Mosying along...

When I left Rockport, I intended to hug the coast for a while up to Pigeon Cove or so.  The fog was thick and there weren’t too many views of the water.  But I felt the urge to stay by the water even though I couldn't see it most of the way.  By the time I hit Salisbury Beach, I knew I needed to head inland, I set my GPS to the anti-highways setting and took off.  It may have added 45 minutes to an hour to my trip to Tilton, New Hampshire, but, in spite of the weather, it was beautiful.

There’s something special about weaving your way through small New England towns with their neat commons and old houses.  It’s probably what made me fall in love with this area in the first place.  But it was the natural beauty that took my breath away. 

At Folly Cove Landing, Gloucester, Massachusetts.

Folly Cove Landing

Stavros Reservation, Essex, Massachusetts

Stavros Reservation

A little bit of whimsey.  Sand sculpture at Salisbury Beach, Massachusetts

Motif #1 Redux…

I just got back from a short road trip with my sister Susan.  She works as a fund raiser and when she comes to New England, I usually try to join her for at least part of her journey.  This year, I met her at the Emerson Inn in Rockport, Massachusetts, home of the famous Motif #1.

Susan is six years older than I am and is certainly different from me, but we have parents, two sisters, three brothers, nieces and nephews and lots of aunts, uncles and cousins in common.  So our times together tend to be yak-fests.  Even so I managed to take a few pictures.  Here are a few from our evening in Rockport.

Susan in our room at the Emerson Inn

Motif #1

Valued more than hoarded gold...

“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.”

~J.R.R. Tolkien

Every year for the last few years, I have donated a home-cooked meal to the Women’s Alliance Silent Auction at the Unitarian Universalist Church we attend.  I prepare and serve the meal in our home.  I always pick a theme.  Like one year I cooked “comfort food.”  I gave the recipient a choice between meatloaf or mac and cheese with all the fixings.  And one year I auctioned off “A Taste of Cincinnati.”  That included Cincinnatichili (a true treat!) cooked the long way and buckeyes for dessert.

This past auction, however, I bit off a little more than I could chew.  I decided to donate a Mexican dinner.  Holy Guacamole! What got into me??  I had the recipes that looked good, but had a hard time obtaining some of the ingredients, which means we didn’t get to try them out prior to the big night.  But the fortunate thing is that our friends, the Smiths and the Mulligans, won the auction and the night was more about companionship and catching up than it was ever about the food.   And , well, a few Margaritas didn't hurt…

After dinner, we built a fire in our fire pit and enjoyed a gorgeous late summer night, a little single malt (well, Scotch is universal, after all!) and talked way too late into the evening. 

  Now my mind is working…what can I do next year?

I love beets!  Part of the Ensalada Mixta from my Moosewood Cookbook.

If it's Margarita's you want, you have to squeeze a few limes.

The Morning After

The life and times of Olive the pug…

On Friday night last week, we did our usual preparations, got the golf cart out and went down to the beach.  Now, Olive, our pug, loves this ritual.  When I say love, I mean she practically jumps out of her skin with excitement.  Going down to the beach on the golf cart is her favorite thing.

Well, we happened to be the only ones enjoying the beautiful evening.  The temps had dipped down into the 60s (Fahrenheit) and I think it might have been too cool for people.  But it was an absolutely beautiful night so we took advantage of it.

Olive is funny once she gets to the beach.  She tears off of the golf cart and runs around like a little maniac.  Of course, she has to find the perfect spot to mark so everyone knows she’s been there.  Then she starts looking for her friends.  She most often plays “with” Freedom, a black lab mix, who studiously ignores her.  Every now and then Polly or Remy, one of her sibling pugs who live in the neighborhood, comes down.  Sometimes the young dude Buddy is there.  Olive loves Buddy who is also a lab mix sort of like Freedom.  But, unlike Freedom, Buddy thinks Olive is great fun, too.  They like to play “let’s run at full speed under the picnic tables.”  Sadly last Friday, she had no canine companions and Canada Geese just don’t cut it as a fun bunch as they just won’t stick around to play.

So she jumped up on the picnic table bench to see if there was any good food to be had.  That was also a disappointment for her since it was just our stuff from home… no good cheese or pepperoni.

Then, like a little kid who is bored with her parents and all their stupid ideas, she jumped on the golf cart ready to go home. 

She even offered to drive.

Eventually, because we just laughed at her, she decided that since no one was around who would freak out, she could sit on top of the table, get serious and join in the conversation.  We watched the sun sink behind the hill across the pond and decided it really was a bit chilly out now that the sun was gone.  Olive was happy to go home where she got her treat, settled in next to me on my chair (her usual spot) and proceeded to snore her way through the Red Sox game.  A perfect pug evening!