First foray on a New Year’s New England winter day. Villages frozen in time. Continuity and comfort.
Sandy – Sandusky – Sandy Hook
2012 in a nutshell. Good, bad, very ugly. Here’s hoping 2013 will bring sanity, bonne santé, un esprit de corps. Bonne année.
Best ~
Giants SuperBowl Win
MadMen5-Joan’s revenge
Obama re-election team
Worst ~
Sandy
Sandusky
Sandy Hook
Best Books ~
The Cat’s Table
Gone Girl
Defending Jacob
Worst Books ~
ManBooker LongList- most
Bring Up the Bodies- especially
Great Restaurant Treks ~
Gramercy Tavern- NY
ABC Kitchen- NY
Biz Fail ~
Facebook IPO
Au Revoir ~
CaffertyFile on CNN
SuperBowl Pick ~
San Fran beats Denver-wishful
Atlanta beats Denver- realistic
Week Day Trek
On a respite before the next rain, enjoyed a weekday side trek. Meandering up Route 5, we happened upon School Street in Hatfield, Massachusetts, where we found an Old Mill Inn and Pioneer Valley Vineyard. Little vineyards are cropping up along the Connecticut River. Will it be the next Napa? Not with our typical winter weather. Some varietals can do well here as in upper New York State.
We continued southeast past our Atkins Farm fave to Andrew’s Nurseries in South Amherst. Lots of garden goodies. In search of a sundial or artwork for our old oak stump as a pedestal. This photo in Hatfield, too. Not bad for a Monday.
SpringField
Springfield, Massachusetts is not ‘the’ Simpson’s city. It’s the one in Oregon. Geez. My aunt Marge Simpson was from ‘our’ Springfield, so thought it was us for sure. No Uncle Homer, doh. Springfield, Mass., does have Dr. Suess’ house on Mulberry Street, he grew up here. So is the Basketball Hall of Fame, where Naismith invented the peach-basket game. Joseph’s Clothiers was founded in 1918 on Ferry & Main.
We have the Connecticut River with its fertile farms and tobacco barns. Four famous colleges are just up the road. Amherst, Smith, Mount Holyoke, and Hampshire. So there, Bart! Herrell’s ice cream is better.
2011
GOOD
mAdBen’s Crazy Great Year. NYU accolades. New view. Career
Mama & 3 bears in the yard
The Night Circus
Ocean House, Watch Hill- 60
BAD
People on TV. Cover your skin. Sleeves. Pleez.
Amy Winehouse. Sad
Hudson’s Edge
Windswept Hudson River’s Edge. Clinton, Hudson Yards, Hell’s Kitchen Trek. Circle Line, cruise ships, helicopters launch. Busses, carriages, trains sleep. Back stage bustle to Manhattan’s main show. Photo by B.L. His view.
Ink48 Hotel has huge windows to see city and Ogilvy on 11th Avenue. Trendy crowds, too loud. 10th Avenue’s freeze is thawing with some cozy boites. 44X is a Hell’s Kitchen oasis. Behind the scenes people, sophisticated palates. Clear cross-town on 1st Avenue good morning fare and fond friends at Cafe Luka. Back home, the only team I can’t root for against New England? Dallas.
TrekBooks review- Rules of Civility.
Falliage
Green to brown to down. Leaves muted if color at all this season. Vibrantly glorious weather for Columbus holiday weekend though. No complaints. Lobster rolls al fresco, picnic tables packed. Autumn’s last stand. Side trek time.
William Cullen Bryant homestead up route 112 North, in Cummington. An architectural menagerie of Dutch, Arts & Crafts, it was his contemplative outpost for pastoral poetry and Thanatopsis thought.
Click on photo.
Table’s Tilt
Stellar restaurateurs once converged in Northampton and made it a dining destination. Those shining stars have lately dimmed. Freshness, quality, service have disappeared into a black hole. I don’t want to pay less for three courses of frozen cardboard food. The economy is bad, true. So, put fewer choices on the menu and make sure they’re fresh and good. If you disagree, enlighten me.
A former bright local, Unmi has returned to open a new restaurant “Coco” in the former Easthampton Venus venue. Will try it soon. ‘Til then cooking at home.
Gypsy Odyssey
Romanian sojourn with little Bucha-rest. Odyssey Trek. Winding ancient Roman roads to gorgeous fortress towns, Black Sea. Gypsy journey until tempest Irene intervened. Wreaked global havoc. Travelers’ roulette. Won some, lost some. Missed connections, extended layovers. All’s well that ends well. Time to stay put. Gypsies, tramps, vamps, thieves (airlines). Fried. Finally a little sleep.
No more Dick Cheney, take him off my screen! Here’s to Marge Simpson.
ChicAgo
Ben’s Hurricane Irene layover yielded an unexpected glorious day on Lake Michigan. Art Institute’s extraordinary collection worth it.
My recollection there is hosting a closing dinner in front of the Chagall windows during a 1990’s blizzard.
VMA show, Gaga’s non-Guido brilliant. Tony and Russell branded Amy Winehouse worthy of Billie Holiday status. Jazz, blues genius rarely heard. Songstress, poet. Bennett’s duet with her, ‘Body and Soul’ confirmed all of that. Rare talent. Bruno Mars’ ‘Valerie’ tribute spot on. Here’s to Joe.
Side Trek . NYC 