New England Tour 2011: Vermont Cheesemakers Festival

I wish I could remember where I first came across mention of the Vermont Cheesemakers Festival. I do remember thinking "wow, that looks really neat." Last summer it just was not an option -- we were moving, buying a car, having a baby -- but I put it down on my list of things to try to do this year.

And we did! We went! And it was great. Even better, we got to spend the weekend with D*'s awesome sister and her husband, who moved to Burlington last year. I have driven past the city any number of times, but never spent any time there before. It looks like a really great place, and the scenery is jaw-droppingly beautiful.

We drove up on Saturday--the last day of the recent heat wave, and when we got in the temperatures were in the 90s. We unloaded our things and hit the nearest beach. I had no idea there were beaches there, so we weren't prepared, but who needs bathing suits? 

Then back home for dinner and a late bedtime for some very tired children.

Some time in the night a thunderstorm passed through and the temperature finally dropped, leaving Sunday clear and crisp and all around the most beautiful weather possible. After the baby's morning nap, we headed over to Shelburne Farms.

The place. Is. Huge. It goes on and on and on. Beautiful lake views!

Ridiculously large buildings!

 

Cows!

Solar panels!

And, of course, the festival!

I didn't even try to take any pictures of the interior, which was a complete zoo -- a very tasty zoo, a zoo packed with people enjoying themselves to the hilt, but a zoo nevertheless. The two older children were well and truly freaked out by the crowd, and ended up staying outside with their aunt and uncle while D* and I braved the stalls (Mimi in her baby carrier grabbed shirts and loose hair). It was somewhat overwhelming even for us, and after a while we snagged some edibles and joined everyone else for lunch on the grass.

Sans utensils as we were, it was a most primitive repast: hunks ripped off a baguette (from O Bread) with chunks of a soft white cheese (which I think was the Jack from Neighborly, but I might be getting them mixed up). On a beautiful summer day, there is absolutely nothing better than pure, simple foods!

After fortifying ourselves, we dove back into the fray, this time for proper shopping. On reflection, I think was a good approach: an initial tasting swing, and then a second to focus on picking up the ones I liked the best. If you ever get a chance to go to this event, be prepared to spend money! And bring a cooler, which I managed to forget even after I put it on my list of things to pack. After some agonizing, I ended up with four kinds of cheese (mostly cheddars, which I hoped would travel well), some shortbread cookies, chocolate, apple butter, and a second baguette. I didn't really taste any of the wines, but D* sampled a few and proclaimed them all to be on the sweet side.

After that, we took a ride on a tractor-drawn wagon up to the Farm Barn so the kids could see the animals, of which they have many -- sheep, goats, pigs, donkeys, chickens.

We had another snack. (I was worried that they wouldn't have any milk available for JJ but hello... dairy farm? Duh!) L helped to milk a goat, and took part in the chicken roundup, when they put the birds into the barn for the evening. It may have been the cutest thing I have ever seen, a dozen children very seriously surrounding chickens and clapping their hands to herd them.

She also found an egg! We took a gander at the cheesemaking operation, which is pretty straightforward really, and relaxed in the grass before catching the last cart ride back to the festival and our cars.

In the morning it was time to head back to Boston with our swag. I would not at all mind making this into a tradition!

New England Tour 2011 Plus! Malone, NY

No one ever knows where Malone is. I sure didn't when I met D* . Most people think that by "upstate New York" I mean something around the state's midline, when what I actually mean is a place where, from a suitable height, you can wave hello to Canada.

Why go to Malone? High school reunions are strangely compelling things. I haven't been to one of my own, and probably wouldn't--the people I am most curious about are the ones who have dropped off the planet since graduation, not the ones I see on Facebook. But D* is different than I am, and since his parents moved away from the town this might be the only reason we have to visit it. So we piled into the car (again) on a Friday morning and drove north.

We stopped for lunch in White River Junction, choosing to spend our cash at the Polka Dot, a diner of ancient mien, well matching its personnel. It did have a wifi hot-spot, though! Across the street, no doubt in eternal conflict, was a much newer place full of young people with laptops called Tuckerbox.

Unfortunately, Polka Dot was not some lost foodie haven; my grilled cheese was orange cheese on square supermarket bread, and that was about the size of the place. On the virtue side, it was cheap and almost empty, so we weren't in anyone's way with the kids and all of our stuff. L didn't like that her fries were crinkle-cut. She ended up eating a granola bar.

We got to the ferry around three and found it waiting. This was the part the kids had been waiting for, and it does make for a very nice break in the trip, a chance to stretch legs and get some air.

We drove through a landscape common to small towns all over the region; acres of corn, cow pastures, auto shops, tractor dealers, antique stores containing a dozen unwanted attics, the occasional dentist or other professional catering to a shrinking population.

Some of the farms are renting out their land as windmill sites, and they make a striking and strange addition to the landscape, colossal structures breaking the gentle roll of trees and hillsides.

We got to our hotel (Super 8. Can't recommend it.) and headed out again almost at once in search of dinner. There's a place called Mo's at the Holiday Inn Express just up the road, and we settled there rather than subject ourselves to Pizza Hut. Pizza might have been a better option, as D*'s ravioli were still partially frozen (even after he complained about it). My pasta primavera included at least half a pound of pasta and was drenched in cream sauce. L had chicken fingers and french fries, which would merit a sigh from most parents, except that we have been praying she would venture to eat this ubiquitous children's item menu for several years now, instead of refusing to eat anything at all when we travel. JJ had graham crackers.

Then we had ice cream, went back to the hotel, watched Bolt on the TV, and went to bed. Overexcited and tired kids plus a ludicrously loud A/C unit made sleep long in arriving; the dog in the room next door and the baby made it interrupted.

Saturday morning we were all up early if not necessarily bright. It was a packed morning. Breakfast with some other reunion people, a trip out to Burke to see another old friend, a visit to High Falls.

Then lunch out at the Rec Park with D*'s sister and brother-in-law. There we took a much-needed time-out. The older kids played on the playground and in the water; a paddle-boat ride was taken; the baby played quietly in the grass, which seemed to take the place of nap time fairly well. No running around required for a few hours.

Then it was time to go back to the hotel and get ready for the reunion dinner. I can't say much about the reunion itself; it wasn't mine, so I was necessarily at loose ends throughout. I found a couple of people to talk to, but that was eventually shut down by the DJ (who seemed to think that playing hair metal would strike the right note--yes, it was from the right years, but you can't dance to it). D* had a good time, and that was the point. His sister and her husband watched the kids, and they all had a trauma-free evening.

In the morning we got back together for breakfast. D* went to church, the kids watched videos, and I kept the baby from playing with power cords in the hotel room. In the afternoon we drove out to the Almonzo Wilder Farm to pick up some postcards for a friend of mine.

Then we went back to the Rec Park for an hour, and then over to a BBQ held by the family of some friends of D*'s. Their place is right on Lake Titus, so there was more water play and even a boat trip for L. Eventually the kids were worn out enough that we headed back to the hotel.

The trip back on the 4th was trouble-free, aside from the a/c in the van being out. There was only one flare of temper (JJ threw a toy over the side of the ferry on our return trip, upsetting his older sister on behalf of his younger one). We stopped for lunch in Montpelior, at a little place not far from 89 that has been different every time we go through the state, but which generally provides a decent lunch (and this time, gelato! yum). Then we stopped again at a rest stop a little farther down the highway. It was a perfect afternoon, and we didn't really want to leave, but if you have to spend a day driving with the windows down, you can do worse than a summer day in Vermont. The state is ridiculously beautiful, and I89 is in excellent shape. There wasn't much traffic, just a few other homebound southern New Englanders.

We thought briefly about trying to see the fireworks, but everyone was tired, and the kids were in no shape for another late night. Some other year for that!

Overdue Post: Vacation Wrapup

Life continues to be crazy; so what else is new? Still settling in, have started car hunting, and there's all the joys of the third trimester with which to cope. I have been spending a lot of time reading other blogs and being generally envious of other peoples' time and energy. But I wanted to post about our vacation before it falls entirely out of my thoughts. The paucity of pictures is due to my failure to pack the battery charger for my camera.

8/14 Saturday: We drove up in the morning. L melted down on arrival, got over it and spent most of the day playing with her grandma. JJ spent most of his time on the sand pile, a remnant of last year's landscaping and leveling efforts. Dave's mom made dinner, we had pie and ice cream to celebrate his birthday, and lit sparklers out on the dock after it got dark. We had to move L's bed--she had first said she wanted to be upstairs, then changed her mind, which I pretty much expected was going to happen. JJ didn't even wait for lights out, but snuggled down and went to sleep, one exhausted little boy.

8/15 Sunday: Food shopping at Moulton Farm and then the grocery store in Center Harbor was followed by a quick lunch, and then hitting the beach with the grandparents before they had to head for home. Left Dave alone to relax and write and stuff. Later on, Dave's uncle took the kids for a boat ride. I am told that L used the words "accelerate" and "turbulence" during that. For dinner we had tomatoes and fresh mozzarella cheese, drizzled with olive oil and sea salt; corn on the cob; steak with a pan sauce of shallots and red wine. Dave told me that if he was ever sent to prison, memory of that meal would sustain him. The man knows how to give a compliment!

8/16 Monday: Rain moved in, so we went to Fun Spot for a couple of hours. Dave took L for a canoe ride, which she liked a bit too much, and did not want to stop. Didn't do much in the afternoon; the kids watched DVDs on my laptop. Dinner was an improvised pasta salad with green beans, cherry tomatoes, more mozzarella, olive oil and lemon juice. Strawberries and ice cream for dessert.

8/17 Tuesday: Got a lot of writing done, made pancakes. Another gorgeous day, so we went to the beach again for the morning. Journal says, "Cicadas all day, crickets all night." In the afternoon Dave took the kids to the library. A late trip to GPC for ice cream capped the day.

8/18 Wednesday: Was declared "the worst day ever" by our overly dramatic daughter, who got up much too early, refused to eat breakfast, and spent most of the day in A Mood. Not actually a bad day by any objective measure; played on the dock and the sand pile, went to Meredith in the afternoon. Made the usual pilgrimage to Innisfree Bookshop, did our bit to keep the place in business. Stopped by Oglethorpe and spent an imaginary ten thousand dollars, and then Lee's chocolate store to spend a few real ones. Dave and the kids went to the GPC playground for a while--more writing time for me!

8/19 Thursday: More beach time. L spends all her time in the water, enjoying the kickboard Grandma got her for her birthday, and trying to make friends with everyone remotely her own age. JJ doesn't trust the lake, will only go in up to his knees, and that with much coaxing; he prefers to play in the sand. I took L to the quilt shop, where we found some nice things, and she got to practice apologizing for breaking a dried eggshell they had in a display. I bought a couple more patterns to add to my "some day I will have time for this" collection. The first of our friends arrived for their weekend visit, the first time in ages we've been able to arrange a get-together.

8/20 Friday: Windy and chilly in the morning, but nice later on, though far from hot. Our other friend arrived at lunchtime. We went to the Old Country Store. L wanted to go to the library (the Moultonborough Library has a wonderful kids' section); the plan was that the guys would return to the cottage, but they got wrapped up doing a jigsaw puzzle and we all ended up staying for a while. Played with the kids; L had one of her wands and went around soliciting wishes from everyone. After dinner we had a fire and made s'mores, which L called "smears." It was absolutely wonderful, seeing old friends and my own family, everyone having a grand time. I took JJ off to bed, and everyone else played Trivial Pursuit, with L assisting.

8/21 Saturday: Quiet morning, uncertain weather, another visit to Fun Spot in the afternoon. We played mini-golf on the decaying course, and I got a couple of games of pinball in. Lee Wah's for dinner--it's pretty awful Chinese food, but you can't mess with Tradition. More Trivial Pursuit in the evening.

8/22 Sunday: Our one friend had to catch the bus back to NYC in the early morning; the rest of the time was occupied by cleaning, a trip to the dump, and so forth. Traffic was horrendous, but we made it home eventually and collapsed into our beds.

I didn't exactly feel rested when we got back, but I did feel good. It was a great vacation, and I feel enormously fortunate to have such wonderful people and places as part of my life.

Trials and Tribulations

This has been one of those periods in which the good things arrived sandwiched between the really unpleasant.

It started nearly two weeks ago, on Sunday, when we were supposed to drive into the city to look at a few apartments. Every single appointment ended up canceled or postponed until Tuesday. On Tuesday I went to the office early so I could head out and see the two places I had managed to reschedule. After spending twenty minutes stuck in an inexplicable traffic stoppage, I found that the first was in appalling condition and the second, despite being a duplex, was actually smaller than our current apartment.

Then I got lost trying to get to the highway. Did I mention that it was raining? I found myself thinking that maybe we should just stay put after all, forget the whole idea of moving.

The following morning we set out to visit my family in Pennsylvania. The trip itself went fine; everything was lovely and the kids behaved themselves to an astonishing degree. On Thursday we went to Presque Isle in the morning, then out for dinner with my grandparents (Olive Garden--Erie doesn't offer a lot of options). It was at about 2:30 the following morning that things really and truly went south, as I woke up with a vague feeling of all not being well. By 5:00 it was unequivocally established that I was ill (I blamed the restaurant, but later events seem to have cleared them). I spent the day on the couch with a can of ginger ale, package of saltines, and a Terry Pratchett novel while D* and my mom took the kids out.

Saturday I seemed to be improved, so we headed down to our college reunion. Had a lovely time, though I was very tired; it was nice to see people, to gripe about the changes made to the campus (and those that should have happened, but haven't). Around 9 that night I either relapsed or went into a delayed Stage 2 of the bug. Bad night. Sunday I was still a mess, and we had to drive down to Butler to see my seldom-visited paternal grandmother. I sat in the living room with my Gatorade while everyone else ate lunch, unable to contemplate the smell of anything edible. Then we continued on to Pittsburgh.

On arriving in the hotel parking lot, JJ threw up. The temptation was strong to turn around and head back to my mother's place and thence home, but having tossed his milk he seemed chipper enough, so we decided to see how the night went. D* took them out to a nearby park while I rested. JJ threw up once more, and so did I, before bedtime, but the night passed uneventfully after that, and in the morning everyone seemed to be doing okay. We went to the zoo as planned and had a fine old time of it, started our homeward trip that afternoon, enjoyed a lovely night's stay in Buffalo (and how often do you hear that?), and enjoyed an uneventful drive on Tuesday. I kept exclaiming delightedly about feeling more or less normal again.

Wednesday, JJ vomited again, but again it seemed to be an isolated incident, and it was hard to say whether he was really sick or just having some aftereffect of all the travel and excitement. Then our remaining cat, Jasper, was acting a little odd in the afternoon, and seemed to be having some trouble walking when he got up from a nap, so I made an appointment for him and blew a bunch of money on blood tests that showed nothing wrong that we didn't know about.

Thursday, JJ seemed to be more clearly under the weather. The cat seemed to be fine. I went to my OB/GYN appointment; I haven't gained much weight with this pregnancy yet, but I started off with some to spare, and the baby appears to have weathered my little gastro-intestinal adventure handily.

Friday, 4:30 a.m., L asked for a drink of water, and two minutes later was heaving.

Needless to say, I hope, I haven't been doing much cooking, and indeed food of any kind has not played much of a role for most of us in the past week. Still, the farmer's markets are opening, and in a fit of optimism, I am nevertheless making appointments for more apartment viewings this weekend. Sooner or later, things have to start going better.

Right?

Vacation Log

15 August: Hot, gorgeous. Spent most of the afternoon on the dock.

16 August: 7 a.m., first waterskiier of the day. 7:50, Lydia in the water. She'll get into the sandy place by herself now.

17 August: 5:30 a.m., the lake is still and misty. Crows calling, loon hollering, squirrel chattering. Perfect day yesterday. After a grocery run, we had lunch. More dock time. JJ took his nap. Lydia colored. I went swimming. Right now, watching a bat fly around outside.

18 August: Yesterday - beach, lunch, dock, JJ's nap, Meredith for a visit to the bakery (Abondante), dinner. Very hot, 90s. Read most of Jhegaala.

19 August: Yesterday I took the kids to the beach while D went to GPC. L will let me hold in the water so she can kick. JJ iffy about water. L got up in the morning and announced that she had a "happy dream" about "a caterpillar that went into a chrysalis." After lunch D took her to the library. I took a swim. JJ napped. More reading. More swimming. Early dinner of leftovers, then Kellerhaus.

(later) Fun Spot a huge hit. L cried when we left. Lunch at the Tamarack - lobster roll for D, grilled cheese for me. He's off doing laundry, me reading and playing with L while JJ naps. Not so hot today.

20 August: Clear - can actually see the mountains this morning - and cooler. Yesterday - leftovers for dinner, and the Rescue of the Float Ring. Also a brief rain shower. Went to Innisfree and bought books, to Oglethorpe and carefully did not buy anything. Nothing sounds like a summer afternoon here. The cicadas rise and fall, the water slaps the shore, a distant boat motor hums, someone shouts. Never quiet silent. Lunch: peasant bread, sliced tomato, mozzaralla balls.

21 August: Foggy morning, cool. Last night kids making me nuts, and my throat sore. Today we have to clean and I want to visit the quilt shop. I am just about vacationed out! :)

(later) Hot, humid, overcast. Thunderstorm around 4. Cleaning all done. Rankin still throwing new characters into every chapter.

22 August: Rain went on most of the night. Went to GPC yesterday for ice cream. Other family got here around 9:30. I don't think there is a square foot here that does not have a spider on it. Finished The Black Book.

23 August: More rain yesterday. Eileen took L out in the kayak, and she got a boat ride for ice cream later. Takeout from Lee Wah's for dinner. Overall, a good vacation. Sun, swimming, relaxation, some work on the book, some reading. I think the kids had a good week, and they've been pretty good, all things considered. This morning we'll pack, tidy up, have an early lunch and get on the road.

Twirling, Twirling

Finally, a post I started writing two weeks ago....

I went up to NH for the traditional family July 4th weekend without a thought in my head as to what I was going to make for dinner when my turn came to cook on Sunday. This is not like me; when I am cooking for other people I tend to overplan, and when we go up to the cottage I tend to take half of my kitchen along with me, just in case I want something that isn't part of the antiquated batterie de cuisine. This time, however, I stuffed a couple of recent Fine Cooking issues in my backpack and figured I would wing it.

We arrived during a brief interlude between rainstorms. As previously noted, June in New Englad has been... damp this year. Sad to say, the trend continued during the first week of July, with storms rolling through every hour or two on Friday and Saturday. At least it kept the speed-boaters to a minimum. We enjoyed the sun while we could, spending time out of the dock, watching Raleigh swim after thrown sticks. L was induced to get into the water, and given a ride out to the raft by her "Uncle" Mike, where she handled an involuntary dunking with surprising aplomb.

Saturday morning we went to the parade and the library book sale in Moultonborough. I didn't even look at the books this year.

I did take L to the Old Country Store for some penny candy, and actually found something I've been looking for: a growth chart for her that we can take along when we move (we've been using the kitchen wall, which of course presents a problem...). Clouds kept rolling through, but the rain held off until we were on our way home afterward. After lunch, I found myself drafted into first moving a logpile that was in the way of some work being done on the smaller cottage, and then shoveling sand and gravel for various projects to do with the waterlogged state of the lot. It does not take much to bring out the hydrological engineer in my in-laws. Saturday night, only D's parents were brave enough to attend the fireworks, although as it turned out they took place during one of the clear interludes. It got very cold that night, and we made a fire (in July!).

It was still cold Sunday morning, with a fierce wind. Since it wasn't raining, we grimly bundled ourselves up and went over to the beach, but only stayed for a half hour before L was too cold and wanted to go back.

Various projects were attended to that afternoon; D's job for this trip was to cull the book collection, weeding out Readers Digest Condensed Books and fifty-year-old romance novels to make room for things that might actually get read once in a while. I went to the grocery store. Over the course of the day people who had to be at work on Monday drifted out, so it was a relatively small group for which I had to cook that night.

And I am happy to say that my uncharacteristically relaxed approach did not lead to disaster. While I did have to spend some money on spices I could have brought up had I known I would need them, and I am never going up there without a decent knife again, the meal we ended up with was perfectly adequate, indeed something I will more than likely make again. Here is a link, but I am not sure whether they keep recipes up all the time.

1 cup fresh breadcrumbs
1/3 cup milk
2 Tbs. olive oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped (about 1 cup)
2 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. cayenne
28-oz. can diced tomatoes, with their juices
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 lb. ground beef (preferably 85% lean)
2/3 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro

Combine the breadcrumbs and milk in a mixing bowl and let sit for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a heavy 10-inch skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and sauté until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add 1 tsp. of the cumin, the cinnamon, and 1/8 tsp. of the cayenne and cook for 30 seconds. Add the tomatoes and their juices, 1 cup water, and 1/2 tsp. salt. Increase the heat to high and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to a steady simmer and cook for 15 minutes.

While the sauce simmers, prepare the meatballs: Mash the breadcrumbs and milk with a fork to a smooth paste. Add the beef, the remaining 1 tsp. cumin, half of the cilantro, 1-1/2 tsp. salt, several grinds of pepper, and the remaining 1/8 tsp. cayenne to the breadcrumbs. Mix with your hands until thoroughly combined. Wet your hands to keep the mixture from sticking to them and roll a couple of tablespoons into 1-1/2-inch balls; you should have about 30. Nestle the meatballs into the sauce, cover, and cook for 10 minutes. Remove the lid and continue to simmer for another 5 minutes to thicken the sauce. Stir in the remaining cilantro and season the sauce with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve over herbed couscous or steamed rice.

On Monday morning the weather turned gorgeous. Our second beach outing was much more of a success!

Lake Week 2008 Part 3: Maine

Saturday: Last day here. We spend much of the day packing, cleaning and getting the cottage closed up. Lydia scrapes her foot on a rock, and from the screeching you'd have thought that she broke a leg. At 2 we get on the road (Rt 25, to be specific) for Yarmouth, ME. leading through quaint towns where the only industry still extant appears to be antique stores, but it's a pretty drive. Soon after we arrive, the rain clouds that have dogged us drop their burden. Yarmouth appears intent on making itself walkable/bikeable, and the result is a very agreeable little town. My sister-in-law and her husband are there as well, making for a tight fit in a two-bedroom condo, but we manage to sort out the sleeping arrangements. L and I go along for the dog's evening walk, and get bitten up by mosquitoes. After dinner we have dessert from Kickass Cupcakes, where J has just gotten a job. Not a very restful night; JJ is up a lot, including one spell of about an hour when he just would not get properly to sleep.

Sunday: At Christmas my father-in-law presented everyone with tickets for a harbor ride he'd won in a church raffle, and today is finally the day. In contrast to the previous evening, it's sunny, warm, and about as gorgeous a day as one could wish. I go out for a half hour's walk around the neighborhood, which is quite nice. Around 11 we drive over to a little park with a beach, which is very nice, apply sunscreen, and at 11:30 meet Brenda, our “captain” for the day, a pleasantly outgoing sort with a converted lobster boat in which she tools around. Everything goes fine (once we get Lydia in a lifejacket, which she wasn't keen on). Both of the kids behave well and seem to enjoy the trip.

Boxed lunches from the European Bakery are eaten while we idle past Whaleboat Island. We see a lot of lovely boats, many attractive little islands with rich people living on them, and more lobster buoys than I would have imagined possible.

We leave around 3, run into much worse traffic than we expected, with the result that by 6 we are in the vicinity of Haverill and running low on energy. We have some pretty bad Chinese at Oriental Garden just off the exit. L has a granola bar. JJ sleeps for most of the trip, but after being put back in the car after dinner decides that he's bored and cries most of the rest of the way. We finally get home around 8, stagger upstairs, count the cats, and go to bed.

Lake Week 2008 Part 2: Sun

Wednesday: D's birthday! It's sunny! And very cold at night. L is up very, very early, possibly as a result. I make a fire in the morning, then take the kids to GPC so he can do more inventory. In the afternoon we visit Fun Spot, where L seems to have a much better time than last year; she goes on the bumper cars but seems disconcerted by the actual bumping, plays a round of mini-golf with her dad (I have JJ in the Baby Bjorn, not conducive to golfing), and attempts a couple of games.

Afterwards, we head to Kellerhaus for ice cream sundaes, a venerable family tradition. Both kids fall asleep, JJ in the restaurant, L a few minutes into the car trip back. L sleeps until suppertime. JJ does not; he gets a bath in the sink.

Thursday: Beautifully misty, not so cold. L falls in the water (again) as she gets adventurous enough to try for a new standing rock. The forecast is for showers and more thunderstorms, so in the morning we seize on the still-clear weather and head over to the beach on Long Island. For most of the morning, we share the place with only one other family and a handful of bored and off-duty teenage lifeguards. Relaxing. At noon we head home for lunch. By 1 L is scratching her legs nearly constantly. I wash her off and douse her in calamine lotion, with her howling bloody murder the entire time and JJ complaining in counterpoint about being left in the playpen. I cuddle them both by turns and sing songs. At 2:30 he goes to sleep. At 3 she decides she's feeling better. The rain has not materialized; the afternoon is perfectly gorgeous. D retrieves the sock she threw into the water. There's a bush down there with a few red leaves already; that one is always among the first to turn. Cicadas sing in the daytime, crickets at night. We try again to go to GPC for ice cream, but they seem to be changing their hours randomly, and have to get some at JoJo's. On our way over we see a deer and a very bold fox; D tries to take a picture of the latter.

Friday: Another beautiful morning. Chilly. The kids sleep until 9. I make pancakes for breakfast. We make a trip to the dump, visit the Old Country Store, look at all the stuff, and get L some penny candy. Then a stop at the farm stand to get things for dinner; corn, some carrots, locally made cheese, and some cheesy bread twists. After a lunch of leftovers, D heads out to do more laundry. I let L watch Robin Hood again while I try to get JJ to go to sleep. Dinner is the veggies and some braised chicken thighs with Penzey's Lemon Pepper.

Lake Week 2008 Part 1: Rain

Saturday: Travel is surprisingly easy, since it's not a holiday weekend. With a stop at the Moulton Farm, we're at the lake around 1. Lunch and supper with my in-laws, with plenty of relaxing in between. L goes in the water and gets an unexpected dunking when her grip on the dock's edge slips, but no harm done. JJ has chosen an inopportune time to develop stranger anxiety.

Sunday: The loon pair in the cove have a chick this year. D takes L to GPC in the morning for two hours so I can write, still working on reordering a few scenes in the middle of the book. JJ sleeps for four hours, making up for a rough first night. Rain 12-2. Trip to Center Harbor for groceries. Rain 5-sometime in the early morning. D gets started on his project for the vacation, taking inventory of the accumulated junk in the crawlspaces and closets upstairs. Shortly after we get JJ to bed, an oak tree comes down, narrowly missing big cottage porch (or so we thought, later realizing that a branch had glanced off the roof--you can see it in the background of the second picture).

Monday: Rain. I make pancakes. D drives down to Boston to see his cousin and about the legal arrangements for the cottage's future. I play with L, cut pictures out of the newspaper for her to glue, make a fire and spend the rest of the day keeping JJ away from it. He's teething or something, nursing every time I turn around. L watches the animated Robin Hood DVD on my laptop, runs out of steam around 5 pm and gets very clingy, but it's a surprisingly good day for having been stuck inside the whole time. For dinner I make a huge pot of pasta and sauteed globe zucchini and the little star-shaped ones we call flying saucer squash (we eat it for lunch for the rest of the week).

Tuesday: Another threatening morning, so we drive in to Meredith. It clears up. We walk along the waterfront and marvel at the millrace by the Mill Falls, which can barely contain the amount of water coming through.

Lydia walks on the rocks at the water's edge. We visit the Innisfree Bookshop, where I manage to only buy a couple of things, then walk up to a new gourmet food store a friend told me about. On the way back we stop at a new bakery for an enormous round of foccaccia. Businesses are always coming and going in Meredith. Lunch on the porch is bread, cheese, and sliced cucumber. D tackles more inventory. I take L down to the dock to play, and think about how last year we wouldn't let her on the old concrete stairs without someone to hold her hand. Now she scrambles surely around the shore rocks, finding sticks and pebbles to throw into the lake (and one of her brother's socks, which earns her a time-out), and puts her feet in the water. We drive over to GPC, but the ice cream parlor is closed and it's begun raining again, so we turn around, occasioning tears from a disappointed little girl. She is mollified by some more scissors-and-glue action, and her mother congratulates herself for having thought to bring the stuff along. Intermittent showers throughout the afternoon. Dinner is pork fajitas, rice and beans, and salad.

We're Back!

Spent the holiday weekend in NH, as is traditional. D's entire family was there, a relatively rare event, so the place was packed to bursting--thirteen adults, three children, two dogs, and two cats. Should more kids come along we're going to have to start getting creative with the space.

We drove up on Thursday morning, beating the traffic, and got settled in among the family members already present. I had volunteered to cook that night, and made my pulled chicken with a bean salad from The Silver Palate Cookbook. Keeping things simple. Other people straggled in over the course of the day and late into the night, card games were played, overexcited children played with each other and fought their bedtimes, and eventually people more or less collapsed.

Friday morning was the parade in Moultonborough, as small-town as they come, with fire trucks and old cars and a handful of floats, and the annual library book sale, at which we all exercised commendable restraint (for once). Then back to the house for a swim and dinner and then back out for the fireworks--L's first, and which she apparently enjoyed, much to our relief. I stayed behind with the baby and a few others.


Saturday morning L got to go in grandma's kayak, now that she has her very own life jacket, which thrilled her beyond words, and in the afternoon we went to the beach, where she got a bit too much sun but otherwise had a wonderful time.


The evening involved a family meeting about the future of the property, which went well, and then the annual lobster dinner (with steak for those of us who can't handle having our food stare at us while we disassemble it). Yes, there are a few traditions at work here. JJ got bit overstimulated and had to be taken upstairs, where he quickly quieted down and went to sleep.

Sunday morning, with suitable pomp, we buried his placenta there, just as we did his sister's. With luck and good planning, they will be able to spend many summers there, just like their father and his sister and cousins have, and their parents before them. The rest of the day was split between chores and swimming.

We got on the road a bit later than planned, around 4, and thanks to heavy traffic on 93 did not get home until around 9:30 (with a stop for dinner at a Friendly's in Concord, where I was somewhat bothered to see that their children's menu noted that the hot dogs contain milk, but made no such claim for the macaroni and cheese). JJ was unusually unhappy and cried for most of the trip (ouch), but seemed thrilled to be home. We staggered in, said hello to the cats, got the kids ready for bed, and went to sleep. Now here it is, Monday, and there's so much to do before next weekend (when Nana will be visiting for L's birthday) that it just about boggles the mind.

It was a nice weekend, and it's nice to be back.