Adventure in Westerly

The blog entries have suffered from recent focus on a house in Westerly that we purchased with an eye towards investment. In the long term this may be a home in a lovely town setting with many perks. The house is located only a few blocks from the park and in walking distance to the library, grocery store, post office (a fantastic building with loads of granite), cafes, restaurants and even a place to paddle our canoes. We have some major renovations to do before it is ready to rent, starting with a major clean-out (BIG dumpster!).

Going local in Vermont

Our trip to Vermont gave us the opportunity to spend time with the Thames Ski Club (SKI) cleaning the lodge and see more fall colors with peak foliage in southern Vermont and Massachusetts. We also enjoyed temperatures in the 70's, meeting some fellow outdoor enthusiasts and ski house handy people (aka home renovators). A highlight was breakfast at the Farmer's Diner in Quiche, VT on the way home. We have both read about the Farmer's Diner in Barbara Kingsolver's book "Animal, Vegetable Miracle: Our year of seasonal eating" (http://www.animalvegetablemiracle.com/). The diner was also featured in the Autumn edition of Yankee Magazine. After reading about Tom Murphy and his commitment to supply his diner with foods grown by local farmers, we couldn't resist. If you are anywhere near central Vermont, you must stop by http://www.farmersdiner.com/

With regards to the book by Kingsolver, we can't say enough about this book and highly recommend it! Kingsolver has helped us be thoughtful about our food, where it comes from and how much oil it takes to get us a banana from South America or even lettuce leaves from California. This book is beautifully written, humorous, has great recipes (we have tried several) and provides guiding principles about growing, harvesting and eating food that are balanced, locally grown and in season, and promotes community. A must read, but you have to buy your own, we refer to ours on a regular basis.

October Face of Produce

We continue to enjoy an "Indian Summer" (or Global Warming?) with temperatures in the 70's, and and PRODUCE galore. Tomatoes (ripening on the vine!), cukes, eggplant and jalepeno peppers come together for the October Face of Produce. Yes, October and the third week at that! The leaves are the peak of color here in Southeastern CT and we had a salad of greens, cukes and toms from the garden. We feel lucky to have hit the peak of color in New Hampshire and Vermont two weeks ago, in northern CT last weekend, and here at home this week. We are now provisional members of the Thames Ski Lodge so we are Vermont-bound this weekend to join the work crew to ready the place for ski season. It is hard to fathom cruising down the slope on a snowboard when you are sitting here in shorts and tees. It will be good to see how the colors have progressed up north after two weeks, though.

Leaf Peeping

Following respite from the hustle and bustle of Washington D.C. at HHR we headed north in search of color. We left CT on a misty Wednesday morning. By the time we reached Concord, NH our good weather Karma returned. We enjoyed mostly cloudless skies for 5 days. At Bretton Woods,NH we enjoyed views of Mt Washington for 2 straight days, a hike to West Mountain, some fine dining and yoga in the conservatory at the Mt Washington Hotel. Our travel from NH west to Vermont brought brilliant colors along the scenic (and winding!) roads. The late afternoon drive took us from fiery reds and brilliant golds to a brilliant sunset. In Vermont we relaxed at Blueberry Hill Inn with gentle strolls, some fine dining and the chance to sit and read books. We arrived back at HHR with tanned faces, relaxed minds and well-fed tummies. Excellent!

Bruno and Sheri go to Washington

The last week of September we travelled to Washington D.C. with Pam and Nick to view the sites. The weather was amazing, hot, but not too humid (really) and pristine blue skies every day. The photo of Bruno in front of the Capital is says it all with respect to the weather. With blue skies every day we spent lots of time outside at the memorials (Sheri pictured at FDR), but we did visitthe Smithsonian Air and Space, Native American and Postal museums. We were all taken with "The Castle" (pictured below). The Castle is home to the information center for the Smithsonian and has fantastic gardens. It is also a fine place for tea and paying homage to Mr. Smithson.

Nick and Bruno Paddling at Potter Hill

The weather has been good for just about anything, but certainly it has been great for a paddle. Bruno and Nick headed out mid-day last weekend to paddle the Pawcatuck River starting at Potter Hill. You can see the Potter Hill Mill in the background. The color was just starting to come in places, giving spectacular contrast to the vibrant green that lines the banks of this pristine river.