clutching time

there are countless memorable moments to speak of during my visit with my mother last week. to name a few: lake and river swimming, boating, a saturday night fish fry, dinners on the patio, and late night movies in the cabin. but none top the quiet hours we spent, just the two of us, relaxing on the lawn. this was my first summer visit to the virginia mountain home my mother and step-father moved into just a few years ago. and with my journey west just four weeks away it's hard to say when i'll be back east, even harder to say where i'll be out west.

with books and beverages in hand, we converged on the lawn at midday while the kids contented themselves inside watching jake and josh and hannah montana. rarely did we get any reading done but the poignant choice of literature was inspiring enough to spark conversations about beautiful places and future and past lives. on my first night on the mountain i picked driving over lemons off the shelf; a travel experience novel by chris stewart published in 1999. while on the chaise lounge to my right my mother held the acclaimed under the tuscan sun, by frances mayes. both are personal accounts of building a home in a foreign land. with mom's house behind us and a view of the next ridge through the trees, italy and spain were not far away at all.

'this is the life' not only escaped my mother's lips but was written on her face. she had arrived and the accumulation of her life experience seemed to pass peacefully through her in a breath. while our personal realities are stretched to polar extremes our appreciation of those moments were shared. 'i'm taking only two bags to california,' i stated. she went on to tell me of the adventures she and my father had in the 60's moving from place to place. these are stories i can listen to and romantacize about for hours: six months in dublin, a studio apartment in washington dc, an a-frame house in idaho where my mother gardened and my father worked as an eco-friendly lumberjack. she insists they were not hippies or beatnicks (hard to believe when their cat was named after a character in a gogol novel).

sharing her stories of the past and my optimism for the future were more than i could ask for from her. dropping one life and career in search of something new is nothing unique, but the stories are. in those few hours we shared looking over the ridge, we clutched time and praised the unknown.

cucumelon

ah, peace and quiet. last night the kids went off to visit with their father so katie and i have the place to oursleves for a couple days, make that 36 hours. it's incredible how much one can learn about life while caring for 3 children day-in and day-out. after just two months they've definitely chopped me down to size and takin' the city girl right out of me. then again, so has this place.

with all the humity out there the chillins and myself stay busy indoors all day; harassing each other, watching the avatar, eating, working on art projects, and learning a few things here and there. luckily, the garden is on auto-pilot for the most part. elysia will be going into kindergarden so we're making efforts to learn the alphabet, how to write her name, and putting her shoes on the right feet. she's got these cute little dora the explorer sandals with velco buckles, so i tell her, "butterfly, pinky toe! the butterfly on the buckle meets to the pinky toe." she's getting it now and shows me every time.

as for mckenzie, we're keeping her up to snuff on words she learned in kindergarden. and kenny is practicing cursive and reading to us out loud. it's not easy - it's summer time. i'm lucky if they can concentrate for 30 minutes. it's fascinating nonetheless. hand-eye coordination, mental visualization, patience - these are aquired skills! i can remember learning cursive. today it seems antiquated; a holdover from a time when handwriting was common practice. have you written a cursive F, Q or Z recently?

anyhow, this quiet time also gives me a moment to reflect on the developments in the garden. so far we've been enjoying a bounty of zucchini, yellow squash, green eggplant, basil, mint, thyme, cucumbers, and watercress. the tomatoes are green and booming, the itchiban eggplant is making its way, and the cantelope has got about a week to go, maybe less. i regret having not better treated the soil before planting, but there really wasn't the time and i figured what the hay, see what happens.

the effects aren't quite clear yet, but i'm seeing signs. the swiss chard looks robust, however, the color is dull as with the kale. could be they're not fully mature yet, but still they don't look quite right. another effect from the soil could be the appearance and taste of the cucumbers. they aren't turning fully green and the portion nearest the stem is bitter. could be soil or it could be cross-pollination with the watermelon. after i planted the cucs 2 rogue watermelon plants from last year popped up in the same bed. later i learned they should not be planted near to each other because the bees will go from one plant to the next and mess up the flavor. oh well, we might have some cucumber flavored watermelon.

tomorrow morning the kids come home and we head to grammie's house for a quick visit. i'm going to bring what i can from the garden, then katie and i will make grilled veggies and lamb croquettes for dinner. i plan to also bake the remainder of the dough i prepared the other day (my first bread!) and some zucchini bread. with all the growing, cooking and baking i've been doing (homemade granola included) mckenzie keeps saying that we need to open a market and make lots of money. there is the perfect corner out on rt. 1 not too far from here. who knows, if the tomatoes and cantelope are a success we just might do it!

in memory

griffin mckenzie

2000 - 2008

griffin died last thursday from cardiac arrest while undergoing anesthesia. i brought him to the vet wednesday evening for an infection on his paw. because he wouldn't behave in the doctor's care, he had to be held overnight and sedated the next morning for a very simple cleaning. because the cause of death is so rare, they believe he must have had an underlying heart condition.

bogie barnes

2003 - 2008

bogie never came home wednesday night last week, which is very unlike him. we found him under the camper thursday morning. he had been shot. annie was also shot, but survived and is doing well.

garden view

watermelon

dang horse ate my corn!

sunflowers

cantelope

green eggplant

cucumber on a trellis

broccoli

we went, we ate

after a seven hour drive in holiday traffic katie and i made our way across the manhattan bridge into brooklyn at 10pm thursday night. there were reports of major delays on i-95 so we stuck to alternate routes from virginia, past baltimore. some parts of the drive were lovely - farm land and small towns - until we hit the strip-mall armpit of southern maryland, la plata and waldorf. at least traffic was moving.

what can i say, we hit the ground eating. our first stop was chez oskar; a small french bistro and long time establishment of fort greene, brooklyn. it was late enough that we had no problem getting a table outside. katie had a burger, i had a crab cake and we both had a stella artois to wash it down. that was just beginning.

friday morning we stuck to our plan: my homemade muffins for breakfast. after a stroll through the old neighborhood we headed to red hook for petanque. red hook isn't your typical tourist destination, it's gritty and industrial, but it's got some gems and pit stop is one of them. the restaurant itself is tiny, seats maybe 25, but the garden is where it's at: sheltered outdoor seating and 4 petanque courts. i've been there a couple times before but i never tried the food, just the hoegaarden. this time i tried the hanger steak sandwich (they were out of merguez). it came on a brioche roll with an incredible remoulade sauce. the whole thing just melts in your mouth, if you order it rare like i did. katie and i then proceeded to kick some butt in petanque.

believe it or not we had room in our bellies for a friendly back yard bbq: savory pasteries, blue cheese, walnut and cranberry salad, thyme burgers and all-american hot dogs.

on saturday we headed to manhattan for some chinatown/ little italy/ soho action. my first idea was to grab a couple vietnamese sandwishes to-go, but the weather wasn't conducive to eating in the park so we went for vietnamese, dine-in. pho bang on mott street is where to go. i ordered vermicelli noodles with grilled shrimp and katie got the classic pho ga, chicken noodle soup. the first time i went to bang was well before i had moved to nyc, and i've been going ever since. it's cheap and unpretentious; just what you need after a long walk through the glut and glamour of soho.

later we happened upon a delicious plum tart at once upon a tart, and for dinner, coal oven pizza at arturo's. typically i'd take visitors to the famous lombardi's but in my opinion arturo's coal oven pies are outstanding and the ambiance is more enjoyable. the front room is dark but has bright charming windows that face houston street. and in the back of the room, live jazz to top it off. lombardi's is just too crowded even after the recent expansion.

with just two full days to explore new york, i'd say we did pretty well for ourselves, i mean our stomaches. i was totally prepared to head uptown - stroll around central park and through times square - but it didn't happen. in the end it was a stroll through my culinary paradise. new york taught me how to eat and the meaning of good food. i think katie got the full lesson.

muffin to-go, please

this afternoon katie and i are heading north to nyc. there is still a bunch of stuff at the old apartment i need to cart down to virginia, so what better time to go than 4th of july weekend?! the timing couldn't be better for katie; this is her first trip to nyc and the last opportunity for me to go before i head west this fall. which means she will get the full tour from a guide wholeheartedly soaking in the memories, oh so bittersweet. the heat of central park? SURE; the hoards of times square? NO PROBLEM! just as long as we retire to fort greene, brooklyn each night, i'm happy as a clam.

for the trip up i'm preparing egg salad with watercress on pumpernickel. this sandwich brings me back to my gallery days. when i became associate director at the art gallery, john connelly presents i travelled to london for the frieze art fair. i can not tell you how many egg salad watercress sandwiches i consumed. i made one yesterday with a touch of salt, pepper, paparika, dijon and mayo; it exceeded my expectations. my mother told me watercress prefers shady spots, but i'm happy to say my plants are growing quite well in full sun. my only concern is that they become too bitter, so i'm keeping them well watered.

in order to cut down on expenses in nyc, i made zucchini bread muffins. eating-in in the a.m. is a good way to a healthy conscience come dinner time. and there is some serious eating to be done. i found a simple recipe online and made it my own:

INGREDIENTS

3 eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

1 cup sugar (it called for 2)

2 cups grated zucchini

2 teaspoons almond extract

3 cups all-purpose flour

3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons (guesstimate) fresh grated nutmeg

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup chopped walnuts
2 shots grand marnier (zing!)

bake at 325 degrees for 70 minutes in two 8x4 inch loaf pans. we had only one loaf pan so i poured the rest in a muffin pan and kept an eye on them. the muffins cooked for about half an hour. the original recipe calls for vanilla extract, but in search of vanilla i found almond and thought - oh yeah! then i thought almond and grand marnier - yes please! last night katie and i tested out the muffins and we are happy to report that breakfast, is served. now all that concerns us is, where to blow a wad first: local/seasonal french (http://www.icirestaurant.com/) in brooklyn or blow-your-mind brick-oven pizza (http://www.firstpizza.com/) in manhattan.

tomorrow there is a good chance that we'll be playing petanque (think french bocce, smaller
balls) at pit stop in red hook, brooklyn, so lunch will probably consist of stella artois, pommes frites and sausage. on saturday we'll stop in for vietnamese subs after a tour of chinatown. then, of course, there are the polish delis and italian markets where we'll find provisions to carry home with us. oh the possibilites are endless, but i've got a handle on the options.

there is so much eating to fantasize about, but right now i am thinking about the drive: i-95 to the new jersey turnpike. the trip is historic for me, i've driven it a million and one times between dc and nyc. now i look forward to sharing it with my sister.

dogtown

out here in the woods, the dogs rule the land. we've got three: annie, bogie and birdie. annie is bogie's daughter and birdie is bogie's sister; the siblings are border collies and annie, a mutt. they live outside and keep watch over the property. on any given day we find countless ticks on them dead and alive, large and small, and the girls have no fear pulling them off. they are docile and sweet, however, filthy and unruly.


birdie stays in the dogpen. she yelps like a pup and howls like a hound. her fur is fluffy and her body, round like a barrel. bogie is her penmate but his slim, athletic frame and relentless determination enables him to dig his way out of the otherwise impenetrable perimeter. annie, on the other hand, is free to roam. so while bogie and annie are galavanting around the farm, birdie paces back and forth, yelping and howling with a tune of excitement and envy.

often times, father and daughter laze about on the lawn, but much of their day is spent darting and prowling through the woods. when bogie picks up a scent his pure-bred instinct sets him off like a rocket through the brush, clearing 8 feet in one leaping stride. annie takes off bounding after him and without looking back they enter a world no human could survive.


one afternoon annie pranced up the driveway with a limp and bloodied carcass in her mouth: a headless rabbit. there is no question that bogie made the kill but his humble demeanor gave his companion the honor of carrying the prize home. mouths panting, they laid down in the shade next to the carcass, nosing at it every now and again. we determined they had had their fun so junior went out back and dug a grave. within an hour the rabbit was dug back up and devoured. poor birdie stood behind the chicken wire and watched.

most often bonnie and clyde come strolling home thoroughly soaked and muddied with looks of contentment and shear exhaustion. their marauding is costly. annie has a dislocated hind leg from chasing after a 4 wheeler. so whenever she's pushed it too far she limps around until she's good to go again. a couple weeks ago i noticed bogie virtually unable to walk. katie took a look at him and thought she felt a bone out of place. great another one, she thought. after an x-ray the vet deteremined it was, in fact, a foreign object. so they opened him up and removed a stick about 5 inches long. it had broken clean off behind his shoulder. no doubt one of those leaping strides landed him in doggy surgery.

for about a week bogie was on lock down, tied to a tree. during that time he put on a couple much needed pounds but, even still, he is no match for some of the mangey beasts around these parts. some nights the atmosphere is heavy with barking and howling, like a long distance conference call from across spotsylvania county. and when the sun is up there are no leash laws.

the other evening annie and bogie got into a brawl with a german shepherd looking thing. katie and i ran outside and made some noise only to see two more dogs heading in their direction. the fight broke up. bogie stood at the fence opening and faced off with a pit bull while annie jogged back and forth. the shepherd and the third dog ran off when we threw sticks but the pit wouldn't back down. he could have torn bogie apart but we figured he was friendly when he started wagging his tail. when the pit fianlly sauntered off bogie and annie followed at a distance to make sure the dogs went back to where ever they came from.

more than likely the pack followed the scent of a dead raccoon to the woods behind our house. around 5 am one morning early last week katie woke to the sound of incessant barking. she got up figuring the racket was over the horses having broken out of the pasture (which is often the case) but found a raccoon hobbling down the pebble walkway along the house. miraculously, i did not hear the commosion from the camper. katie called from work that day and asked that i look for the raccoon to make sure it had made it out alive. during my daily ride gloree and i found the poor creature, dead: another kill. within a day or two turkey vultures had set up camp and dragged the carcass out of sight.

the life of a country dog is like none other. yesterday i watched as bogie walked over to the dogpen and nose at the latch; either tired or hungry, he wanted in. to my surprise he is still in there, resting up for his next escape and great adventure through the woods and river, covering acres upon acres of red virginia clay.