New Year's Eve Dinner

Homemade gingerbread and vanilla ice cream are on the menu for dessert. What better way to celebrate a cold New Year's Eve than with a baked buttercup squash filled with chili?

First ski of the season

The snow dance worked! The forecast of a chance of flurries turned into 4+ inches of light fluffy snow.

Merry Christmas

We celebrated this Christmas with a simple gift exchange, followed by a vigorous walk to make the most of a bluebird day. Today the simple pleasures of a late lunch in the sunshine, reading by the fire and working the NY Times crossword mixed in with phone calls with our families made for a perfect day. We wish you good cheer this Christmas Day and everyday!

Christmas in Song at the Watch Hill chapel

Last night we enjoyed the annual Christmas in Song event at the Watch Hill chapel with our friends Jen and Mark. It was a warm evening, which was a big change from previous years which had been extremely cold. The music and festivities were excellent, and we relaxed afterwards with a sumptuous meal at the Weekapaug Inn. A very enjoyable way to start off our Christmas vacation week.

The start of our Holiday break begins at Beer'd. Cheers!

Christmas Concert

We are gradually getting into the festive mood…

Earlier in the month we spent an enjoyable evening listening to the big band and rockabilly music of Brian Setzer.  The concert was just a few minutes away from home and the tickets were a prize from a Chilli-Cook-Off contest at work.  We had fun and are now almost ready for the 2-4" of snow that is forecast for later today!

Happy Wednesday! It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas and ski season!

First snow

We arrived home to an inch of wet snow at Hangman Hill. It has stuck to everything and it looks like a winter wonderland outside. Now it's time to light the woodstove and put the kettle on...

Great evening at The Kate with Lori McKenna and Mark Erelli. Nice to support local musicians in a local venue!

Doublehead Ski Trail

We spent this weekend in New Hampshire working on fixing up the chalet.  The electricity supply went off on Sunday morning, so we took some time out to explore a local backcountry ski trail.  The Doublehead Ski Trail goes to the north summit of Doublehead mountain and it is just five minutes drive
from our new mountain chalet.  Although there was no snow we could imagine skiing up and down the trail, and enjoying the views to Mount Washington and beyond.  An added bonus is that there is a cabin at the summit that can be rented out for overnight trips.

October's crop is looking pretty good, soup, salad and stew, oh my!

Soup's on! We have some fine looking veggies in the garden for late October

Backlog Blog #2: New Hampshire Chalet

Part of the reason that we're behind with our blog is that we've been spending a lot of time on the road between our home and New Hampshire.  We spent two weekends camping there in the summer and somewhere along the way we started looking at more permanent structures for future visits.

It all culminated in us viewing, inspecting, and then buying a sweet little chalet in Intervale, NH.  We will have a distant view of Cathedral Ledges and the Moats (see our August13th blog) and numerous places to ski and hike within a 30 minute radius.  The chalet needs quite a bit of work since it doesn't seem to have been re-decorated since it was built 30 years ago!  We hope to get some of this done on the rainy days that we are sure to encounter in the mountains.  Once we have it in a liveable state we will be open for any visitors who'd like to join us at our new mountain get-away.

Backlog Blog #1: Martha's Vineyard

We're a bit behind with our blogging, so please bear with us while we post a few long overdue updates….

In September we took our annual summer break and were joined by Nick and Pam (Bruno's parents) who flew in especially from the UK.  We had great weather for the entire duration of their visit and we spent most of the time visiting Martha's Vineyard where we rented a small house in Edgartown. We enjoyed walking to nearby attractions in town, exploring the local beaches, and taking Kokee for short hikes on trails that we found in a locally published trail guide.  As you can see we all had a very relaxing time and caught up with each other over good food and drink and lots of cups of tea.

The ferry ride from Woods Hole, MA

 Whaler's church in Edgartown

 Japanese gardens on Chappaquidick

At the Japanese gardens on Chappaquidick 

 Gay Head lighthouse

At Gay Head lighthouse 

Checking out the local fishing 

Home for the week in Edgartown 

On the beach near Edgartown 

 Is it time for a swim yet?

Back home at the Malted Barley in Westerly

Malt loaf

Tonight we tried a malt loaf recipe from Nick and Pam. The hardest part will be waiting for 1 full day to try it.

Midweek break from routine

It seems little late for tea, so we are opting for scotch before bed.

How to sleep on a sunny day....

It doesn't get any better than this.....

Bubbling noises

The latest batch of beer seems to like the unseasonable warm October weather we have been having...

Link

Fall harvest

Carrots picked this morning with an orange and yellow backdrop. We are in the peak of color here at Hangman Hill

Sunset walk

Tonight's sky in North Stonington. Lovely evening for a walk.

A sign of shorter days...

Yesterday we had to turn on our hot water heater for the first time since late May. We have been getting our hot water from our solar panels all summer long.

Still gathering in the veggies

If we are quick when we get home from work there is still time to pick a few veggies from the garden for dinner. Leaks, okra, radishes and beets are on the menu tonight.

Evening at the Goodspeed Opera House

Enjoying a warm September evening along the Connecticut River

A bumper damson crop! Let the jam making begin.

Back to the Whites

During our trip to the White Mountains in July we found a number of hikes that looked interesting, so we returned to the Kancamangus on Thursday night for another long weekend.  While Friday was a bit of a wash, literally, it turned out to be nearly perfect weather on Saturday and Sunday.  

On Friday we dodged raindrops, made a brief stop at Echo Lake and the base of Cathedral Ledge, a famous climbing spot in the area. With hopes the weather would improve we located the Moat Mountain trail head with plans to return for a hike to the three summits of Moat Mountain on Saturday morning.  After a nice dinner under the tarp, we settled in early at our site at the Covered Bridge Campground.

Saturday morning we woke to crystal clear skies of blue and low humidity.  Typically this hike is done starting from the north, often as a through hike.  With only one car, we opted to start at the south side of Moat Mountain heading north,  to the south, middle then north summits.  The aim - to maximize the view for effort (VFE) ratio. This section was described as a "ridge hike with many rocky ledges and spectacular views" which would give us an 11 miles that was largely spent above tree line.   It turned out our planning was spot on!   This route was declared "one of the best hikes we have ever done" by days-end.  After only one hour of hiking we were above tree line, and within two hours we had 360 views looking north to Mount Washington, east to North Conway and to Mt Chocurau to the west.  As we continued to hike the north the views continued to amaze us, the weather remained cool and crisp and we met some fine folks along the way.

First view south of the south summit of Moat Mountain

 Blueberries...

...along the entire ridge! 

 The ridge between middle and south Moat

Middle Moat

 Afternoon on South Summit

Lunch 

 Heading south

 View to Mt Washington during second stop at South Summit of Moat Mt

The weather Sunday was a repeat of Saturday and hiked to Mt. Stanton and on to Mt. Pickering.  This was short, but very steep hike, and also afforded really nice views from only the ~2100 ft summits.  With tired legs and big smiles, we hopped in the car and headed home.  We made a stop in Lincoln, NH on the way home and enjoyed the Maps and Books shop on Main Street (thanks to Paul Luner for another good tip!).  With a few maps in hand, we are planning our next adventure.

Tea on Mt Stanton

View from Summit of Mt. Pickering