I’ve been working on a blog entry for days now about our wonderful hike that we took a week ago, but it’s slow going. I have so many photos that I am wondering if anyone is going to want to wade through it. But, this blog is really about me. For me. About my life. It’s my way to keep a diary (but a public one) of my life. If you choose to read and enjoy, welcome. But this is really for me. Me me me! (Thanks to all who read!)
I’ll close now with the view out my kitchen window. Who could want for anything more?
UPDATE: Thanks to Gretel who suggested the caterpillar was a moth! It is! A quick Google search came up with a Giant Leopard Moth! Follow this link to see. Here’s another photo I took blown up a bit. You can see the tiny red bands peeping through and bristles much better.
59 years ago today my parents were married. Don’t they make a lovely couple? With mutual love shining out from their faces they had their whole lives ahead of them.
The following two photos were taken on their honeymoon in the Adirondacks.
I think my Dad looks like he could have been a movie star, but then again I might just be a wee bit prejudiced.
They were the best parents a child could ever hope for. Loving. Caring. Supportive. Always there to lend an ear or moral support. I miss them so. My Dad passed away almost ten years ago; my Mom I lost a year ago August. Oddly enough, they both died about a week and a half before their respective birthdays.
I’ve had dreams about them lately (as I wrote a few weeks back). In those dreams they were together. Again. Normally when I dream about them one or the other is in my dream but not both. I’d like to think that the meaning behind those dreams is that they found each other through the great expanse of the Hereafter.
Mom, Dad, wherever you are today, Happy Anniversary. I love and miss you both more than you’ll ever know.
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