Missed it by That Much

We spent 5 days in Vermont for Christmas. One of the best parts about visiting the Northeast Kingdom for Christmas is we get to play in the snow! My sister, Wendy, has this great sledding hill behind her house! At the top of the hill is an amazing vista. I love to go sledding. It's about my speed. Here's Jon and Trevor about halfway down the sledding hill. And Higgins, the dog, getting in the way, or trying to get in on the fun. The only problem is that there's a compost bin at the bottom of the hill and a brother-in-law who likes to push the envelope. He's a great guy and I love him but that's his only fault. (Wendy may say differently.)

So, here's the compost bin in question. It's a nice looking compost bin. Jon asked me at the top of the hill if I wanted a push. I said, "No." But he pushed anyway. I'm not saying he pushed me in the direction of the compost bin. Not saying that. But I was sledding down the hill at a good speed and heading straight for the compost bin. And the closer I got to the compost bin, the more I was saying, "No. No. No." I was doing my best to steer the sled to the left to miss the compost bin but it wasn't moving. Had I been on my Flexible Flyer I'm sure I would have had better luck.

So, I'm heading straight for the compost bin and desperately trying to steer away from it and all the while thinking to myself if I crash that's going to hurt so at the last possible second I leaned my whole body to the left and stopped the sled from crashing into the compost bin by about 1". It was very dramatic and James Bond-like. Then I got up, shook off the snow and went in the house and grabbed my camera. That was the end of sledding for me that day. I went in the house, told everyone I was making hot cocoa but I really was having a shot of Jon's whiskey.

Monkeys to the Left

This sign is at the top of the exit ramp at exit 21 off I-91 in Hatfield. It's been there for quite some time, like since the fall. But recently, I noticed that it had been modified a bit. There's a deer checking station (whatever that is) in Hatfield to the right and there's monkeys (?!) doing something in Hatfield or Northampton to the left. 

Writing in Code will Make you Blind

I've been working on a webpage this week for one of my classes and I just finished adding the final touches on it and made it go live!!!! WooHoo! Now the whole world wide web can see it!

No Leftover Pie

This year we spent Thanksgiving in different states. It worked out just fine because I had a huge paper to write for LIS 404, a.k.a. "Principles of Management", due on the 5th of December. Trevor was working on the Friday after the holiday at the Grand Summit Hotel at Mount Snow, VT. I volunteer/intern at 2 libraries on Tuesdays from 10 am to 7:30 pm. With our schedules and my deadline it made more sense for me to stay home for the holiday. Thanks to my cousin Phoebe who finagled me an invitation for Thanksgiving dinner in nearby Storrs, CT at my aunt and uncle's house.   I say "nearby" because at 1.5 hours it was far closer than my other options, which were East Burke, VT (3 hours), and Vienna, ME (5 hours).

I had a lovely, relaxing holiday with my cousins, their spouses, my aunt and uncle and their family friends. We had cocktails before dinner, jumbo shrimp (and I mean JUMBO), veggies and dip, and a delicious Thanksgiving dinner! YUM! I think Uncle Rossie makes the best gravy on the planet! Aunt Gretchen set a gorgeous table and my cousin Becca folded the crisp white napkins into some sort of bird. Everything was lovely. Dessert was fantastic too! There were 3 pies: apple, pumpkin and pecan. And homemade whipped cream to go on top. I was stuffed!

I really  enjoyed hanging out with cousin Becca in the evening chatting while we each worked on our knitting/crochet projects. 

I spent the night and had a delicious toasted bagel and a hot cuppa strong English tea in the morning before heading home.

Now here's the problem. When you spend Thanksgiving somewhere else, like I often do, you don't have any leftover pie at home. Unless you make a pie or someone sends you home with a slice or two. One thing I enjoy about Thanksgiving is leftover pie. Especially pecan pie. More specifically, my leftover pecan pie. So I came home and whined about it for a day. Then I went to the co-op in search of a slice of pie and came home with a slice of cake and a quart of ice cream. The cake was delicious but it wasn't pecan pie. And the ice cream was sweet and creamy and cold like ice cream is but it still wasn't pie. So I solved my problem on Saturday morning by making a pecan pie. My pecan pie is sweetened with honey and maple syrup. The crust is made with unsalted butter and whole wheat pastry flour. I make the pastry by hand, adding one tablespoon of ice water at a time until it's just the right consistency. The crust is tender and flaky. I chop the pecans so that when you slice the pie the slices are neat and not messy like they often are when you use whole pecans. That afternoon I had a slice of "leftover" pie with a cuppa Earl Gray. It was sooo good!

Why are All These People Calling me?

I've been wanting a desktop computer, an iMac of course, and there was an ad for one in our coop's newsletter for $200 plus a printer so I called about it. When the woman answered the phone she sounded like she was genuinely surprised to get, yet another, phone call about this computer that she was advertising for sale.

This is what she said, "Oh yeah... I've been getting a lot of calls about that. I'm not sure I want to sell it. Give me your number and if I decided to sell it I'll call."

Well geez lady, if you weren't sure you wanted to sell it then why the heck did you place an ad for it?

In the Style of "Alice's Restaurant"

I received the following email from my father today. I think it's the longest email he's ever sent me:

"I found the receipt from Target it was in a pile of papers on the kitchen counter, I remember now finding it in the bag and taking it out before I used the bag to collect the rubbish in it was a nice big bag and held a lot of rubbish when I was done collecting the rubbish I put the Target bag in another bag of rubbish put a sticker on it and put in the rubbish barrell and dragged it out to the street for pickup the next day and then the big truck comes around and a guy jumps out and picks up the barrell and dumps the rubbish in the back of the big truck the truck drives off with rubbish and takes up to Coventry (thats near Newport) and dumps the whole thing in a hole that someone dug. So I guess the next thing would be to snail mail you the reciept from Target that I found in the big bag and used to collect the garbage in that I put in the rubbish barrell for pickup by a big truck and a trip to Coventry to be dumped in a hole in the ground. I hope this explains everything without going into a lot of detail. Dad."


To which I replied:
"Dearest Father Collector of Trash in Target bags,
Yes, please send me the Target receipt  that was once in a Target bag which you found and thankfully saved and put in a pile of other papers , via snail mail in a stamped envelope with my address on it and your return address on it and walk it to the post-office and drop it into the mail box or slot where it'll get picked up by a mail carrier and taken to a sorting center in VT and then to another sorting in MA and then to Northampton and then to the Hatfield post office and then into a plastic bin and the postal carrier who drives the red jeep will put into into my cluster mailbox in front of our house one day soon and I'll retrieve it with my little key that unlocks the mailbox and I'll carry it into the house and open the envelope and be able to return the footstool to Target which is just a few inches to tall and makes the backs of my knees stretch in an uncomfortable position and is also the wrong shape so Trevor and I can't share since he wants a corner and it's round and therefore has no corners. Thank you.
Love,
Nancy

He explains his odd behavior in the following email:
"maybe I have been listening to Arlo Guthrie sing 'Alices Restaurant' too much Arlo is the son of folk singer Woody Guthrie. Arlo Guthrie lives somewere in your area, his father wrote a lot of folk songs and was Bob Dylan's idol. Bob Dylan was born Robert Zimmerman but changed it to Bob Dylan to honor Dylan Thomas he wrote poems not music like Bob Dylan did. You can get anything you want at Alices restaurant.  Dad."

It's November and approaching Thanksgiving and not at all unusual for Dad to be overdosing on Alice's Restaurant. I'm not worried. Really,  I'm not.

Introducing: The Java Jacket

I found a pattern for Java Jackets somewhere in my cyber travels and crocheted a couple of them this summer which I sold at the Sales Table at camp this summer. On the ride home, I crocheted another out of some yarn that my sister Wendy gave me. It's Vermont yarn, spun and dyed in VT. I've been carrying one with me and using it whenever I order a hot beverage in a coffee shop.

I've also been conducting an informal survey of coffee shop staff. Here's the informal results of my informal survey: over 95% of respondents agree that the java jacket is cool. The same 95% think that all customers should use the java jacket. The very same 95% think it's an environmentally-friendly product. Let's forget for the moment that we're still all using a paper coffee cup! The java jacket is small and can fit in your pocket or purse.

Thankfully, my product has attracted the attention of the buyer for a natural foods store in Newport, VT. I'll be producing 12! Yes, a dozen! For SALE at Newport Natural Foods in Newport, VT. The above, in red, is my favorite. I've made a total of 4 so far, one of which I ripped out. One is in the works. I've given myself a deadline of November 30th. No problem. I can make 9 more in.... what's today???

Little Trip to the NEK

That white stuff floating in the air? It's snow! We spent a few days at Little Newfield in Island Pond, VT because we could. There was a dusting of snow on the ground both mornings we were there. We kept the woodstove going and got the little cabin quite toasty. The cabin is a "chop wood" kind of place. Thankfully, it's no longer a "carry water". And since it's off the grid, yes, it's also a "do dishes" kind of place too. Two out of three isn't bad. It's better in my opinion.

I spent most of my time reading for an upcoming assignment in one of my classes. I did make a short trip to the Island Pond Public Library to check my email and (ahem) update my Facebook status. I thought I might try to do a bit of work while I was there but I was very distracted by the library director who was talking rather loudly to someone on the phone. Geez! We're in a library! And from the sounds of the conversation, I'm not even sure if we were in the same library. He was making it out to sound like it was a lot bigger than it really is. Don't get me wrong, I love the Island Pond Public Library. It's a really nice little library. But their catalog isn't on-line...and they don't have a website....

Trevor spent his time doing crossword puzzles, reading science fiction, splitting wood, and cranking the radio. We listen to a Canadian radio station that's en Francais and really enjoy being out of touch with the US while we're still in the US.

Just before we left, when the propane was shut off and all of our stuff packed into the truck, Trevor made a valient effort at turning off the water beneath the cabin. But since we didn't know that the shut off valve was wrapped in a foot of insulation, he never found it. The owner will ask a friend to turn it off.

We hope to get up there again but we may have to schlep our stuff in on a toboggin.

Message from Anamal Rescue

This sign was taped to the cluster mailboxes at the corner of Linseed Road and Old Stage Road in our neighborhood. Just so you know, I did not take it down. It fell down.
In case you have trouble reading that it says:
Anamal Rescue would like you to know that turtles are dieing from cars hitting them plese be carful on linseed there may be turtles crossing. Thank you Hannah + Millie.

New Desk!

I got a new-to-me desk today. It was $50 and although the seller on craigslist said it was oak it's really oak veneer. It's pretty decent though and gives me more work space to spread out. As you can see, I've already made it all "cozy" with my stuff. It's an improvement on the old desk which had no drawers.

I spent more time than alotted cleaning out the metal filing cabinet and redistributed stuff and fiddling around with the position of the desk but in the end it was worth it.

Many thanks to Trevor for going with me to pick it up and helping me with setting it up and moving stuff around and redistributing plants! 

A Tree Grows in...

Trevor's made a couple of rock "trees" with the rocks he got from VT.  This one is my favorite. 

Dirty Job Party III

Trevor's been taking large flat rocks from.... VT.... a nice place where there's a stream.... and waterfall.... and making a nice looking wall of sorts! We've got Johnny Jump Ups and Myrtle growing amongst the rocks. If you have nice flat rocks you're not using, let us know. 

Dirty Job Part II

[I "upgraded" to the new Blogger editor and I'm not a fan...]

More dirt....

See those fork lifts? That's why I want a  fence. 'Nuf said.

A Dirty Job

Trevor's been trolling Craigslist and Freecycle for dirt and railroad ties for a few weeks now. He's building a retaining wall, to retain the dirt that he's acquiring, and then he'll put up a fence to enclose the backyard. At which point, I'll have a blog post titled "Fence me in", I can't wait!  He thought it would get all done this Fall and was disappointed yesterday when I asked him if we could put away the grill and the table and chairs... thinking that we'd have one more meal out there in a fenced-in backyard.

Chalkboard Message

Trevor & I went to VT for a few days (2 weeks ago...) and we come home to this nice message from our housemate, Joanne.

Ig Nobel Awards

In honor of the 2009 Nobel Prize in medicine being announced today, I'd like to introduce you to a different type of Nobel Prize, the Ig Nobel Award. The 2009 Ig Nobel Awards were recently presented in Cambridge, MA at Harvard University's Sanders Theater. My personal favorite is the recipient of the PUBLIC HEALTH PRIZE: Elena N. Bodnar, Raphael C. Lee, and Sandra Marijan of Chicago, Illinois, USA, "for inventing a brassiere that, in an emergency, can be quickly converted into a pair of protective face masks, one for the brassiere wearer and one to be given to some needy bystander."
REFERENCE: U.S. patent # 7255627, granted August 14, 2007 for a “Garment Device Convertible to One or More Facemasks.” That's right! It's patented!

Since the Nobel Prize in medicine was announced today I thought I should include the Ig Nobel award in medicine. MEDICINE PRIZE: Donald L. Unger, of Thousand Oaks, California, USA, for investigating a possible cause of arthritis of the fingers, by diligently cracking the knuckles of his left hand — but never cracking the knuckles of his right hand — every day for more than sixty (60) years. (Ha! Moms everywhere were wrong about that!)
REFERENCE: "Does Knuckle Cracking Lead to Arthritis of the Fingers?", Donald L. Unger, Arthritis and Rheumatism, vol. 41, no. 5, 1998, pp. 949-50.

I also really like this one:
LITERATURE PRIZE: Ireland's police service (An Garda Siochana), for writing and presenting more than fifty traffic tickets to the most frequent driving offender in the country — Prawo Jazdy — whose name in Polish means "Driving License".
WHO ATTENDED THE CEREMONY: [Karolina Lewestam, a Polish citizen and holder of a Polish driver's license, speaking on behalf of all her fellow Polish licensed drivers, expressed her good wishes to the Irish police service.]

Highlights from 2007:

File this one under "no way".

PHYSICS: L. Mahadevan of Harvard University, USA, and Enrique Cerda Villablanca of Universidad de Santiago de Chile, for studying how sheets become wrinkled.
REFERENCES:
"Wrinkling of an Elastic Sheet Under Tension," E. Cerda, K. Ravi-Chandar, L. Mahadevan, Nature, vol. 419, October 10, 2002, pp. 579-80.
"Geometry and Physics of Wrinkling," E. Cerda and L. Mahadevan, Physical Review Letters, fol. 90, no. 7, February 21, 2003, pp. 074302/1-4.
"Elements of Draping," E. Cerda, L. Mahadevan and J. Passini, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 101, no. 7, 2004, pp. 1806-10.
WHO ATTENDED THE CEREMONY: Lakshminarayanan Mahadevan, and Enrique Cerda Villablanca's sister Mariela.

I can tell you how my sheets get wrinkled...

What I learned in School Today

Think of the most ridiculous item that might exist and have a patent. Like, cat boots, and do a search for this term on Google patents. And see what it comes up with! You can look at the images and drawings that go along with the patent.
Here's a suggestion: search "nose pick". Have fun!

Standard Response

Because I get a lot of questions about being in school, along the lines of "How's school?", I've decided to develop a "standard response". This, of course, will only work on a semester-to-semester basis since courses and situations change. I'm secretly hoping that if I overwhelm the inquiring minds, they'll stop asking...
Here's some questions and answers:

How long is the program? a year?
If anyone has completed the program in a year they are a legend and no doubt their personal relationships have completely failed. They're now single or divorced. Most sane people take 2 years to complete the program. It's 36 credits. Each class is 3 credits. 36/3= 12 classes. Most people take 2, maybe 3 classes each semester. It's a part-time program.

How's the semester going?

This is my 2nd semester at Simmons GSLIS West. At the end of this semester I will be 1/3 of the way towards my degree (36 total credits). This semester I'm taking 2 classes: LIS 404, Principles of Management (required) and LIS 484, Literature of the Sciences and Technology. My classes meet on Saturdays on the Mount Holyoke College campus. If all goes well, I will never have to take a class in Boston. LIS 404 is blended, which meets half the time face-to-face and half on-line. LIS 484 meets in person.

Here are the course descpriptions:
LIS 404 Principles of Management: Designed to acquaint students with the basic management functions of planning, organizing, staffing, directing, and controlling. The course is intended to help provide understanding of human interactions in the workplace and develop the practical problem-solving skills needed to handle managerial problems professionally. Approaches to managing, from authoritarian to participative to laissez-faire, are examined. Work for the course includes readings, case studies, critical incidents, simulations, and discussions.
LIS 484 Literature of Science and Technology: teaches the structure and properties of the literature of science and technology as they relate to information generation, dissemination, and use. Students are introduced to major reference sources and bibliographic tools encountered in scientific information work in all formats. Collection development, scientific communication patterns, bibliographic instruction, and other topics related to sci-tech librarianship and information handling are covered. Practical assignments in scientific and technical reference, and individual projects are provided. Prerequisite: LIS 407.

Although LIS 484 meets face-to-face every Saturday afternoon, a portion of the class is taught on-line via Blackboard (aka "e-learning"). It's conventient since I can do my course work in the comfort of my home in my pajamas. You may laugh, but this is true.

In addition to my 2 courses I'm a volunteer at two libraries. I've been volunteering one afternoon at the Springfield City Library in Springfield, MA for almost a year. My responsibilities include:

• Gathering library materials for "Library-in-Your-Mailbox" clients.
• Providing Reader's Advisory service to "Library-in-Your-Mailbox" clients.
  
• Maintaining records for "Library-in-Your-Mailbox" clients using MS Access.
• Assistant instructor for computer literacy courses.
• Creating fiction and non-fiction book displays.
• Searching the stacks for missing books
• Searching microfilm for obit and/or death notices per patron requests.

Beginning next week, I'll start a volunteer internship at Bay Path College Hatch Library in Longmeadow, MA. I'll be doing a variety of tasks, including Reference, Inter-library loan, cataloging (tech services), and bibliographic instruction.

In general, I try to have two solid days off a week- Sunday and Monday. Tuesday is my "in the field day". And Wednesday - Friday are study days. Saturday is school day.

I hope you've enjoyed my "standard response". Please let me know if I haven't answered any of your questions about school.

Trip in Town

OK, so my title "Trip in Town" is because that's the way you talk about going to Boston when you're from there. "I'm going to Town." etc... And since I'm from out that way and spent a good 10+ years working in Town I learned to talk like that. "The City" is New York, "Town" or "In Town" is Boston. (by the way... I "borrowed" this photo.)


So, the country mice (that's us), left Hatfield at about 9:30, made a couple of stops Downtown (that's Northampton for us), and got on the road at about 9:50. We got to Simmons at about 12 noon and, naturally, couldn't find parking! I had to retrieve my 3 photos that were hanging in the tech lab since January. Trevor found a sort-of place to park while I went into the building to get the photos. Once we were done there we drove over to Jamaica Plain, or JP as the locals call it, and went to Arnold Arboretum and had a lovely picnic lunch. The Arboretum is an amazing oasis of 265 beautiful acres of trees, shrubs, and manicured lawns in the city of Boston. It's owned by the city of Boston but is leased to Harvard University for 1,000 years. I think that arrangement might have started 100 years ago so Harvard may only have 900 years left on their lease.
We spent about 2 hours ambling around and only saw 1/4 of the place, at the most! What we saw was fabulous and we're already planning a return trip.

This is one of several cork trees at the Arboretum. The cork from this tree is not kind that's used for wine bottles or whatever else people use cork for (can't think of anything... one track mind...) The most famous cork tree was cut down about 12 years ago. Too many people sat on one of its branches and the branch broke. I think I may be guilty of once sitting on that branch!

This is one of several HUGE Poplar trees. We ate lunch beneath this tree. While Trevor napped I snapped a few photos.

This is the tallest tree in the Arboretum, a silver maple. That's Trevor way on the left. According to the brochure, it survived the hurricane of 1938. It's one of the 600 trees at the Arboretum that is over 100 years old.

A dawn redwood that is native to Japan. It's pretty cool. Trevor likes it. Trevor hasn't met a tree he doesn't like. If he has, I don't know about it.

Sapphire berries. Very pretty. Also on the tour of trees and shrubs over 100 years old.

My First Commissioned Piece

My friend, Bob Perry, is one of the owners of the Elephant Walk restaurants in the Boston area. He's also treasurer of the Fryeburg New Church Assembly . This summer at camp he asked me to crochet a scarf for his wife, Geraldine. The scarf that he wanted was the Curly Scarf in the Chicks with Sticks Guide to Crochet. I donated a scarf to the sales table auction at camp this summer but he thought the yarn was going to be too itchy for Geraldine who has very sensitive skin (I could relate). I happened to have a ball of Plymouth Baby Alpaca Brush Paint in my bag. It's 80% baby alpaca and 20% nylon. He really liked the colors (none of the ones on the Web's page) and so we decided that I'd make the scarf with that yarn. He also told me he'd pay me for my time.

While we were in the NEK for our long weekend, made extra long when I realized we didn't need to go home on Monday, I worked on the scarf. I spent about 2 hours working on it. Pretty much the entire time was spent sitting on the deck in the sun crocheting. It doesn't get much better for me. Sitting in the sun on the beach crocheting is how it gets better.

When I was done, I took several pictures, as you may guessed. I emailed Bob when I got home to tell him the scarf was done. I sent him several photos. He said, "I love the scarf - and I L O V E the photo presentation! Very creative; very cool!" We agreed on a price ($40) and I mailed the scarf today.

Now I'm thinking about how I can do more of that...

WOW!

Worst Quiddler hand ever! I did manage to pick up an H and discard an A before Trevor went out. He won this game! His score was 318 mine was 295. ( I don't always win.)

I've been slacking about blogging!

It's raining today. All day. Summer's over. Boo hoo.... was wishing that since we got April for July that we'd get July for September or something like that but I'm wrong.

We had a beach day on Wednesday. We went to my new favorite beach, Rocky Neck Beach State Park in Connecticut. It's about 1.5 hours from here. The water was really warm, the sand super fine, and a bit windy (watch out for that umbrella!). I was so happy to be there I was jumping up and down in the water. Waves were good too! I got a few new freckles, too. Nothing like a beach day to cure what ails me.

I made a book display in the fiction department at the good old Springfield City Library where I volunteer once a week. This time my theme is "Culinary Mysteries". And, no, it's not mystery food. Although, that's what you sometimes find in the back of the fridge when you've forgotten about leftovers. Culinary Mysteries are cozy mysteries (the kind of mystery where you never read about the blood and gore of the actual murder) with a cooking theme. On Monday I'll make a book list to go along with the display. My last fiction display was quite popular with the patrons. I'm hoping this one will be too.

I'm not making any promises about blogging more often since that didn't stick last time.

Signed by the Artist

Every year, towards the end of the 2 week session at camp we have an auction of items from the sales table. The auction is a fund (and fun) raiser for camp. Some of the items aren't that special (meaning they've been sitting on the table for almost 2 weeks and no one has bought them), and go for more than twice their ticket price. Hand-made items are very popular at the auction. I really liked this small painting done by our friend, Anna Rich, so Trevor bid on it and won it! It's about 4"x6". And she signed it for me!

Anna is an illustrator for children's books. Her latest book is called Under the Night Sky. It's about the Northern Lights and it's gorgeous. We also auctioned a copy of the book and it went for $40! Her son, Otto, who is 10, told us, "it took a really long time, believe me".

Back to "Normal"

We just returned from 2 weeks in Maine. This photo is from last summer though. On the last day we were there, my camera got wet and it's not working properly. Last summer the Saco River was so high we never got a chance to swim in it. This summer it was quite high the 1st week, but by the middle of the 2nd week we were able to swim in it. On Sunday afternoon, Trevor and I enjoyed a leisurely canoe trip from camp downstream to Swan's Falls. If you actually paddle it takes 2 hours. If you hardly paddle at all, like us, it takes 3 hours. I prefer the latter.

We returned to stifling heat and a broken washing machine and happy-to-see-us cat.

More news about camp to follow.

Little Vacation to the NEK, part 2

Because we could, we went back to the NEK for another little vacation. We arrived on Sunday afternoon and stopped in at the parents' in East Burke for a quick visit. After a morning of sun-bathing (white girl turned pink), we hiked the South Shore trail on the southern end of Lake Willoughby on Monday, and then had dinner with the parents. On Tuesday I used the wifi at the Island Pond Public Library (it's crunch time for camp) while Trevor "stole" more rocks from the river at Pete's. On Wednesday we packed up and drove to Brownington to hang with Wendy, Jon and Chloe and then drove home. We miss Pete but we really like using his cabin!

Library Humor

Our new housemate, Joanne, sent us this postcard. Reminds me of those New Yorker cartoons where you can submit your own caption.

Making Pesto

Every summer I make a ton of pesto. I gave up on growing my own basil years ago but I've found a few farm stands where I can get it wicked cheap. There's one on in Hatfield where I can get a giant bunch for 75 cents! The above leaf is huge and I'm beginning to suspect it's not organic... but it's very fresh and cheap.

My ingredients all lined up and ready to go. The recipe I use is from the Silver Palate Cookbook.
As you can see, I use 365 products. They're good quality and economical.

Basil, walnuts, and garlic in the Cuisinart Food Processor, then blend until it's all blended together. I love my food processor. Thank you, Trevor!

Add olive oil in a slow stream.

Add cheese, salt and black pepper and combine.

Put into little containers and freeze. I'm still using up last summer's batch. I also give it to friends. They appreciate it. It's great to have pesto on hand.

Do your dishes!

Little Vacation at Little Newfield in Island Pond, VT

Trevor and I spent 5 days at my brother's cabin in the Northeast Kingdom of VT. It's a rustic place with running cold water, a propane fridge, stove and lamp, an in-house and an out-house. 70 acres with lots of walking trails, a nice waterfall, beaver ponds and photogenic old vehicles. No cell service or internet connection so it really is a great get-away from it all. Le radio c'est en francais too! (If you find the right station.)

View from the deck towards the southeast.

The little cabin sleeps 5.

The front room is a great place to hang out and enjoy the view when it's raining.

One of several old vehicles on the property.

Smile!

Just when I've had enough of Trevor's accordion practice, his wrist gives out.

A hawk flew into the sliding glass doors. It was a little stunned and then got up and flew away.
Left a few feathers behind.

The brook.

One of the beaver ponds.

Accordion Practice

Trevor got a new-to-him accordion last week. Here he is practicing a classic tune. I hope you enjoy it.

Sleepless in Seattle

The blue-ish looking house with all the blue flags behind it is the house that was in the movie Sleepless in Seattle. How do I know this? I believe everything my tour guide tells me. Plus it looked a bit familiar. I hear it's for sale.