Oct 6, 2008
This is a shot of Amy and her sister, Becky and niece Lauren aboard "The Beast", a high-speed tourist boat. It runs down the Hudson River to the Statue of Liberty. Moments later we were soaked. We had been warned by a pirate's mate that if we didn't want to get wet we should take the Circle Line Cruise with the losers. It's not wrong to have fun with your history lesson, is it?
Drying seeds
Janice collects and dries seeds. Most come from her garden, but she is also bold enough to see something going to seed, reachable from a public sidewalk, and magically, finds those seeds ending up in one of her pockets. She dries them and then scatters them in her garden, sometimes forgetting what went where, and waits to see what happens. Her helter-skelter approach to gardening is fun to watch.
Janice's patio table in September
This patio is on the lower level of our back yard. Our neighbour Jon built the fence to Janice's design, and our friend Bob prepared and laid the patio flag stones, something like blue river slate from Pennsylvania. Several stones not shown were so large they required ancient technology--rolling logs, to get the stones into the back yard. We try to eat here whenever the weather permits, May through September. This is utterly relaxing, especially if I remember to bring a bit of wine along, and a great place to entertain guests for Sunday noon.
Janice's garlic
Several years ago, my good friend Peter sang the praises of his home-grown garlic. I eagerly accepted his offer of a free bulb or two to get our crop started, and added a few more varieties from an outfit on Vancouver Island which specializes in seeds and bulbs for our west coast climate. I got Janice to create a fresh bed with her compost, and she produced an excellent crop. Since then, we have been harvesting, sharing, and getting others to plant their own garlic. Karl started his crop several years ago from our cloves and has since gotten his neighbours to plant cloves he gives away. The taste is excellent, the cloves run with juice when pressed, and there is none of the questionable chemical treatment from China (which seems to supply most of our garlic in stores).
We always cut off the flowers so the plant energy can go to the bulb, but only recently learned that the flowers are delicious in soups and salads.
Janice asked me to take these pictures for her records. The second was my last, taken from ground level. As soon as I shot, I leaned forward just a bit more for a better angle when, 'pop
went my lower back and the shooting pain commenced. Days later I can finally stand tall again. But it was all for a good cause--garlic, and the eternal hope that I will be allowed to buy yet another camera lens.
Bruce & Amy
This September Bruce came out to Cutchogue to catch up on things with us and for a little R&R. We took a trip to the South Fork, did some fishing at the Shinnecock Inlet and watched young surfers struggling to catch a wave.
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