What better to do than to spend a Saturday afternoon upgrading my beer and cider making skills? So....a few weeks ago I went to our local home-brew shop to learn about "boil-in-a-bag" full grain brewing and apple pressing with locally picked apples. As you can see a fun time was had by all and some very fresh apple juice made its way back to Hangman Hill Road.
After some fantastic late fall hikes in New Hampshire we are spending a few weekends in Connecticut. Sheri has been recovering from abdominal surgery (nothing serious, but a slow recovery) and Bruno has been taking care of the pets, the garden and Sheri.
The leaves have mostly come off the trees which means it is time for fall clean up in the garden. It is always a little melancholy packing up hoses, cutting back the asparagus fronds, putting the pots in the shed and cutting back the remnants of sunflowers, beans, and other garden fruits. It is for this reason the disovery of big red beets, crisp radishes and bright green fennel that you forgot you planted in late summer is so very sweet. We have a tasty face of produce this November. The taste of garden fresh veggies, and visions of fresh powder on the trail, keep us smiling.
Last weekend we were in New Hampshire enjoying unusually warm weather and clear skies. We hiked in the Carter range and enjoyed views far and wide in every direction. The hike up to the Imp face was steep, but once we were on the ridge we were able to take it easy and enjoy the scenery. Mount Washington was in the clear and we think that we may have spotted Marty the summit cat with our binoculars!
We both recently attended the annual meeting of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (APPS), where Bruno was honored with the "AAPS Achievement Award in Manufacturing Sciences & Engineering". This award is given in recognition of outstanding scientists who have demonstrated significant impact in their respective fields. In addition to lots of interesting science and renewing some old friendships we were fortunate to enjoy a week of warm weather in Orlando FL.
It was late October, and we set out for a short hike on the Davis Path towards Crawford Mountain. The temperatures were a little chilly, but we werent expecting to be caught out in a snowstorm! The hike started gently, but as we approached the summit we started to see signs of winter; frozen puddles on the trail and a few snowflakes in the air. As we reached the top, a big storm coud blew in and we were hit by a snowy squall. Fortunately we had our hats, gloves and down-jackets with us, and a thermos of hot tea too. We had a great hike but we didn't manage to snap any pictures on the summit because of the unexpected cod snap.
A few weeks ago we hiked to Hedgehog mountain, a peak off the Kancamagus highway in New Hampshire. It was a superb hike with lots of views, and we had great weather for the whole way around the loop.
Near our chalet in New Hampshire is the small town of Fryebrug (Maine). Every year this is the venure for an extrordinary and enormous agricultural fair. The fair lasts for a full 8-days and includes everything from cooking demonstrations, blacksmithing, plowing competitions, horse racing, steam engines, ox-pulls, sheep shearing, a best christmas tree competition, and, of course, lots of country music and fried food. We went on 'woodsmans day' which features various competitions for male and female lumberjack-types (cross-cut sawing, tree climbing, axe throwing, etc). It was a wonderful family atmosphere and the fair is extremely well run. We were especially impressed by the cleanliness of the rest rooms and the piped music therein!. I suspect that we will return in future years because there is so much to see and we barely scratched the surface.
