Great Moments of Summer



Just as these day lilies are about to bloom, so too is this blog about to
bloom with stories about summers great moments!

 In the next few weeks, look for posts about the great moments of summer.  Some of mine include watching lightning bugs, enjoying the appearance of the riot of orange with day lilies, swimming and campfires.

If you have any moments you like, drop a line and let's see if we can fashion a post - - or a conversational string on a post - - about your favorite moments!

Green is Back!

The progress of spring offers a feast for the senses.


Wildflowers are in bloom. Even the smell of lilac blooms, whoch sends me into an allergy tail-spin, is a delight after the monochromatic winter.

Trout stream insects are appearing, dancing over fast-moving water. And one of these days soon, trout will be rising and taking these insects.

One of the most delightful parts of this season is the variety of light and color.

This morning, I enjoyed seeing the contrast of sunrise light and shadows from the woods. Seeing a sunny morning was even more delightful after a four days of rain and overcast.

But even the overcast offers gifts of light. For some reason, a rainy or overcast day energizes the greens in a landscape. Ferns and other plants become a deeper, more intense green.

I am not an expert on why this happens. However, until I learn why, I am going to enjoy the colors and experience!

Good Wine, Good Food and Good Fishing

Albany, New York is home to an almost warehouse-sized liquor store called Empire Wine and Spirits.


Empire is a festive place with a strong selection of almost every kind of wine. To find a wine in Empire, people use one of four strategies: choose an already known brand; ask the smart, helpful staff; buy what is offered at the frequent wine tastings; or make a pick by criteria unrelated to wine.

Recently at Empire, I saw a Pinot Blanc white wine. I knew nothing about Pinot Blanc but I bought it because the label had a vivid painting of a striped bass. Intrigued, I bought the bottle, went to the vineyard website and now know three guys who make great wine.

Mark Seymour, John Heus and Stephen Cary own High Hook Vineyards and offer East and West Coast residents appealing Pinot Noirs and Pinot Blancs. Pinot Noir is the red wine made famous by the movie Sideways; Pinot Blanc is a grape that is closely related to Pinot Grigio.

High Hook Vineyard came to life through a mix of friendship and serendipity.

Seymour, the Vineyard President, came to wine making after a 30 year career as a wine salesman. One day, at dinner with Heus, a former winemaker who is now a film maker, Seymour and Heus decided they would like to make and sell unoaked Chardonnay.

Seymour then asked his friend, Stephen Cary if he could make this kind of wine. Cary did not want to make a chardonnay but made a counter-offer. He proposed making a Pinot Blanc instead.

With Cary’s offer to make a Pinot Blanc, a business plan started taking shape. Seymour added a Pinot Noir because “I love Pinot Noir and I really love Oregon Pinot Noir.”

Cary works at an Oregon vineyard; Seymour and Heus live on the Atlantic coast. While working on the business plan, Seymour learned that striped bass, which he enjoys pursuing in the waters around Cape Cod, are also found in the Pacific. When he realized the winery would be a bi-coastal business, it seemed a perfect fit to have a bi-coastal fish in the brand.

High Hook Vineyards’ present production is 1,400 cases of Pinot Noir; 500 of Pinot Blanc. The partners are emphasizing quality over quantity; Seymour states, “Our objective is to make good wines that are terroir-based, that have a sense of place.” “Our wine,” he continued, “is made to go with food, not just to be a wine-tasting experience.”

Seymour recommends serving their Pinot Blanc with white fish, shrimp, oysters, pesto; the Pinot Noir with roast chicken, pan seared or grilled salmon, sausages. We had the Pinot Noir with orecchiette pasta and sausage dish; it was very nice.

Along with good wines, the vineyard is a good neighbor and good corporate citizen. It donates part of its income to the Ocean Conservancy and encourages customers to participate in sporting and environmental groups. The winery operates with sustainable wine-making and publicizes local fishing guides.

Ruth Rudner and Forgotten Pleasures: An Appreciation

This 50th post is an appreciation of a nature book that remains readable and timely!

But, before we appreciate books, let’s appreciate readers and all the people who helped with this blog. Thank you for reading this blog, for trying to work around the software and for helping me make the posts accurate and attractive with art work!

In 1978, Ruth Rudner, a nature writer who now lives in Montana, wrote Forgotten Pleasures. By sharing simple and direct ways to enjoy nature, Forgotten Pleasures was as ingenious as Walden or John Burroughs’ intimate views of the outdoors.

Ruth Rudner (photo: David Muench)

“Our current enthusiasm for getting back to Nature,” Rudner wrote, “has made so great a mystique of equipment that the adventure seems nowhere near as important as the gear we must first purchase.” She went on to explain that adventure can be found in the simplest natural acts, grabbing a bucket and going berrying, or watching the night sky.

Following this vote for experience over equipment, Rudner described nearly 50 ways to simply enjoy the outdoors. Some are complex, such as building a replica of Huck and Jim’s raft.

Huck Finn rafts aside, most of the experiences might be summarized as “hiding in plain sight.” Rudner chronicles walking, hiking, flying kites, canoeing, learning about butterflies, collecting mussels, body surfing, collecting shells or rocks, skipping stones, sledding, skating and cross country skiing.

Rudner knows how to say just enough about a topic, opening a chapter on walking by writing, “When I was a child my father and I simply walked out the door, down the street and into the woods.” Later on she observes, “Nature is made up of grizzly bears and sequoias, but it is made up even more of spiderwebs and star flowers. You have to go gently to see them.”

In celebrating the particular, Rudner anticipated the revival of small farms, locavores and enjoying nature at a time when gasoline prices are climbing again. If a person does not want to spend a lot of money to go out of town, Rudner offers a vast array of great ideas for appreciating nature in the neighborhood.

In the late 1970’s, I found Forgotten Pleasures on a pleasant summer evening in a small bookstore in Amagansett, on eastern Long Island. But then, when I wanted to reread the book, I could not find it. I wasn’t sure of the author’s name or title. It was out of print.

Finally, a kind person on an ABE Books blog gave me the correct title and the author’s name. Then, thanks to a wonderful place called Watkins Books in Dolgeville (http://www.abebooks.com/home/WATKINBK), on the northern edge of the Mohawk valley, I found a replacement copy.

Since she wrote Forgotten Pleasures, Rudner has been writing about nature in general, animals and national parks, tackling the latter subject with her husband, the photographer, David Muench. In a recent note, she wrote, “Writing about wilderness has become important to me; it is one of the ways I can help preserve what we have left of wild country.” That’s a fitting vocation for someone who enjoyed walking out the door with her father, down the street and into the woods.

On the Edge: Late Winter and Spring?

On March 1st last week, I thought we had turned the corner on winter. Bathing suits are now prominently displayed in the department stores.

But then, winter returned and is queen again. The snow is present on both the East and West coasts, as this photo of the San Gabriels in LA county shows.

Photo courtesy of E. Rowen

With friends John and Rose, I enjoyed two excellent days of cross-country skiing. In the spirit of Ruth Rudner’s book Forgotten Pleasures, about simple outdoor excursions, and in honor of locavores everywhere, we needed only drive a mere 15 minutes to find great conditions.

From Pennsylvania north, a large storm dumped lots of snow on the eastern seaboard.  On the Virginia coast, my friend Steve reports, " We had about an inch accumulation, lots of rain, probably 2 plusinches, which melted the snow and some decent wind."

In Albany, in upstate New York, the storm set a record for Friday March 8th, with 6.5 inches of snow.  Fortunately, the snow accumulated gradually, but steadily, as the following two photographs show.  The other fortunate part of the storm was that the snowblower, which my friend Don gave me when he moved, started on the first pull and made fast work of the white stuff!

Thursday at dusk



Friday morning

By day’s end Friday, the snow had stopped and the snow had melted from most of the highways.

If the weather forecast is correct, it will soon be over 40 degrees and more of the snow will roll back. This coming Sunday, Daylight Savings Time will start. Having the extra time in the evening will help many people take another step to getting in the spring and summer mindset!

Top of the Morning Cafe in Utica, NY

If you get hungry for breakfast while driving through Utica on the Thruway, Top of the Morning Café in north Utica, is a delightful, reasonably priced breakfast destination.

On the winter morning when I came to Top of the Morning, I pulled into the parking lot half an hour before sunrise. The restaurant was bright and cheery in the overcast dawn.

Inside, the restaurant has a large, bright dining room with a counter for diners in a hurry. On the walls are many appealing color photographs taken in Ireland. The photograph by my table showed the Cliffs of Moher, on the rugged west coast of Ireland.

The waitress was welcoming, cheerful and efficient.  On the menu are a variety of offerings. They include omelettes, pancakes, waffles and eggs. Also available are egg dishes made with egg whites and oatmeal.

I started with coffee.  It was hot and just strong enough.  Then I had two eggs over medium, with dry white toast and potatoes. The eggs and potatoes were just right and not at all greasy. Although the breakfast was cooked to order, it was also served quickly.

The café has a lunch and dinner menu. I did not look at them but, based on how well they prepared breakfast, this would be a good place for lunch or dinner.

Top of the Morning does not have a website but can be found on Facebook at

https://www.facebook.com/topofthemorningcafe 

The café telephone number is 315-507-3141 and is about five minutes from Thruway Exit 31, the main Thruway exit for Utica. If you want to locate the café by GPS or computer mapping, the address is 414 Trenton Road, Utica, NY.

Winter Storm Nemo



The day after the storm in Guilderland Center, New York


For now, it looks like the snowy weather in New York and New England has settled down. However, in mid-Long Island and mid-Connecticut, Nemo took its best swing, leaving up to three feet of snow.  Actually, since writing this yesterday morning, one reader wrote that the deep snow was more widely distributed than I thought.  There was 30.5 inches of snow 15 miles west of Boston!

To all my New England and Long Island readers: hope you are dug out soon and that your power and other utilities stay on or come back on as soon as possible!
  
 


The snow was great for snow-blowing. 
Photo courtesy of D. Holt




The snow is starting to blow around

    In New York’s Capital Region, the snow fall was eight to 10 inches in most places. The snow is light and fluffy.  Thanks to the gift of a snow blower from my friend Don, clean up was easy.  Later on, however, blowing and drifting snow across the highways may make driving challenging.

Before the storm, some odd things happened. At Empire Wine and Liquor, a steady stream of people lined up to buy red wine - - probably a heart-healthy move for snow shoveling.

At the Guilderland Hannaford, the shelves were thoroughly shopped - - but not stripped bare. However, all the shredded mozzarella was sold out. Did all those people at Empire decide they wanted a homemade pizza with their wine?

If you have a story from this snow storm, please comment below.  If the commenting software is too difficult to use, please drop me a line and I will add it in for you!

Trout Fishing Countdown

Hot Creek, near Mammoth, California. 
Photograph courtesy of D/ Greninger

New York state's trout season is approaching faster than one might think, opening in less than 60 days, on April 1st. 

In many parts of upstate New York, it is tempting to compare this date for the first day of fishing with the jokes and pranks of April Fools Day.  On a regular basis, hopeful anglers find streams inaccessible from snow drifts or ice - - or unfishable from high runoff.  In 1983, Ben Lockett and I were fishing the Battenkill on Opening Day and found ourselves in the midst of a snow storm that felt more like February than April.

Anglers have a doctrinal split about April 1st.  Some people go because it's time to get out of the house.  Even if conditions are bad or marginal, they think a bad day of fishing is better than a good day of a lot of other things. 

Others, say that fishing on April 1st is an empty ritual.  They prefer to wait until the water warms up and the insect start hatching for fly fishing.

Regardless of how you feel on this issue, Opening Day is getting ever closer. 

If you do not want to wait until then to fish, there is plenty of fishing around, weather permitting.  New York and California, for example, have catch and release trout regulations where the fisheries are open all year.

The picture at the top of this post is of Hot Creek in the eastern Sierras of California. 

When Dennis Greninger was at Hot Creek, he saw an angler fishing with nymphs.  This angler caught two fish while Dennis was watching.

A Few From California

One of the most fascinating things about our most recent trip to southern California was witnessing how winter comes to the region.

When we arrived, the daytime temps were in the upper 50's with a soft rain, similar to that in Ireland in the late spring. People apologized for "the cold," but leaving cold, overcast Albany we had no problems.

One morning, on the way to the car, we looked to the north from the parking garage. Guess what we saw on the San Gabriel Mountains, behind the palm trees?

That's right . . . Snow!  It rained in Pasadena during the night but in the mountains, the rain came down as snow.

The San Gabriels are a fascinating place.  They are implacable wilderness.  People who live along their edge are subject to mudslides, flooding and wildfires.  When these pestilences are not happening, the mountains serve up other surprises. 

One person we talked to had a bear regularly visiting his house this fall.

Here are the San Gabriels on a non-snowy day.

One of my favorite days of this trip was Friday, December 28th, when Dennis and his son, Ethan, took me fishing in the San Gabriels.  There were actually trout rising and the mountain vegetation looked more like fall than winter.

This is now my personal record for the latest day in the year that I have been trout fishing.  Some hard-core New York angling friends are not impressed by December fly fishing in southern California but it is a pleasant memory that will sustain me when the wind blows and the snow falls!

12 Restaurants for 2012

Here are my 12 picks for exceptional places to eat in 2012.  In all cases, the food was good.  In many cases, the dining experience was even better because it was spent with friends and loved ones. 

The Alabama Hills Cafe

The Alabama Hills Café, in Lone Pine, California the southern gateway to the Sierras, serves traditional, innovative and healthy breakfasts. When Dennis and I stopped there in mid-September, we enjoyed several different types of pancakes. While enjoying breakfast there, we saw, all around the room, happy eaters enjoying fruit salads, waffles piled high with toppings healthy and decadent or home-made pastries.



At the Barnsider in Colonie, an Albany, New York suburb, you have many choices. The first is whether to dine casually in the restaurant’s bustling Iowa Hawkeye Grill or in its formal, but comfortable dining room. Then you can choose from beef, chicken or fresh fish dishes - - or a vodka or gin martini. Steak and seafood are Barnsider specialties, but we know vegetarians who have enjoyed the restaurant’s extensive salad bar and potato/vegetable side orders.

Cafe Bizou, in Pasadena, California, offers a delightful variety of entrees.  Whether the entree is vegetarian, seafood or beef, the food is delicious.  The service at this restaurant is exceptional, with servers who are attentive but not overbearing.

Max, owner of Café Max in East Hampton, New York, bills his restaurant as “the Unhampton;” fortunately that slogan is only half true. Café Max offers the best of the Hamptons, without the cranks and crowds. The café has friendly staff, fresh ingredients from local farms and fishermen and welcoming table service. Although Max’s offers a varied, reasonably-priced menu, I keep reordering three favorites: the house salad with creamy tarragon dressing; the Max Burger and the dry martini - - straight up with a twist.

The Courtyard, a worldwide Marriott hotel brand, is one of our favorite places to stay. The Courtyard in Old Pasadena, California, has an excellent restaurant and room service. They offer filling, nutritious meals and snacks, served by friendly and capable staff. My favorite here is the breakfast sandwich: two scrambled eggs, cheese and sausage on an outsized English muffin.

The Green Street Tavern, on Green Street in Pasadena, California, served us one of the best lunches of the year, possibly the decade, this past Christmas Eve. The Tavern turns restaurant classics into gastronomic wonders with a combination of fresh, quality ingredients and well-chosen variations. For example, adding avocado to a turkey pannini and keeping it out of the sandwich press resulted in a light, yet filling lunch that carried me through a long afternoon and evening of last minute shopping and celebrations.

The appealing menu at Milano Restaurant, also in Colonie, offers traditional and innovative Italian dishes. Depending on your appetite and price; you can order a complete dinner or a pizza. Along with the good food, the restaurants bartender makes exceptional cocktails, particularly their Manhattan with Wild Turkey bourbon and served straight up.


Pinocchio’s Pizza in Altadena, California, a suburb north of Pasadena, offers delicious, reasonably-priced lunches and dinners. Our family has enjoyed the restaurant’s pasta dishes, pizza and salads. All these choices are delicious and served in an appealing manner. During fall and winter, an added treat at Pinocchio’s is a wonderful variety of football on television.

Ruby Tuesday’s is a national chain with a varied menu and healthy meal choices. I find the Ruby Tuesdays near Carrier Circle in Syracuse to be the nicest of the chain’s locations in upstate New York. It offers diners who have been in the car or at the desk all day a bracing walk to and from the hotel. Its food is fresh and appealingly presented and the staff are capable and welcoming.

The Tender Greens in Pasadena is part of a small chain of restaurants devoted to sustainable dining. Service is cafeteria-style but the food is anything but steam table fare. The dishes, whether vegetarian or omnivorous, are reasonably priced, attractively presented and made with tasty, natural ingredients.

Thai’D Up in Mammoth, California has good food and convenient hours for hungry and thirsty anglers - - and other travelers. The restaurants Pad Thai has a rich, brown sauce and many other Thai mainstays are on the menu. Thai’D Up offers a good selection of beers from national and local microbreweries.

If you visit Tom Cavallo's in New Hartford, a suburb of Utica, New York, you will find one of the best red sauces in New York state.  The sauce makes anything on the menu totally wonderful, including my favorites, a sausage and pepper pizza or linguine marinara.  There is also magic at the bar in Cavallo's: for some reason, any beer brand ordered here tastes colder, crisper and better than anywhere else.