End of November

Not a lot is new around here. I'm adjusting still to being completely retired. I'm so used to measuring my daily worth by what I've produced--and usually that's a mental production that may or may not be tangible in other ways--that I'm not sure what I'm worth when I don't do something mentally productive. I'm sewing some and doing x-stitch, and I need to get my January workshop all set up. That'll take a few days. But I am steadfastly avoiding sitting down every day and writing, which is what I need to do if I intend to really write something.

At least I haven't become a compulsive cleaner! I did vacuum yesterday but that was sparked by the fact that Susie the Cat had gacked on the white-with-colors Berber carpet. So I'm not feeling overly OCD.

I would love to do A LOT of cooking but the problem is that we'll just eat it. And I'm doing okay maintaining my weight by walking 2.5 mi. almost every day; I can eat pretty much whatever I want this way. I don't plan on losing the 15 lbs. I should lose: I don't look fat (when I remember to suck in my stomach) and I feel good. But if I do cook a lot, even with everything from Cooking Light, I know I'll gain. So I make oatmeal-raisin cookies (yesterday), good for fiber and iron, and let Stan eat most of them. At his age it won't hurt him.


Well, I am going to go cook now. It's turkey noodle soup from the Thanksgiving turkey. It's a meal that Stan & I both love.

This is about how I feel today: anchored but at the same time, not going anywhere.

Later.

New name for old ... just oldsters

We learned a new name for the leaf-peepers while we were on our Cape Breton trip: swivelheads. I like it a lot--makes me think of bobbleheads, but I'll state that almost ALL swivelheads have gray/graying/dyed hair!

Visit to Cape Breton -- LONG post!

Ciad Mille Failte! (One hundred thousand welcomes, in Gaelic. Pronounced Key-ad Mill Fal-chou)

Stan & I drove to Nova Scotia at the beginning of October. It's a heckuva drive; GoogleMaps says 963 miles one way.


View Larger Map

It took us 2 days and we had the dog along. THAT was ... interesting! The drive is all through moose territory; my eyes were tired at the end of the day. (Note: A moose's eyes don't reflect; makes them doubly dangerous in/near a road at night.)

One of the places we drive through on our way through VT, NH, ME, N.B. and mainland N.S., is Marshfield, VT. If I remember right, this is the sister city to Marshfield, WI.



I think my sister Siara had a friend who visited the VT town. What Stan & I found there was the Rainbow Sweets Bakery & Cafe, a place started by what were probably a couple of Woodstockies who had hung around New England after the event (Woodstock was in NY, which is NOT a part of New England). The food was outstanding but so were the prices. A brunch, which did include my first brioche, came to $39. Needless to say, we didn't eat a big meal even at dinner that day! But that man can really make pastries. Yum.

The trip took the place of Stan’s annual trek with his fishing partner Jerry, who had to spend time in L.A. awaiting/celebrating the birth of his granddaughter. This would have been Stan & Jerry’s 20th consecutive year of fishing Cape Breton rivers for Atlantic salmon, and Stan was mightily disappointed that Jerry had to cancel. Stan looked into going it alone but decided it would be too expensive. So, not that it saved him/us any money (!), I volunteered to go along, since we’d talked about going in the summer but never got around to it. I hadn’t been since 2000 when Jerry & wife Sally and Stan “took me around” Cape Breton. Jerry & Sally bought a house on Cape Breton that year and that’s the house Stan & I stayed in this month.



It was like being at camp for a couple of weeks. (This is “camp” as it’s meant in New York, a word used in place of cottage or cabin.) There was running water and a flush toilet, an electric stove and lights, TV but no picture, a decent boombox-style CD player/tuner, and a kerosene heater. The mornings definitely required the heater, even though the temps had been around 20-21° C (that’s 70s to us F users) when we arrived. In October!!! But things got seasonal quickly. When we arrived it was still pretty green, a few trees having turned. Here's the view from the porch (using a bit of a zoom).



While we were there the color arrived. Wow. I took this shot from the driveway, which climbs about a 35° angle (no joke) with a switchback.



I spent two weeks—11 days actually—on Cape Breton in October and never once saw a moose. Stan had said that was impossible but when we got back I told him I’m going to market myself in N.S. as moose repellant. I think I’d get hired! Jerry & Sally had sent us photos of a bull moose walking outside the kitchen window and I never saw one. They also said they had a black bear visit the yard; I never saw one of those either. I did see eagles while sitting on the front porch, and spruce grouse—endangered species in the U.S.—in the back yard. No good photos of those, all too far away.

The people are what make the Cape Breton trip so special. Carmel & Davey are a couple with whom Stan & Jerry stayed on their visits until Jerry got the house. They’re a terrific “Caper” couple: Irish as a shamrock and tough, tough, tough. I just realized I should’ve taken a picture of them; they’re such big players in Stan’s trips. And then there’s a couple new to me: Allen & Suzi Moore. He’s an architect, mostly retired, and she’s retired from building custom cabinets to training bird dogs. This links to one of Allen's most recent designs--click on the Slideshow. He designed (in the 70s?) the Church Street Mall in Burlington, VT, a place I'm pretty familiar with! They also have a home on Cape Breton, talked about a little bit in this article in Forbes. Other homes are Miramichi, N.B., the Bahamas, and home base is Newburyport, MA. During dinner Allen told me about a house called "Seven Doors" that he designed for a famous mathematician friend; the friend wound up marrying Allen's ex-wife who then had to live in the house she'd watched being built. (She didn't like the house--no bathroom in the crow's nest master bedroom!) Doing some librarian sleuthing based on clues from our conversation, I believe this is the house.

Anyway, they were terrific people, as were the others I met at the Margaree Salmon Association Annual Dinner. That was a bit of a tightwire walk for me: I kept hearing, "At last we get to meet the wife!" I wasn't sure just what size shoes I was expected to fill so I was a little restrained. (No, really!) Anyway, the dinner featured a seemingly endless fund-raising auction after and I'm very glad we stayed to the end because I bought the LAST item: a beautiful cutting board made by an old guy in Margaree Harbour who has no one to continue his work so I know this will be even more a treasure in the future. It is really gorgeous (the martini is there for scale ;-)).



I should talk a LITTLE about the reason we were actually there. The Margaree River on Cape Breton (includes the Northeast Margaree and of course, the Southeast Margaree) is a world-renowned Atlantic salmon river. It flows into the Gulf of St. Lawrence at Margaree Harbour. (I think.) The towns around the river are named like some in Massachusetts--Newton, Newton Falls, Upper Newton, Lower Newton--you get the picture. On Cape Breton it's Margaree Valley, Margaree Forks, Margaree Centre, Northeast Margaree, East Margaree, Upper Margaree. I think that's all! And they're all tiny, tiny towns that are really collections of homes within an undefined circumference as far as I can tell. It's a hard place to make a living but the people are resilient. They lumber and lobster and do 'most everything in between. You can see Cape Islanders like this one all over the island. It's most fun to watch them taking in the lobster pots--with lobsters in, of course--but we didn't see that this time. The last time I was there I was told that permission to lobster rotates in sections around the island so maybe it wasn't my section's time. And I only got to eat lobster once. But it and the mussels were absolutely grand.

Back to fishing. Right. A friend came up while we were there and Stan played guide for him for awhile. He'd never salmon fished here although he & his wife had been here twice (she's my friend, Lorna). I think they both had a good time but I don't think any/many fish were caught. Once our friend left Stan fished on his own and did get a very large rainbow trout and the next day his one salmon. He was moderately happy--years ago there were many more fish to be had. But getting one this year beats last year's catch. And of course it's absolutely ALL catch-and-release here to keep the fishery going.

While Stan fished, I spent much time doing cross-stitch and reading. I walked a little but with moose on the loose I didn't do a lot. It's their mating season and I really, really didn't want to see one up close. Out the window, okay, but not face to face on a lonely dirt road with no weapon except my camera. The bulls are VERY aggressive around now and tales abound of things smashed and kicked by marauding moose. So the dog and I walked a little. I did spend a day in Cape Breton's "Lake Placid" town, Baddeck. It's VERY small and I think charming, again because of the people. The Celtic Colours celebration was in progress while we were on the island but Baddeck had nothing during the days we were there except for a very small art/quilt show. Nice work but nothing that I liked well enough to buy.

So I Christmas shopped in the small stores and galleries and got things I'm VERY happy with. This articulated fish



is my absolute favorite purchase. I especially like the slightly sad look on its face. If you hold it by pinching its lower lip and get it level, it "swims" all on its own. Too neat for words, and beautiful workmanship to boot.

All in all a wonderful trip. Beautiful place on the planet. Next time I told Stan I need a vehicle at my disposal and I'll do the Cabot Trail again (Jerry calls it the Cabbage Trail) like a regular tourist. But a five-star place to go for any and all.

Slán go fóill. (Good-bye for now; shlahn goh foihll)

Been awhile....

I haven't posted in almost a month?? Well, not like I lead an exciting life, so you haven't missed anything.

It's leaf-peeper season around here as I'm sure it is in many other places. It really is pretty to walk these days, though. Lots of color. But I don't like what it means. I dread winter, and then it's never as bad as I think it's going to be. At this time of year, with winter coming on, I'm all for global warming. (NOT.) I heard and saw my first flock of geese yesterday, and as late as they are, wouldn't you know they were heading west and not south? It looked like they were following the Saranac River, but as you follow it west you get into the High Peaks region of the Adirondacks. I hope someone spoke to their slightly misguided leader! I do love the sound and sight of those flights.

And it's apple season here too. I bought a new type of apple, maybe not new to you but it was to me. It's an early ripener, either Golden Ginger or Ginger Gold. GREAT eating apples. I'll wait with the Macintoshes until after we get back from Nova Scotia.

Ah, yes, Nova Scotia. I'll post about that when we get back. This trip is a aberration of one that Stan has been taking for 19 years. This, the 20th, would have been a bust since his fishing partner has to go to L.A. for the arrival of a grandchild. ("Has to" is important in that sentence.) So Stan was trying to figure out how to go alone and I offered to go along. I'm not going as a fishing partner, believe me, but rather as a spouse. (I'm way better at that role than the other!) We'll leave on Oct.4 and leave Cape Breton about 10 days later. It's the time of year for an island-wide celebration of all things Scottish and Cape-Bretonish so I should be able to go to art fairs and music performances. The concerts are all sold out, but the wander-in kind of stuff seems to be accessible. While Stan is wading in the rivers, I'll wade in the culture. That should be fun. We're taking the dog along and that should be an adventure in itself. I'm pretty sure I'll take her harness-leash. It keeps her from pulling while we walk and I'll need it because I can't trust her off a leash with bear and in-rut moose everywhere there. I'm told to pack for 90-degree days and 30-degree nights, as well as some temps in between. A challenge for this fashionista. I'll supply pictures, for sure.

All for now. My big excitement this week is going to FL to babysit Kyrin, who apparently now has four teeth and is about ready to crawl. I cannot wait to see her, and oh yes, her parents too.

"The Body"

Yesterday I went to the Montreal Science Center to see the "Bodyworlds 2" exhibit. It's one that shows a number of real human bodies (dead, of course!) that have had their skin removed so you can see all the stuff you usually only see in a biology course or if you watch "Operation" (if that's even on anymore). The bodies have been "plastinated," a patented process by which the body is actually turned into a plastic-like substance, looking sort of like those models of the body from that biology course. It was amazingly impressive. There must have been a dozen or more whole bodies and then a whole lot of body parts on display. AMAZING. My Best of Show piece was the circulation system in the hand and arm. That's all. No skin, nerves, bones, muscles. Just the whole venous/arterial system from just below the elbow to the fingertips, suspended in a clear liquid and lit from below (or above?). Beautiful, simply or rather, complexly (if there is such a word) stunning. If it hasn't already passed through your nearest metropolis and it comes there, GO TO IT. I was so glad I had. Here's the link to the Science Center's info on it: http://www.centredessciencesdemontreal.com/BW2/en/index.html. (It looks like I can't put a live link here, probably because of copyright and patent limitations.)

I don't think I could say the word amazing too often to describe it. As for the controversy that the exhibit apparently engendered in some of the cities it visited, with conservatives arguing that it disrespected the body, I can say with absolute certainty that I came out if the exhibit with more respect than ever for the beauty and complexity of the human. Period.

Wow.

Mid-August and not much happenin'

It's pretty quiet around here these days. I don't have too many projects on any burners so I'm doing little stuff, deciding what my cold-weather projects will be. The first one is to catalog Stan's fishing books. And then to maybe begin on his fiction, but I'd love to weed that collection! He thinks weeding is a sin. We shall see.

I am working on making a pillow out of my very first piece of needlepoint. It's a monarch butterfly that has hung on a wall for 30 years or more. I needed the wall space and decided to make it into the pillow it was intended to be. I've had to do several partial steps twice so I'm taking my time. I'll post a picture here when I've finished--it should be pretty and it'll go very well in my living room.

Wow. I have NPR's All Things Considered on right now and it just reported that Antioch College in Ohio is closing, terminating all faculty & staff by fall 2008. The best man at my first wedding is a grad of Antioch. It's hard to picture a whole college just going away. I remember when a late college--just buildings and grounds by that time--was sold in Iowa. I think it had been Parson's College and I know for sure it became Maharishi International University, home of the Transcendental Meditation (TM) movement. I can't remember if I was still in Iowa or had just moved to NY when it built its levitation dome. Far out, right?

I'm trying to gear myself up to start writing ... anything. I can't have writer's block because I'm not yet a writer, but I'm a little fearful of not liking what I'll do. So I'm using my usual and highly developed avoidance behavior technique. If I write here I don't have to try fiction. Hmmmmm. Maybe I should try fiction here and it won't be so scary. I'll now have to take a little time to think about that!

The Outfit with Kyrin in It

Just to complete the picture of the outfit in the last post, here's Kyrin IN it: