Hello, Goodbye

while bicycling, ile d' orleans-- Goodbye, little sunglasses from the drugstore in Montreal. Our plastic liaison was brief and regrettable.

Montreal

montreal-- After checking in at our B & B "Le Houseboy" (that's right!), we headed over to the city's new hotspot, a tapas place called, appropriately, Pintxo. The Mexican chef/owner trained in the Basque Country, and seems to have spent at least a little time with the famed Arzak. Our favorite pintxo was clams with artichokes and jamon.

After waffles, crosaints, muffins and all sorts of other bread and cereal products the next morning, we headed to the Library and National Archives. Then, off to Quartier Vieux to see the Cathedral de Notre Dame.

Pretty gold stars on ceilings.



Anisa quickly became entranced by the candles, just like when she was little.







Karen was befriended by some kooky religio-tourism types, who advised her of all the other churches (some with light shows) that she should visit.

Bonjour, Neighbor to the North!

caywood command central-- We are packing... rather lackadaisically, but still packing. We're heading to Quebec to help them celebrate their 400th Anniversary of cityhood or French colonialism or both. See you soon, nos amis!

Indian Dinner

caywood kitchen-- Karen's had a recipe for naan posted on the fridge since it appeared in the NY Times magazine. This and a cooperative garden inspired an Indian dinner. We used eggplant and a green cayenne pepper (what the heck!) from our garden and cucumbers and mint from Jay's garden.

Roasted eggplant




Kitchen capers: We mixing up dry ingredients for scones in one bowl and dry ingredients for naan in another (similar looking) bowl so of course we got the bowls mixed up, but that didn't stop us from going ahead with the project! We call the resulting non-naan "sconaan".




Karen rolling out the naan



Into a hot pan to puff up



And it was good!

The Continuing Episodes of "What Should I Do With This Blueberry"

caywood kitchen--




Well, you could make some compote, as above. Then you have three more blueberry episodes!

2. Blueberry compote over strawberry ice cream Karen made





3. ... over biscuits. That's some fresh mozzarella cheese peeking out. Weird? Or delicious? We thought delicious!





4. ... over biscuits and peaches




Spot the secret ingredient!

Making Hay While the Sun Shines

around lodi-- Last summer, we were grasshoppers, goofing around, drinking beer, sitting on the deck. This year, we are ants, busily stocking our freezer!



We picked everything but the corn. Other ants did that.

What Should I Do With This Blueberry?

caywood kitchen-- 1. Scones for breakfast

A Blueberry Achieved

glen haven farm-- What happens to a blueberry deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? No... that's a grape deferred. Actually, it's neither and I shouldn't be tossing around Langston Hughes' poem so lightly.

Read the poem "A Dream Deferred" by Langston Hughes here:

http://www.cswnet.com/~menamc/langston.htm

Now, back to our story.

We didn't tell you this, after the beer-laden blueberry deferrment of a week or two ago, our neighbors showed us the way to Glen Haven Farms and its abundance of blueberries. We picked 16.5 pounds that day-- not bad! Tons of ripe blueberries made easy picking, yet for some reason, I was fascinated by what unripe berries look like and so only took pictures of them:





Working on the maxim that it's gonna take a lot of blueberries to cushion the blow of winter, we went back for more Sunday-- 17.5 pounds more to be exact, which brings our grand total to 34 pounds.

God, I hope it's enough.

Tell It!

around ithaca-- We've been seeing a particular car around Ithaca and then yesterday-- boom! It was in the Sibley parking lot.



Couldn't get satisfaction from dealer who sold you the thing? Emails, letters, calls up the supply chain resulted in a stoney silence? Tell it to the world!

We will listen. We admire your gumption.

I Thought They Drove on the Left

ithaca, ny--

Tour de Not France

watkins glen, ny-- Sunday was the last day of the Tour de France; we celebrated accordingly.

I donned the Euskatel riding jersey that sleuthy Karen tracked down for my bday. [Not in the know? Euskatel is a Basque telecom company that sponsors a team]. We threw the bikes on the back of Jeepy (a simple 9-step process), and roared down the road to Watkins Glen.

About halfway there, we spotted a saw a sign for sour cherries at a local u-pick. What?! Sour cherries?! We thought those were done. We flipped a screeching u-turn, scoured all the cherries off the trees-- to the annoyance of some cranky tourists who pulled in after us-- then resumed our journey.



Once in Watkins, Karen dutifully checked out the Famous Brands werehouse sale for some work clothes, then we hopped on over to the hardware store in search of Swiss chard seeds. The clothes were all hideous and the hardware store was closed because no one does home improvement projects on the weekend.

But no matter! We were here to cycle. The village terrain is superflat and so not at all like the Pyranees, thank god.

Tour de France riders sip champagne as they glide into Paris on the final day. We sipped Fanta Orange. Revved up on high fructose corn syrup Karen zipped away through the streets of the town.



We found this inviting bike trail situated between a marina and wetlands.



But look! It's an area of multiple uses!



Hmm. Pedestrian walkway, bike trail, public hunting grounds. One of these things is not like the others. Who decided these were compatable uses? A planner, no doubt.

Some Canadian geese flying above the trail/hunting grounds. They'll be dead soon.



We survived without any bullet wounds, so I treated Karen (with her $) to some ice cream at Tobe's, the ice cream stand she visited some 20 years ago with Eric, back when she hung with real cyclists and spent her days circling the Finger Lakes.

Here's Tobe's menu.



I commented about how all high school girls go through the phase of adding curlicue serifs to all their letters. Karen looked at me quizically.

I love my new bike bag! Next time we are stuffing it with snax!



It's good to have a bike that knows me better than I know myself...

A Blueberry Deferred

trumansburg, ny-- Karen and I agreed to meet in the village of Trumansburg (midway between Ithaca and Caywood Station) after work on Thursday and from there proceed to blueberry picking.

I spent some time in the Philomathic Library perusing the latest issue of Bon Appetit while waiting to meet up. It's really a great library for such a small community.


In case you didn't know what "philomathic" means.



While we were admiring the clematis climbing up the sign at the village offices, we felt two raindrops. These were interpreted as a sign that blueberries should be deferred in favor of beer drinking.






(Blurry? Picture snapped after drinking.)

Other nice things about Tburg-- sidewalk haiku near the stream's gorge...





Pretty railing perfectly matches wildflower...



Local sentiment about planning issues. However, this statement does not represent the view of Caywood Days. Not sure where Barney stands on the issue, either. His people couldn't be reached for comment.



You can put your old glasses here. Really.



... and that's a taste of Tburg. As our closest metropolitan center, you will surely be seeing more of it here on Caywood Days.

Through the Day Today

weos 89.7 fm geneva/ithaca-- For this entry, I've tasked myself with trying to convey the amusement we experience while listening to the local weather reports. When we first moved here, we were bewildered by meteorologist Tom Churchill's tendency to say such things as: "Mostly cloudy today. From the clouds, rain will fall." Well, sure, we thought. Where else would it come from?

Soon, we found ourselves mimicking Tom's idiosyncratic nasaly singsong delivery. He starts every forecast with the words "Through the day today" so of course when we are talking about what's on our personal agendas, now we say, "Through the day to day..."

Karen finally figured out that much like the operator at POP*CORN, each bit of Tom's weather forecast is recorded separately so weather staff can just piece it together according to each day's need. That's why he always sounds weird and always sounds exactly the same.

OK. It's funnier when you are a) here, b) when you hear it repeatedly, and c) when you are as dorky as we are. Here are some weather pictures:

Raining really hard with flashing lightning and booming thunder: Exciting!



The next day: Pretty!

Roadside Bouquet

caywood road and cornell campus-- Wow, there are some pretty flowers to be seen around here.

Some are wild...





...some are cultivated.

You Are Welcome

caywood station--Another summer has come to Caywood Station, and in case we haven't told you lately, you are always welcome for a visit*.

Seasonal Amenities:
-- Ruby's Cowgirl (or -boy, if you prefer)Suite: Year 'round
-- On-site Sulpher Spring Spa (ok, that's an inside joke. Don't expect a whirlpool): Year 'round
-- Delicious ice cream: Year 'round
-- BBQ's on the deck: Pretty much year 'round
-- Daffodils and forsythia: Spring
-- Ample reinforcement of resurrection motif: Spring
-- Hikes to all manner of incredible gorges and waterfalls: Late spring-fall
-- Strawberries: Early summer
-- Cherries: Summer
-- Blueberries: Summer
-- Peaches: Summer
-- Corn, tomatoes: Late summer
-- Vine covered deck: Summer, fall
-- Humidity: Summer, fall
-- Apples: Fall
-- Karen's Famous Apple Pie: Fall
-- Fall colors: When you think
-- Parsnips: Winter
-- Grey skies, denuded trees: Winter
-- Anisa's Famous Angst: Winter

Don't be a stranger**!

*Offer does not apply to weird Internet stalker types.
**Offer does not apply to weird Internet stalker types.

Thinking of Grandma

caywood kitchen-- When I was a little girl, Grandma Jean always had Brazil Nut cookies in the cookie jar on the counter. Grandpa liked them and I think Dad sometimes ate them, too. Mom described them as kind of "an adult cookie"... I think meaning: "no chocolate." But I liked them, too. I don't remember Grandma making them as often after Grandpa died, but I still associate them with her, him, and their house.

Yesterday, I tried making them for the first time.

Field Trip

at the south end of keuka lake-- Time to get out and explore the region! We went to the tiny town of Hammondsport on Sunday. It was described by our local informant as a down-to-earth version of Skaeneatlis. Haven't been there yet so can't compare, but we did find a cute village square with ice cream shop, antique stores, and doo-dad places. You can walk down to the boardwalk by the lakeshore and have a cherry-pit spitting contest.

But this picture was our favorite.