Wednesday, August 29, 2007
I think Rocky's trying to win me back. I'm not falling for it.
Posted at 5:22:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
If they really wanted me back, they'd reinstate the spoons.
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Great hounding at the Cheshire/Hamden trail! It felt really easy today for some reason. And there were all these fantastic new smells, including wild grapes. At our picnic spot, the peacock & peahens flipped out when some walkers came by with three dogs. They all lined up in a row with their necks stretched out and started honking their heads off. The peacock sounded exactly like a goose!! The hens had a softer, plaintive cry that always echoed the loud goose-honk. I also investiged what's over at the barns. The answer is: bunny-rabbits! Also, a maple sugar house. It was dark on the ride back, which was really neat (tons of dusktime insect racket), and our lights were fantastic. The only bad thing about riding after twilight is all the bugs that splat into your face as you pedal along. I have the eye-protection thing covered, but one flew right down my throat and I swallowed it. I would have sent a bird, cat, dog, goat, etc. in after it, but there weren't any handy.
Posted at 9:07:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Cat Statistics:
Distance: 7.35 miles; Average Speed: 10.8 mpg; Max Speed: 16.3 mph; Time: 40'34
I think my pinata is all done. I took some photos of it today in the afternoon sun that comes in through my chaise window. I can't post them until after the Bash, though, because some of the people who will be at the party read ALB, and I don't want to spoil the surprise for anyone! It is cute, cute, cute.
The food issue has a John McPhee article!!! (Author of the shad article/book!) And, it's called "My Life List: A World of Weird Eats." Can anything be better??
The food issue is here!!
Posted at 4:57:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Sunday on Block Island when we pedaled past the Town Beach, I observed cars parked along the side of the road that were from Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusets, Rhode Island (of course), Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Virginia. That's a lot of states. It was perfect hounding weather again. (Distance: 9.85 miles; Average: 9.3 mph; Max: 28.8 mph; Time: 1:03'03.) The tide was high at Pots & Kettles--completely unlike usual! There were no pots or kettles to be seen, and, in fact, the waves ended up eventually coming all the way up to our rock and we had to flee. I had no idea high tide vs. low tide was so dramatic. It was really cool watching the waves come closer and closer, all mixed up like soup, full of seaweed and crabs and rocks and sea stars. I watched and watched, leaning with my back against Dean's knees.
Yesterday I got more corn at the Suder Store (it was only $2 for six ears!), and we had a big in-season feast with ripe Suder tomatoes and fresh Stew's mozzarella and basil. When I bought the corn, the cash box lady at Suder's said to her assistant, "She's another every day customer!" I replied, "Almost!" More like once a week, but it's cool that she recognises me.
I'm 1,000 miles behind on posting! Saturday we were going to take Dean's Gs to Block Island--the forecast said it was supposed to be nice there, whereas it was overcast and hot at home. Before we left, clouds were 300 overcast at MMK (our airport), 1000 overcast at IJD (Windham airport), and 1900 broken at BID (Block Island airport).
Posted at 12:48:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
So, no problem, Dean filed an IFR flightplan from MMK (we were in the clouds almost before the end of the runway!) and we flew to IJD to pick up Dean's Gingers. I was in a super-mellow, dreamy state and was peacefully wearing my sweater the whole way to Windham, even though Dean thought it was really hot. (It was unusually warm at altitude, but I was basking instead of getting all overheated.)
Meanwhile... the clouds over Block had dropped to 300 feet overcast! Dean said it was sure to clear up as the day went on, and would be fine by the time we arrived there. Nope! By the time we got to Block Island, the AWOS was reporting 200 feet overcast!! There was just this solid cloud layer lurking lower and lower right over Block Island, even though other places were perfectly clear and there was tons of sunny clear sky where we were, above the layer.
You need 540 feet of sky below the clouds to be able to land at Block Island, and we only had 200. Dean tried the GPS approach anyway, just to see if we'd get lucky and there'd be a hole in the clouds, but, when we descended, there was nothing but white all around. We couldn't see the island at all, let alone the runway! It was so wacky--the one time we try to bring the Gs to BI, it's also the first time we've ever had to go "missed" (on Block or anywhere)!
Since we couldn't land on Block, I suggested we keep flying along and go to Nantucket instead (conditions there were clear), so that's what we did. We hadn't been there since our houndings in the spring, and it was tons more crowded. Deans Gs had never been there before, though, so they liked it. We wandered around the town (it was inferior without the hounds!) and went to a restaurant (The Tavern at Harbor Square) chosen by Dean's M because she had her heart set on eating a big lobster. I got a lobster roll for my competition mission. It had a New England-style roll, but not toasted (although still appreciated). The lobster salad had diced red & green pepper, diced onion, and dill (the dill was good, but I could have done without the other stuff). Very tasty and succulent lobster. No lettuce. Pretty good, but pepper doesn't belong in a lobster roll.
On the flight home, we kept tuning in to the Block Island automated weather observation and cracking up--at that point conditions had deteriorated to 1/4 mile viz and were still 200 feet overcast.
The next day (Saturday) we went to Block Island all by ourselves, and it was perfect!!
