The Raspberries Are Ripe!

Last weekend was spectacular, starting with dinner at the Mermaid Cafe, followed by a show at the Granite Theater.  Dinner was on the upper deck while watching the sunset.  The play was The Hallelujah Girls which was clever, funny and well executed.  Much of the cast was also in a play by the same group of writers called The Dixie Swim Club and they seemed will suited for their roles.   They had the audience chuckling and singing along.

Saturday we picked gooseberries which are several weeks early since they usually ripen about July1. No complaints of course, especially since they are the biggest berries we have ever seen at Hangman Hill Road.  We are madly trying to finish the last of the frozen gooseberries from last year, which resulted in a gooseberry tart Sheri made with her birthday as an excuse (even though we had Birthday Cake from Betty's).

Saturday night while Bruno traveled to Freiburg Germany for work, Sheri was treated to dinner by Mark and Jen in celebration of her birthday at Ella's, the new restaurant in Westerly. The food and service was excellent. There was a unanimous vote that a second visit with Bruno when he returns was only fair.  Many thanks to Mark and Jen for a great evening.

On Sunday, Sheri picked the first of the raspberries.  The garden has done well thanks to a nice mix of rain and sun over the last few weeks.  The asparagus is still trickling in, and the lettuce is ready to pick.  The blueberries also are a little early, and are now covered with tulle and are a pale shade of purple. 

Sheri and Kokee met Paul Luner and Sierra at Haley Farm late Sunday morning for a walk followed by coffee at Mystic Market.  Haley Farm is a splendid place for a walk and we should remember to go there more often.  Kokee and Sierra got along great and we were just glad to have Kokee bouncing around having been diagnosed with Lyme Disease and Anaplasmosis last week.   It was great to catch up with Paul and have an update on the Luner family.

Sheri's Birthday

We celebrated Sheri's birthday starting with breakfast that included rhubarb from the garden to accompany our granola.  After work we went to Westerly to attend a yoga class at the WYCY followed by dinner at Sheri's favorite restaurant in Watch Hill, The Olympia Tea Room.  Despite the variable weather and frequent rain showers we enjoyed a very nice sunset with our dinner.  The celebration was complete with a traditional English birthday cake from Betty's compliments of Nick and Pam.

Virtu Art Fair in Wilcox Park

It was great to have Bruno back home and much of the weekend was spent getting back into a routine, and enjoying very summer-like weather.  On Sunday morning we strolled around Wilcox Park in Westerly, just a short distance from Spruce Street, to take in the Virtu Art Fair.  We have made this an annual tradition ever since we first attended the fair several years ago as a break from the renovations on the house on Spruce Street.  We have been to many similar events, but the Virtue Art Fair really stands out, mostly because it is always so peaceful.  Also, many of the artists are very local, or at least from New England which makes the experience all the more appealing.  We enjoyed meeting Mark Kuzio and talking with him about his Patio Flame pieces.   We couldn't resist buying one, and on Sunday evening after a really nice dinner we cooked on the grill, we relaxed over after dinner drinks with the Patio Flame on our deck.

Solar hot water is back!

Earlier in the year we noted that our normal plentiful supply of solar heated hot water appeared to be lacking.  After searching around we found a local repairman (Nick) and he came to take a look at our system.  After careful testing he found a leak in one of the panels ("collectors"), and the panel was determined to need replacing.  The leak can be seen as a stain in the top right corner of the picture below:

This is the first repair to the system we have needed in the past 12 years, and it seems like it was caused by the week long power outage that we experienced last September.  The storm that knocked out the power was followed by a week of sunny weather and without the pump running to dissipate the heat to the water in the tank the heat transfer fluid in the system probably overheated .  This is analogous to the radiator overheating in a car and it probably created enough steam pressure to rupture the pipework in the collector.  Not too surprising that this occurred in a panel that was nearly 30 years old!

This Saturday saw Nick's return with two new collectors and a strong assistant.  It took most of the day to remove the old panels and replace them with the new ones.  Each panel is 8'x4' and was lifted off/ onto the roof by hand from a step ladder.  Quite an impressive feat!

After the piping was reconnected and tested and everything else was put back together the system appears to be working as expected.  Yesterday was a fabulously sunny day, so in celebration of the repair Sheri did three loads of laundry with free hot water from the new panels!

Uppsala in the Spring

Last week Bruno's work took him to Uppsala in Sweden.  He was acting as an external examiner for a doctoral candidate in the School of Pharmacy at the University of Uppsala.  Spring was in full swing when he got there, and to get over the jet lag he spent a very enjoyable time walking around the town exploring its historic sites.  These include an impressive castle, extensive botanical gardens, and a large brick cathedral.  The swedes were very friendly, and the town had lots of interesting sites explore.  It is definitely a place to return to in the future if the opportunity arises!

Visit from DiAnn

While Bruno was in England last weekend visiting his parents, brother and family, DiAnn (Sheri's mom) came to Connecticut for a visit.  The last visit DiAnn made to Hangman Hill Road was during the Great Flood in March of 2010.  Fortunately this weekend the weather provided a sharp contrast to that March visit several years ago, with crystal clear sunny skies, mild temperatures and low humidity.    The weekend was sprinkled with walks with Kokee, trips to Westerly for lunch and to get a Westerly Town Beach pass, and a very nice evening in Watch Hill.   There as also a lot of time spent preparing for Mimi's Celebration of life which will take place in June.  Sheri and DiAnn spent a great deal of time scanning in photos of Mimi from all stages of life, and with the wonders of iPhoto have a slideshow that will honor her long and very rich life.  The final scanning of photos was rewarded with a trip to Watch Hill for drinks at the Ocean House, followed by the first dinner of the season at The Olympia Tea Room, which opened last week.  One other highlight from the weekend was the harvest of the first strawberries.

Brunch at The Mermaid

Sorting Photos

Mimi, DiAnn and Sheri, Montgomery AL

Drinks at the Ocean House

 View from the Ocean House

First Strawberries

Greek dessert tonight!

Bobota.....yum!