Tuesday, May 25, 2010

musings of a.... long.... evening

The summer night is warm and thick , it tastes like hope.  No time to sleep , the day is long , the night is longer , restless.  Filled with longing , anticipatory tremblings of what could be.. this time it will be better ; Better than all the rest.  Can`t wait , yearning for it to start right now , it`s been so long.
Long gone is the chill and the grey eves of the interminable winter. The longest I remember , grievously  long.   Not long ago was the absence of hope.  But I smell it now ; sniff it on the warm breeze. I long to embrace it.  Pining the night away ,  I realize I`m not alone. There is scurrying all about me - its still wild , it hasn`t all been cemented over.  There is  life left and I hunger for it.  I want to start right now.  Along these lines , I dream of the dawn to come - a red blush  across the sky. I crave its cleansing brightness.  Its not far away now , even though this night is long.  

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Italy Pics

 Venice , Florence and Rome - See Europe Part II 


I will have a page on website with the full europe trip run down soon.  



Monday, May 17, 2010

Took out the Kayaks

Sunday , got out the kayaks and had a nice few hours at bigelow hollow  state park.  Felt good to get out in it for the first time this year.  Our last few weekends kind of sucked.  I didn`t catch any fish but Lori and I saw a blue heron - he hung out while we slowly floated closer.  Got a few good pics.  Did about 3 miles paddling according to the gps.
  We hit a couple of other areas for some short walks and ate a salad picnic (nice chef salad from highland park market) We were going to hike bigleow but right at the mouth of the trail , I got bit at least five times successively by multiple skeeters.  We said screw this and ran away.

  Saturday , we did 3 miles at Salmon River State forest.  I hiked with my fishing rod along the river part of the way; caught a nice looking trout.  We did the trail that loops into day pond but cut the hike short - didn`t have 7 miles in us , and once out of the river area , the hike was not as picturesque ....had a bunch of inclines that didn`t seem to serve any purpose.  Lori has had some nasty hamstring issues for almost a year now , and some of the inclines give her sharp pinchy pains.  She has fought through it for the most part , but if your do the work and climb , at least a good mountain view is in order. None to be had here , so we looped back.  I caught a fish !! Second of the year.

Sunday, May 02, 2010

Pictures from London and Paris

I described the visit a few posts ago - (spring is here)

Will have Italy up soon

See the pictures HERE

Saturday, May 01, 2010

It was warm today.

A lovely summer day following a few fall days.  The weather is a bit erratic in lovely Ct.  We went out to Margaritas last night with Charlie and Janine ...great company as always... I had a few margaritas and then stayed up too late watching the taped yankee game ...we did win though.

So my plan to go kayaking in Burr Pond didn`t work out as we overslept and then I didn`t feel like setting the car and the kayaks up.  We instead went to Eagleville Falls , did a mile and a half hike near the willimantic river.. We saw a rattle snake...pretty creepy ...I looked it up and it was a timber rattler but I didn`t know they were in that area.  Saw him stretched out , head away from us about 3 1/2 feet long , blackish and rattling away incessantly.  We watched him a good minute   , Lori was freaking ...he slithered off.  Pretty cool.

We did a bit of park hopping just to reacquaint ourselves with the parks this year and plan out future excursions and kayaking. Went by mansfield hollow , did a small walk near there , hit beaver brook and mashamoquet state park ct.  We drove up scenic route 169 to the Vanilla Bean - a bikers haven for some good eats.

We then went to Bigelow Hollow State Park to scout out for our kayaking and picnicking plan tomorrow.  We did a 2.5 mile hike to the furthest , remotest and elusive 3rd body of water there , breakneck pond.  I say elusive because some years back we tried to find it , walked like 2 miles in (we figured out where we missed the proper trail) and were attacked by clouds of bugs , gnats , mosquitos , and other buzzy , biting annoyances. That last time was so bad that we jogged almost the whole way back (we werent and aren`t much for running) flailing our arms and cursing the trail that didn`t lead us to water.  This time , we found it easily , crossed a little boggy area by teetering across a man-made plank , onto a trail that goes around this beautiful , untouched and untamed waterway.  We`d love to kayak here but its a bit too far to drag the boats.. The map shows a road to another end but we couldn`t find it ....It may be a dirt road somewhere , maybe well find it tomorrow.

When we got home , we set up the tent in the backyard just to make sure we still have all the pieces and parts , as it has been a few years since we camped. I intend to do some camping this year in anticipation of our future cross country trip. It a test , to see if we actually enjoy camping , just the two of us.  We usually hit motels or bed and breakfasts on our weekend warrior trips.  I figured , this year , doing some camping could save some money and enrich the experience.  (or it could ruin it)
Anyway , tent went up relatively quickly ...looks good , its quite big for a simple tent with room for 3 people and bags and stuff ...Lori took turns bringing the cats outside and into the tent with us to play.  They were very nervous at first but started to enjoy themselves , being IN the place on the other side of the window inside of a tent , listening to the sounds of people chattering , kids yelling , cars roaring and dogs barking,.  Frocious at one point was so jittery that he climbed up into my shirt and stuck his head out of my sleeve.  He then just plopped down there , for like a few minutes , he had no intention of leaving... kinda cute.

Just ordered a chicken parm grinder and a salad for Lori and I to split from Filomenas down the street and I hear them pulling up ...gnight