Goats

No we haven't gotten a goat... yet! At the end of a beautiful late summer ride I was able to capture a photo of the goats at the farm just down the road. Bruno and I got to hold two of the young ones when they were just days old about a month ago. They are pretty cute at this stage and not too "goaty". SLS

Agricultural Fair Update": First Prize?

Back in July we reported on the North Stonington Agricultural Fair (http://hangmanhillnews.blogspot.com/2007/07/43rd-north-stonington-agricultural-fair.html) and posted a photo of our blue ribbons. This probably didn't come out in the blog (as intended), but we weren't really sure what the ribbons meant. We had blue ribbons, others had red, but no mention of "first place" or "honorable mention". This week a mysterious envelope arrived from the fair committee that contained a check for $4.75 and an "invoice" that is equally as ambiguous as the ribbons left by our produce. We aren't entirely sure, but we are taking the numeral "1" to mean we won first prize for our potatoes and black currants. Wooo hooo. Clearly we are Agricultural Fair novices! Maybe next year we will figure out the system. Just think of the seeds we can buy with $4.75....

Yellow Buddleia

While Bruno is enjoying some time with his family over the weekend before attending a few minutes in Sandwich in Cambridge, Sheri is enjoying an ideal weekend of sunny skies and cool temperatures in CT. The garden update is a flowering yellow buddleia, finally! We came accross the yellow variety (Buddleia x weyeriana Honeycomb) while walking on the anceint walls surrounding the city of York in England and thought it would be a good addition to HH. These plants do well quite well in Connecticut, have a lovely-scent and look nice too, and most importantly they don't taste very good to deer. After several attempts, one has finally taken. I was having some help from my canine assistatant in trying to capture the photo. I never could have purposely posed Kokee and the yellow buddleia! The truth is her fascination with the plant is actually focus on the tennis ball that she is waiting with expectation for me to pitch to her. As they say on the right side of the Atlantic.... "Bob's your uncle!"

Vacation Report

We had a great week last week doing both ordinary and out of the ordinary things during our vacation home. One of Bruno's creative accomplishments was making a frame for a painting of Kerry's (Sheri's sister) from her younger years in school. Sheri's accomplisments included mapping out a few new bike routes and finding a new place to paddle the canoes.

Flora and Fauna

During a routine "pruning" job Bruno spotted this amazing nest in our lovely Canadian Hemlock (nice tree eh?). The nest is home to the Bald-faced hornet, more commongly known as Dolichovespula maculata. According to Wikipedia "Bald-faced hornets are extremely protective of their nests and will sting repeatedly if disturbed. The main area of the body that bald faced hornets attack on humans is the facial area...." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bald-faced_hornet). Thank goodness for a zoom lens! We are keeping our distance until winter.

Vacation at Hangman Hill

This is the life! We are vacationing here at Hangman Hill this week. We have been sleeping in, going for walks, drinking tea, coffee, G&T's, taking naps in the middle of the day. We explored some new things in our area as part of our "vacation" from everyday life here. We paddled on the Green River Pond at sunset, had "Elevenses" (tea at 11 am for the Yankeee readers) at Somerset Tea House in Westerly, added a few new bike routes and have been working on our creative endeavors in home and garden. It is really nice to enjoy this great place we live, along with our furry friends, garden produce and beautiful surroundings without the everday routines of work etc. Gotta run, it is time for a nap!

Lazy Days of Summer

We did it! We made it to the beach with our friends Mark and Jen for a Sunday evening picnic. One of the benefits of living in Southeastern Connecticut is the proximity to the seaside. Although it is only a 20 minute drive to some beautiful Rhode Island beaches, we don't seem to get there enough. But we did today. The skies were cloudless, the ocean temperatures a balmy 71°F (!) and the diminishing crowds meant no traffic and a peaceful evening on the beach. We swam, strolled and had a nice dinner. Thanks to Mark and Jen for getting us out there!

Eggplants!

This year we experimented with some "finger" eggplants. While we only have a few, they are quite jolly and make for a good August garden face (see July's face at http://hangmanhillnews.blogspot.com/2007/07/happy-canada-day.html). We probably don't have enough for baba ganouj, but a stir fry is on the menu. The jalepenos will spice up the many, many cukes that have a future as pickles.

August Sun

It is hard to believe it is August! Time does seem to go faster when skies are sunny, breezes are warm and days are long. We have been busy harvesting great things from the garden, catching rides on our bikes and enjoying a few G&T's on Bruno's fantastic new deck (http://hangmanhillnews.blogspot.com/2007/06/update-on-deck.html). One evening last week we realized over dinner that we were enjoying plates loaded with veggies from our own garden, Swiss Chard in the Quiche, steamed potatoes, cabbage in the form of coleslaw, a side salad of yellow beets and salad greens, and stewed gooseberries for dessert. Without even trying, we were eating almost an entire meal from our garden. At the rate the hop is growing, even Bruno's homebrew will soon be laregly "homegrown". The hot summer days are starting to bring sunflowers, tomatoes and lots of flowers on the runner beans from Nick, Bruno's dad.