Here at Hangman Hill

Things “Here on the Hill” have been busy with typical home, garden and work activities.  We offer some highlights from the last few weeks for your amusement.

We kicked off last weekend with pizza on Friday night at The Green Onion, a pizza place right here in town.  It is always nice to go to favorite local spot that you haven’t been to for while and find that they remember the pizza toppings that you order EVERY time you go, “spinach, olive and green pepper, right?” (said with a jolly Greek accent).  It is always warm, friendly and the pizza is always good at The Green Onion.

On Saturday we went to see “The Affections of May” at the Granite Theater in Westerly with Gene and Kathy.  The play was written by a Canadian playright (so it had to be good!); it was a great story, with excellent performances by some local actors.  We had a really nice dinner beforehand at The Mermaid Cafe, which is our favorite breakfast spot.  Dinner was equally good, and we highly recommend it!

The current house and garden projects include replacing, and in some cases installing for the first time,  insulation along outside walls and in roof spaces.  This activity, which Bruno has been tackling on evenings and weekends, is a result of an energy audit we had performed prior to the installation of solar panels (due to arrive very soon).   Bruno has been working pretty hard, hoping to finish while the temperatures are still mild.

The seeds are doing well and we hope the recent rains will prepare the garden for transplanting of some of the larger plants.  In the meantime we have been enjoying fresh asparagus from the garden (yummm!) and watching the strawberry and blueberry plants flower in preparation for a bountiful crop of summer fruits later in the year.

Now that we are over “hump day” we are starting to look forward to the coming weekend and to an evening of live music and dancing at The Knickerbocker on Friday.  We will report more on that event in a future blog posting!

The rain that was forecasted for the WHOLE weekend only just started today (Sunday) at noon giving us a chance to spend some time catching up on things like blog-posts from the hike we did last weekend.

On Sunday, April 15th we traveled to nearby Exeter, RI to the Arcadia Wildlife Management Area to walk the Breakheart Trail.  Initially we were a bit dismayed by the large number of cars at the trail- head, until we realized they belonged to the anglers who were out for the first day of trout season.   Once were were on the trail met only a lone hiker who seemed to glad to see someone else on the trail.   The trail is a moderate hike up and over rolling hills and around rocky ledges typical of this area that lies to close to the coast.  About half-way around our loop we came across the “ruins” of an old campsite that hearkened back to a different era.  There were the remains of many cabins, washhouses, and the footprint of what must have been a spectacular dining hall.  All that remained of the dining hall was the fireplace and the chimney built from Westerly pink granite.  The temperatures were unusually warm and Kokee enjoyed many of the small ponds and streams we found on our journey.

We continue to be impressed with this area of Rhode Island as we work our way through the walk/hike book that has given us a renewed appreciation for the natural beauty that lies so close to our home.

Last night we made a trip to the Bushnell Theater in Hartford, CT to see John Prine in concert.  We had seen him several years ago in New Haven, and he put on another great concert yesterday.  It was a late night, but well worth it.

On Friday, Mimi, Sheri’s maternal grandmother began made her long journey home.  We will miss her greatly, especially in the evenings when we spoke to her as we made the transition from our work day to the evening time at home.  We were so glad we had the chance to see her in February while she still had that sparkle in her eye and could flash that devilish grin!

We share the lyrics of the song “Pilgrim Highway” by Mark Erelli  below and hope it bring comfort to you should you ever need it.

Pilgrim Highway by Mark Erelli

I’m going down that pilgrim highway
Though none can say for certain where it leads
I believe someday I’ll reach a place
Where all my burdens shall be released

So often tested by toil and trial
Onward from the moment we are born
We must be steadfast through every darkened mile
Travelling toward that everlasting morn

So take my hand, brother
Take my hand, sister
In each other we must confide
Many miles to cover
Before we are delivered
Down that pilgrim highway side by side

Though some we love may by the wayside fall
We must never feel abandoned or alone
There’ll be a glorious reunion with them all
Just beyond that last bend in the road

We spent the weekend relaxing, starting with a yoga class on Friday night in Westerly.  On Saturday we had breakfast at The Mermaid, our favorite spot for Huevos Rancheros and Cod Cakes Benedict.  It was great having Bruno back home after two weeks of travel, that included an extended trip to England.

We spent some time in the garden and harvested the last of the “over” wintered veggies.  We had an Easter Eve dinner of fish (John Dory, a local white fish from the Stonington fleet) and roasted leeks, carrots and Brussels sprouts.  The veggies are captured in the April 2012 Face of Produce.

We celebrated Easter Sunday by starting with a brisk walk in the sunshine with Kokee, followed by a lovely Easter brunch with the Panosky’s.  Jen’s blueberry muffins and biscuits were up to their usual standard (as was everything else) and it was fun to play some lego afterwards.

Happy Easter!

After a mild winter we were treated to some sweet carrots from the garden.  They survived the winter pretty well intact, and made for an good early season salad.

Last weekend we were both at home, and took the opportunity to go to our local music venue (the Knickerbocker Cafe) in Westerly.  We pleased to be able to see the Sweetback Sisters, who we had seen just a few months earlier at the Katherine Hepburn Performing Arts Center (“the Kate“) in Old Saybrook. It was a great show and we had front row seats….and we were just 10 minutes from home.

We returned last weekend following a week at Breckenridge, CO spent on boards and skis.  We were pleased to find plenty of snow when we arrived, and enjoyed spring-like conditions for the whole week.  We found a great condo that was a short walk to a lift or into town.  While we didn’t receive any fresh powder,  warm temperatures and sunny skies made for a great week.  We were out everyday either XC skiing on nearby trails, or riding our boards at the resort.  We found some great views on the XC trails and a sauna that will be destination for the future on some moonlight night with towel in hand.  There was a lot of great terrain for riding snowboards, and we also had fun exploring the town of Breckenridge in the evenings.  The town is quaint and feels like a western town that has become modern without loosing it’s charm.  We had a short visit from Kerry, Sheri’s sister.  It was great to share a day of skiing/riding followed by a fine dinner at Twist – a fun, new  restaurant that we highly recommend.  It was a great week of being outside, enjoying the sunshine and getting some exercise.  Seven days of sunshine and mild spring temperatures makes for a good week just about anywhere!

You can see a short video of us riding on the last day of our stay in Breckenridge here.

Last week-end we headed up to Vermont in search of snow.  It had snowed ~12″ on Thursday night, so we were hopeful that we would be able to get some use out of our skis and snowboards.  We even rented a nice place to stay at Mount Snow, with all the comforts of home.  As we drove north on Friday evening we could see evidence of the big snow storm all around.   We arrived in plenty of time, and settled in for an early night.  Upon waking up on Saturday we saw that there had been a couple of inches of fresh snow overnight. 

But…all was not as it appeared.  On top of the snow was about 1/4″ of frozen rain, and as we got to the slopes the rain began to pour.  We decided to put a brave face on it, purchased our lift tickets, and set off thinking that the weather would soon clear.  Our first run was enough to clinch the deal.  It was awful!!!  The combination of ice and a foot of heavy snow was abominable and we were getting soaked.  So, we headed back to the lodge after just one run to get a refund on our lift tickets.

We went back to the condo, took hot showers, and warmed up.  By 9am we were drinking cofee and reading the New York Times!

We quickly regrouped and decided to drive north to try our hands at cross-country skiiing.  Was this madness, or divine inspiration?  Well, just 45-minutes drive away in Londonderry it was a perfect day.  Blue skies, sunshine, and not a sign of the rain that had smitten our attempts at snowboarding at Mt Snow.  As you can see below we had a fantastic day at the Viking Nordic skiing center.

The moral of this story is to take all your outdoor gear whenever you go away, and to never trust the local weather!