In Praise of the Donut Peach and other Ephemeral Delights

In our continuing exploration of the Garden State, we visited our favorite local orchard, Strawberry Hill (peaches, nectarines and apples, no strawberries.) We came early because Ross is often “picked out”.


 

The variety on offer today was the Donut Peach, donut shaped morsels of pure sugary goodness. Donut Peaches don’t last very long –- not in orchard, not in the basket and certainly not in a crispy cobbler. We found a few ready to sample. (No pictures today. The usual excuse, the resident photographer was all sticky…)  We brought home 20# to ripen and counted ourselves fortunate.  This family place was immaculately groomed, friendly and well organized.  A much longer stay here in the land of Grand Boy may be necessary to sample ALL the varieties, but our hostess may run out of projects for us before then.
Another day, another magical berry patch.  Joanie already had a good supply of blueberries from Embry’s and created a five star cobbler last night.


Today we were in search of PIE and no one, I Say NO ONE, does fruit pie better than Embry’s.  We scored a Trifecta (blueberries, cherries and Peaches still firm in their heavenly combination) AND a Peach pie to take on the road.

 

 

Embry’s has lots more than blueberries and Pies to delight.

Then off for the Brown Eggs “ at the place where they keep them refrigerated” on a wagon in the back yard with an Honor System change box. 


We tried for the temporarily rare Jersey Tomatoes (weather) and struck out at a roadside place where local thuggery has made made these warnings necessary.

 


But Wait.  OLD YORK FARM at Reckless Road and York has a wagon we have shopped many times before, but this time we were honored to meet the owners.   
Herb and Karina call themselves   “Sundown Farmers”. 














Both are employed full time and farm from dawn to work time and often into the night (by headlight) after work.  They had the best tomatoes we have found,  a good variety of other veggies and a genuine down home friendly approach.  We enjoyed hearing their stories and especially their generous good spirits. 







Gary was nearby offering business advice; They refer to him as the Zen Master.  Gary has been known to grow a LITTLE corn.  We find later that he is locally famous for his Sweet Corn Farm and equally praised for his generosity. 
Thanks to our new friends for capping our day with kindness. 
And now we return you to our regular (4-5 times annual) Chesterfield Volunteer Fire Chicken Bar B Que where Tim, our vegetarian Son-in-law, manfully rips chicken asunder and fires it in a 40’ long pit.  When he returns, a really hopeful dog follows him around even more closely than usual.
 
“I think he misses me…” 

The carnivores appreciated the crispy chicken (No Pictures.  Yeah, …sticky…)  and are looking forward to the evening’s PIE.

First Yards on the Appalachian Trail

It’s the day after the Jonesborough Storytelling and, after three days of highly charged emotional pinball, we need to sleep in a little.  It is, however, Bethy’s last few hours in town, so we saddled up to see some of the surrounding mountains (and listen to some of our new John McCutcheon CDs enroute).  We headed to the prettiest place we knew --  Carvers Gap on the Appalachian Trail. (LINK TO 2011 VISIT)
It was a foggy, drizzly day –- driving conditions that THRILL my sister, who has inexplicably attained adulthood without an IFR rating.  As we climbed from Roan Mountain Park through yellow tinged  forests, along rivulets swelling with the rain, we pointed out viewpoints and described what she might have seen IF the clouds had not enveloped the valley of the Doe River and seeped “with little cat feet” across our path.
At the Gap, I was ready to abandon the hike and stay warm and dry, but this was Bethy’s first glimpse of the trail she has heard so much about.  Besides, BOTH HER TITANIUM knees had been performing well all week… so the adventure began.
































OK, so we didn’t make the 5+ miles to the famous Overmountain Shelter (Where Pizza delivery was once available), but we DID see a variety of Appalachian topography, suffered discomforts which will worsen exponentially in the retelling, and kept upright.  We celebrated as true AT hikers –-  we ATE, at a cozy Italian bistro and returned to introduce Bethy to Lotti the Airstream.

EPILOGUE:  Next day, Lotti, not to be outdone, also did 200 yards on the AT.  In the Pisgah Mountain Picnic Grounds on the Blue Ridge Parkway, the trail runs through the parking lot….

   Titanium – Aluminum  It’s all in the Spirit.

We had a BERRY Nice time.

    We are in South Haven Michigan, heart of the Fruit Belt --  Blueberries, Raspberries, big luscious Blackberries, and PIES.  Yes, we have put away our share and then some, while enjoying a visit with our St Louis family.  Pat’s sister and the whole clan –- three young couples and two active (and now mobile) grand nieces are vacationing in a lovely rental home overlooking Lake Michigan .  Of course, the little girls were the center of everything –- beach time, walks around town, berry picking and just hanging around entertaining the grown-ups.
South Haven is beautiful with lovely well-kept homes, parks, the active harbor and just enough shops and restaurants to provide those little pleasures to the visitors.  There was none of the hurly burly we sometimes find in tourist destinations, just family fun under blue skies.
We had towed 400 miles from the Bash (and the 100 degree temperatures) into a balmy breezy 80 degrees with cool sleeping in a little family campground just West of town.

LAST DAY…

I guess we are beached out.  We let the “golden Hour” for photos slip away as we played in the AC.  Reports from the hurricane zone weren’t terrible, but lots of trees down and standing water around the house in New Jersey.  Tim, we really wish you were here and not having to deal with that!
We all wore the tie dye that Emilyn lovingly crafted and distributed to us the first night and Cassie’s bracelet that she handed out the last full night with everybody.They matched the colors of the tie dye t-shirt!!   We made quite an impression at the beachside. 




Cassie’s comments:
Anthony has been cracking us up mimicking everybody and playing  games like hide and go seek. Anthony can’t stay hidden long; he always comes out or makes a big noise!! LOL!! I love him!
 I also found out Anthony is very ticklish and that he wants Emilyn’s iPad since Emilyn let him play on it.  Anthony also helps Meme win the card games by holding the important cards and drawing cards from the deck making sure Meme doesn't give away the good cards like she has done a couple of times . Now when Meme is usually talking to herself she has an excuse to say she is talking to Anthony.
The waves were so big yesterday! There was even an undertow so I had to go out in the water with daddy and he would help us not get pulled away! Emilyn and I would both try to swim against the undertow but the furthest we got without being really tired was like 5-10 yards !! But not to worry he made sure we would not get past him. He said that we couldn’t go boogie-boarding on the towering 5-10 ft. waves (even though I wanted to boogie-board them so so much!! ) Well that is all of Cassie’s comments  I’ll try and blog later !! bye!!

Our own beach

Weekdays at the beach after school has started –SERENE.


We are up pre-dawn. Papa and Anthony search for reptiles, preferably pterodactyls, but without success.  We found a sign that said “Do not feed small children to the Alligators; It makes them very sick.”


We decided to go to the Beach and we had a full half mile of sugar soft sand to ourselves. 

We had a nice day at the beach waiting for Cassie and Emilyn, Aunt Trina and crazy Uncle Jeff.  Here is  place where you can see the pictures….
Anthony's day at the beach

Joanie and Anthony Arrive

 

Ok, so we probably didn’t have to get to the airport TWO hours early, but we had strolled the oft photographed Airsteam food vendors at Seaside, declared them both picturesque and overpriced and the weather at noon really really HOT.  

 

…and unknown perils of the highway might have delayed us… and the beach traffic on a school day Wednesday notoriously congested out there on  US 98… and sit down dining might take forever…So,  we choked down a Sub and drove direct.  Picture two doddering old folks in beach clothes lined up in the arriving passengers aisle nodding awake with every announcement.

Hi Meme,  I really missed you.

 

Let’s go to the Beach…

 

 

 

Ok that looks serious, lets go to the Airstream.

Dear Tim,

 

We are down here at Grayton Beach State Park in Florida awaiting the arrival of your little family.  I guess they will be glad to escape the week-long torrential rains.  It’s clear and sunny here with highs in the 90’s and, of course, the steady onshore breeze. 

Geeze, just heard about the EARTHQUAKE.  Did it disrupt the flood repair efforts?

We just got back from an early morning dip in the turquoise waters of the Gulf.  We had 700 yards of soft sugar white beach all to ourselves.  Well there are turtles, but they haven’t hatched yet, so they aren’t doing much to disturb the tranquility. It’s nice and shady here in the campground and the air conditioner seems to be able to provide a cool spot to return  to when    the beach gets crowded.  We had to leave earlier this morning because another couple wanted to use the 700 yards of beach, but the walk through the dunes was nice.  This park has been lucky; the dunes weren’t hit too hard by the hurricane. OMG!  HURRICANE. Look out. There is one coming your way.  Hope it doesn’t hit the Jersey Shore.  Oh the humanity.

 

 

 

Thinking of You…..

We Had the Time of Our Lives

Emilyn & Cassie’s Excellent Beach Trip of 2011 was a huge success.
CLICK HERE FOR ALL THE PICTURES


The weather was Hot but we were cool in our tin can and the beach was breezy, the water clear and comfortable.  We ate well and everybody pitched in to do the chores and  we learned a few new ways to use the Airstream.
 
Day Two we toured the Fort by bike and traipsed around with the Ranger.  THEN, we explored all the tunnels and passageways with  our own flashlights.  We climbed the spotting tower and rode our bikes around the other campground stopping to wet down in the showers.  Hitting the beach after lunch was the best idea, so we stayed all afternoon.

Day Three  we toured Pensacola and took in the Lighthouse, the Naval Air Museum and (Al’s favorite) Joe Patti’s Fish Market and the Shrimp boats. 


Halfway up the 177 steps in the lighthouse a young man saw Patty and announced, “Dad, look at this lady.  If SHE can make it up here, Mom and Susie could have!”  Dad looked a little sheepish…
That’s OK Patty responds. “When we were packing up to leave, a young camper came by to say goodbye to the girls ‘and their Mom.’”
Thanks to Emilyn the “Water Police” and Cassie the “Sun Lotion Enforcer” we stayed hydrated and a comfortable shade of tan.  The girls rode to the camp store for supplies and checked out the sand trails in back of the campsite.  We saw dolphin swim by several times while playing in the ocean, caught a glimpse of a sea turtle just off shore, saw a couple of sting rays (now that scared us), and had fun collecting sea shells, boogie boarding, body surfing and building sand castles.  Forever young!!!!!!

The Gulf in August–It’s Beachin

Hot…Very Hot, and Predicted to be Hotter!
The ride down from Montgomery is pleasant with good roads and little traffic.  We stopped at the Pensacola Visitors Center and stepped out into sizzling heat.  Oh Boy!  This is not going to be like it was in May… 
Another disappointment –the Blue Angels are out on Tour and won’t be practicing this week.  (Patty has a little crush on the Blue Angels; in May we watched three practices and she really, really wanted to attend the autograph party.)


All signed in at the old Coast Guard building, we are off to get set up in site A001, just yards from the boardwalk to the beach.


   All set up
Fort Pickens Campground, Gulf Islands National Seashore.  Nicely rebuilt campground.  Note the damaged trees from the Hurricane winds and salt water surge.
We would never have made if if it weren’t for the help from both young ladies and especially Emilyn, “The Water Police”, who kept us hydrated in the really really stifling noonday sun.


At Last, it’s time for the beach.
Checklist: Drinks, boogie boards, flip flops, light coat of oil on young and ….




  Yeah, right there.  No, just a little to  the  left…  




Record number of Turtle nests on the seashore this year –70 so far. This one only last week.  Volunteers watch them at night and are on site when they hatch out in 60 days.  We asked to help, but there is a long waiting list.


We’re tired.  Let Papa cook.

Cassie Takes the Stage

"There was a star danced, and under that was I born." - William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing, 2.1

A pleasant Matinée performance of your eleven year old Grand girl in Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing  may not  be common summer afternoon fare for many, but it is actually not too unusual in Montgomery Alabama.

The world renowned --seriously folks, World Class –– Alabama Shakespeare Festival (ASF)  hosts summer classes in which grade-schoolers learn, choreograph, and present  a Shakespeare play.  They learn the lines, create the props, make their costumes, do a little sword fighting, rig the lights, inject a few dances of their own, rehearse and go live on a professional stage IN A WEEK!

Both girls have enjoyed this pre blog, but here is a sample of our star’s current work.

Cassie Mac in Much Ado About Nothing

"I do love nothing in the world so well as you. Is that not strange?”  ditto