Low ceiling

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Low ceiling

We hiked Hurricane on Mother’s day. Our concern before beginning was the cloud cover would be too low to provide views. Close, but views were far reaching and beautiful.

Views to the Lake

We finally remembered to bring binoculars and could see clear to Lake Champlain and Vermont. It’s a fabulous spot to hike to and spend time on the rocks for lunch. We forgot lunch. Happily the black flies were still sleeping.

Hurricane fire tower

The fire tower is a little too rickety for my taste to ascend and it’s one of those instances when the view can’t get much better. The fire tower was a target of controversy recently when the DEC wanted to dismantle it. Public sentiment prevailed and the tower remains. It stands as a beacon on the mountain near our house.

Bad hair day

It was a bad hair day but I worked on some self portraits while the others clambered around. Sadly this may be the best of the lot. I’m sporting my new jacket, which was a birthday present. Light, light, light and waterproof AND breathable. Go figure.

Muddy boots

My ability to rock hop across streams is abysmal. I just can’t do it. I tense up and all is lost, even if the water is only 6 inches deep. I gave in and chose to wade through when needed. No pressure. After all, I was wearing wool socks and I could take off my wet boots when I got home.

Fiddleheads

Ferns were popping their heads through the dead leaves to signal the start of spring in the Adirondacks. We passed two other mothers on the hike. One in her thirties and the other in her eighties. You have to love the Adirondacks!

A walk back in time

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I walked around the pond in the park where I spent hours, days, months – a good part of my life – with my kids when they were young.

The memories of time spent feeding the ducks, watching them play, make new friends, fall and get up again, nearly knocked the wind from me. Now they’re grown, no longer follow ducks but still play and work and make new friends.

But it’s happening all over again. Its the same but different. Young parents walked their children around the pond but aren’t allowed to feed the ducks. Swans had new baby swans. It was much lusher than i remembered and the irises were in bloom. And the coyotes stood watch?

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Cooking with fire

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My forays into the chipmaking world continue. I narrowly averted a disaster yesterday though. Chips taste nice with spices on them. But since the chips are cooked without oil, spices don’t stick to them after they’ve been cooked.

So, why not add the spices before cooking. I tried turmeric on celeriac chips. Luckily I stuck around while they were getting zapped. I heard a strange buzzing once and when it happened a second time I turned to look at the microwave. There was a Star Wars like beam of light radiating from the chips to the top of the microwave. May the force be with you.

Last night’s dinner was an interesting combination of cooking technologies and speed. Pulled pork simmered in the slow cooker all day, soaked beans cooked in no time in the pressure cooker and baked potatoes were safely zapped. Slow food?

For the birds?

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We can tell it’s spring by the variety of birds that stop by at our feeders during their migration north. Every day has brought new species the past week or so. This flock of red breasted grosbeaks stayed for a few days. Red seems to be the color du jour. We’ve seen cardinals, purple finches, northern flickers, hairy woodpeckers, all with a splash of red in their coloring. I hope the turkeys keep a low profile until noon every day though. It’s our local hunting season, which for some reason ends at noon daily. I have seen one turkey around, we’ll see if it’s still here at the end of May.

We are new birding enthusiasts. Most of the time, my identifications are confirmed if the bird is thought to be common in our area. Not always though. This may be a white crowned sparrow, which is considered uncommon in my Peterson Field Guide to Birds of Eastern and Central North America. The coloring in the photo isn’t great but we never saw yellow above the eyes, which would differentiate it from the more common white throated sparrow.

We saw the food chain in action the other day. We had just returned home and saw a hawk swoop down and snatch a bird from the lawn and fly off. It was a good meal because the bird had been fattening itself at our feeder. Are we feeding them for them, for us, or their predators?

Chips and beer

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Beet and potato chips

It all began with a review I read in Cook’s Illustrated for a way to make potato chips. It doesn’t require any oil, because they are microwaved. I’ve tried roasting chips and even fried them once but I hate deep frying – too many calories and too much mess. The trick is in the slicing. The Mastrad set includes a mandolin, which cuts the slices 1/32 of an inch. Once sliced, they are placed on a perforated silicone tray and zapped in the microwave for 3 minutes. It works. Especially for potato chips. I also tried beet, celeriac and plan to try carrots. Add salt, or cumin or coriander and you’re ready for a beer.

Nice grain

So now I had chips and I needed beer to go with them. I finally broke out the brew kit I brought home from Australia. It’s different from the ones in the states because the beer isn’t decanted into a second container but we’ll see how it goes. The most involved process in homebrew is sterilizing all the equipment and then all the bottles. The cooking process isn’t too complicated.

It’s clean up time

I bought a Munton Nut Brown Ale brew kit from my favorite store on Long Island, Karps. I bought all the ingredients and bottles last year and somehow never got around to making a batch of beer.

The ingredients

This beer is made with barley, chocolate and 3 types of malt and hops. I added a little extra malt extract to potentially boost the alcohol content a tad.

Wort bubbling away

After everything is mixed and yeast is added, it’s tucked away for about a week to ferment and convert the sugars to alcohol. I think that process ended, you confirm by measuring a stable specific gravity for a couple of days, and yesterday set myself to bottling. Always a bit of a mess and it was nice enough to do it outdoors. To my horror, when I went to open the bottles, I thought I had the wrong tops. I used the flip top grolsch style caps and at first only found long neck bottles. I called the store to explain my dilemma and the beer master remembered me and while we spoke I realized I bought two styles of bottles, the right ones for the caps and long necks. Phew. But I didn’t have enough. The long necks have a capper and I think I had planned to borrow my son’s but never got around to it. Luckily friends had given me some grolsch bottles when they heard I was into brewing. In the end I had 4 long necks I was unable to cap. I tried a hammer, clamps and vise grip but couldn’t get the right seal. I saved two and dumped two. We’ll see how they go. I think the last stage (the next 3 weeks) is mostly for carbonation and maybe aging. For now it’s chips.

Bottling

Hill walking

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Not hiking nor mountain climbing, just Just hill walking. We drove 15 minutes to the trailhead and headed out from there. It was perfect hiking weather, cool and the clouds had lifted.

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There was only one small mishap. Luckily I didn’t break my new iPhone (it’s a long story), a hip or my newly repaired ankle. I only injured my pride and got my pants muddy.
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There was a terrific 360° view from the top of the fire tower.
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I was able to identify at least a few of the wildflowers as we climbed around what seemed to be a lot of new blowdown.
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Grey day at Storm King

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We drove south today to look at a couple of boats for sale. It iS so disheartening. They look good online and at first glance. Closer inspection reveals problems — big problems! Like the bolts that help keep the mast (that tall thing for the sails) upright are screwed into a thin plate of rust with absolutely no strength. It’s hard to overlook a problem like that.

The day wasn’t a complete loss other than eight hours is driving. I started knitting a new pair of socks for myself and we visited Storm King Art Center. I visited here years ago and remember this amazing stone wall.

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I used to work downtown manhattan and the building was known as the Red Cube because of a sculpture by Noguchi. Right when I mentioned his name, we found a sculpture by him! Go figure. Tim tried lounging on it.

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We capped off the day by eating dinner at one of the student restaurants at the Culinary Institute of America. The food and service were outstanding. Next time we look at a disaster boat, dinner here can make it all seem fine.

A walk in the park

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Actually two walks, very different, but both were lovely. On Tuesday, we bushwhacked to Clements Pond and enjoyed beautiful views of the surrounding mountains, fields and trees along the way.

I think this is looking west. The only hiking obstacle was dry, slippery leaves on steep slopes.

This tree can be seen from the road, perched on a cliff.

Yesterday we walked through low forest and fields. We found early wildflowers, ferns and animal carcasses.

Spring at home. Trees in bloom and frost on the ground.

I flew to spring and returned to summer

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Crazy weather and travel makes it even more interesting. I met up with the women’s hiking group last week in the Adirondacks and we walked through rain, snow and hail. Typical spring weather. Then I flew south to visit my daughter in Washington, DC.

I was already too late for spring and cherry blossoms. Spring was in full bloom and since Washington is such a green city, with lots of grass, trees and flowers, it was a colorful time to visit.

I took my first longish run, for about an hour, and sort of limped the rest of the trip. This is looking back at one of the bridges I crossed. I’m all better now though. I think ice packs may become my friend.

We explored some local parks and ate oysters, sushi and salmon. Foods I don’t eat too often in the Adirondacks.
I returned home and the temperature skyrocketed to 88 degrees fahrenheit yesterday. Tonight, the temperature will drop a mere 60 degrees to a more seasonal 20 degrees. I need both my winter and summer clothes out at the same time.