Here at Hangman Hill

Last weekend we traveled to Austin, Texas to see shows by local musicians Dale Watson and The Derailers.  Our trip started in Houston where we saw Dale Watson perform live at Blanco’s.  We weren’t disappointed, and Blanco’s itself is an experience.  We concur with a review of Blanco’s that said “this is is the place to go if you want to reinforce the stereotype that everyone in Texas wears cowboy boots and listens to country music”.  The venue was small and intimate and we were impressed not only with Dale but his fiddle player who jumped onto our table for a jam session without missing a beat.

On Saturday made our way west to Austin, which was the true destination for the weekend.  It turns out that Brenham where Sheri’s “Mimi” lives is half-way between Houston and Austin.  We stopped for a quick visit including a lunch at the Funky Art Cafe.   By coincidence, Michael (Sheri’s brother) and DiAnn (Sheri’s mom) were also visiting Mimi so we got to see them too!

After lunch in Brenham we headed west to Austin.  We arrived late in the afternoon at the Hotel San Jose which offered an excellent touch-down place to relax and rest during our stay.  The hotel was located in South Austin in the heart of the music and art scene.  The restful accommodation at the Hotel San Jose became an important part of the weekend given that most of the acts we saw played till well past 1 a.m. !

On Saturday night we dined at The Broken Spoke, which has typical bar food with the exception of the Brussels Sprouts offered as a Side!  After chicken fried steak and good Tex-Mex we moved into the dance hall for a lesson in two-step and western swing.   Following dinner and dance lessons we were treated to a  3+ hour show by The Derailers.  The Broken Spoke is “home base” for The Derailers, so it was great to see them in their element, so to speak.  They are incredibly tight as a band and they seemed to have as much fun playing as we had listening (and dancing).

On Sunday were were treated to some warm sunny weather, which was most welcome after some heavy rain in Houston and light drizzle in Austin.  We walked around the town, including a stroll by the Red River which offered miles of footpaths to exercise our stiff dancing legs.  One of the highlights of the trips was discovering that Junior Brown was playing at the “famous” Continental Club just across the street from our hotel.  Added to that Junior was playing the EARLY show starting at 7:30 p.m..  We are big fans of Junior and have traveled as far as Boston, MA and Northampton, MA to see him perform.   We arrived early to get a good spot and were so glad we did!  His talent on his guit-steel guitar is unprecedented and we enjoyed some new material that is as yet unreleased.  Following the show we had a very nice dinner at a French-Vietnamese cafe (Elizabeth Street Cafe).

You can see a few video clips for Dale Watson (performing Memory Maker) and Junior Brown (performing Peelin’ Taters, My Wife Thinks You’re Dead and Surf Medley) from the weekend here.  A fun video by The Derailers is available here.

This weekend we enjoyed a nice dinner on Saturday night with Mark and Jen.  It was nice to see them and hopefully, in some small way, we made it up to Mark for plowing AND shoveling while we were in Vermont last weekend.  It was also good to try out the game Qwirkle with them, we highly recommend it.

On Sunday we did a hike right here in North Stonington that took along cliffs, to ledges, along a clear meandering stream.  It was a beautiful day and very mild for January. We enjoyed a picnic lunch on a rocky outcrop.  Kokee even got to go for a swim, okay it was more like a mud bath but who’s counting?  We are considering bringing a rope and rock shoes next time.

At home Kokee has a new bed in place in her favorite spot in front of the glass doors (with views to the bird feeder).  The cats quickly moved in and have been holding their own “Occupy” event.

We traveled to Vermont over the weekend in search of snow and some snow covered peaks.   Packing up the car on Friday with predictions for 6-8″ of snow in CT for Saturday wasn’t easy.   But we were so glad we did we woke Saturday morning to light snow on the Green Mountains.  Indeed it snowed in Connecticut too, but in Vermont we found enough snow to play with.  Also, we had a nice time at the Thames Ski Lodge with fellow TSC members.

On Saturday we went to Bald Mountain in Menden armed with snowshoes and a picnic lunch.  There wasn’t enough snow to require snowshoes (so we were glad we weren’t on snowboards at nearby Pico Mt). We have fond memories of hiking the same trail with Jo and Eric in the peak of fall color, so it was fun to hike it in the snow (and in some places ice!).  On Sunday we traveled to southern Vermont were the snow was a bit deeper.  There we had a great day on XC skis in Londonderry on the Viking trails.  We can’t say enough about how nice it is to XC ski on the Viking trails, the people and trails are lovely.

Overall it was a great weekend.  We were glad to see the recovery effort from Hurricane Irene had paid off.  While evidence of the storm remains, much of the hard hit areas like Menden have made tremendous progress!

Last week we took down our Christmas cards, and judged the annual competition for the best cards received at Hangman Hill.  It was a very close race this year, and we managed to pick out our top-3 and an honorable mention.  As you can see below we are definitely suckers for colorful 3D cards.  Congratulations to Jo, Eric, Danny, Michael, Janel, Rich and Deb.  You really brightened up our Christmas.

We have been enjoying the adventures prompted by a couple of books on local walks in Connecticut and Rhode Island that Sheri received from Santa.  Today we ventured to Arcadia Wildlife Management Area in Exeter, RI and hiked the trail to Mount Tom.  It was crisp (18F at 1pm), but sunny as we set off from the trail head at the Wood River just off of Rt 165.  We have paddled from this same spot, so it was nice to come back to explore on foot.  The trail is a rambling path that soon took us onto a ridge with fantastic views in all directions.  At times we almost felt like we were in the Adirondacks or New Hampshire with rocky outcrops and clear views to distant “hills”.  It was a fine day, and we even found a warm spot near an old farm where we enjoyed hot soup for lunch in the brilliant sunshine.

One of our Christmas gifts from Pam and Nick was a small stained glass scene of Tuscany.   This beautiful piece was designed and made by Nick based on a photograph from our vacation in 2010.  We have found a sunny window to hang it in so that we can get that Italian-vacation feeling at least once every day!

 

Yesterday (Saturday) was a sunny and warm (59F) day, so we headed out for another local hike. We packed a lunch (and blaze orange vests to scare off the hunters), and took the trail to Ell Pond, Long Pond, and finally Ashville Pond. What a spectacular hike and beautiful scenery! Kokee found lots of mud and there were great views in every direction.   After a round trip of 5.3 miles we returned to our car in the failing light with big smiles on our faces!

We’ve just managed to merge, edit and label our holiday photos.  Here is the link for anyone who would like to see them all.  Enjoy!

We were very lucky to have Nick and Pam (Bruno’s parents) with us for Christmas in 2011.  They arrived well in advance so we enjoyed lots of fun activities together. This included a trip to the Granite Theatre christmas show, a carol concert at the Watch Hill Chapel, a visit to Mystic Seaport for the Lantern Light Tours, and a day of culture at the Rhode Island School of Design art museum.  We also enjoyed relaxing at home, some long walks with Kokee, and completing a jigsaw puzzle in the quiet moments.  As always, we ate like kings & queens with trips to WholeFoods, Buon Appetito, the Golden Lamb Buttery, The Ocean House, Mangetout, Bruna’s Table and “Chez Jen”.  The weather  was very mild for the time of year, and this allowed us to be quite active.  There were a few impromptu shopping trips (Mystic, New London, Westerly), a couple of home repair projects (light switches, bath plumbing), and even a chance to harvest kale and Brussels sprouts from the garden.  We hope you enjoy the pictures below from our time together.