Apple#115
We had a super weekend out of Manhattan, upstate in Hudson, our first trip out of the city since our arrival in the US 2 months ago; and it was sooooo good to get a view, into the distant mountains, breathe fresh country air, and hear the SILENCE!!!!!! It snowed all weekend, very lightly, so we had the extra pleasure of a pretty winter snowscene in all directions. And a snowball fight, a snow angel, and the sight of a herd of deer leaping across the snowy field at dusk. And then the delight of a proper winter fireside supper after a chilly day out.
Our bed and breakfast, Thyme in the Country, Hudson, was a shabby chic cosy family home, run by the wonderful generous open-hearted Mary Koch and her helper Natalie, whose years of experience of, well, being wonderful, generous and open-hearted gave us a place to belong to for 3 days. We were provided for attentively in the warmth and ease of a family home, fed with simple, original and super-delicious-nutritious food, and had long and substantially personal conversations: all as if we had in fact met years before and were merely catching up after a break. Which for complete strangers is a marvel, is it not?
Look them up (thymeinthecountry.com) and you will also fall in love with the place! I’d love to go back in the Spring when everything is greening and livening; an idyllic life, at least from the viewpoint of the onlookers who don’t have to get their hands dirty.
Over the weekend we walked the slippery route up to the Kaaterskils Falls, took a ramble in the lanes around the village of Churchtown, had lunch in a little cafe in Coxsackie, and dived into local history by visiting an antiques barn nearby. Local 111 in Hudson gave us an arty-tasty evening meal way beyond expectations, and on the way home we took a brief look at historic Rhinebeck. A fantastic trip away!
For a change I took some photos; here are some of my favourites:
2 hours spent at a vintage+antique barn. What an way to encounter the history of a place. Fascinating mix of familiar and unfamiliar, attractive (to my eye) and grotesque (ditto). Tempted to buy stuff … but came away only with a $5 Wear-Ever steam pudding mold [sic]. (What on earth …? It just took my fancy) Pretty pretty pretty view outside.
Trash truck! Who needs such antiquated things as dustbinmen like back home when you have robots like this? All operated from within the comfort of the airconditioned/ heated cabin.
Crackers! Who would imagine anyone could
invent so many sorts of Ritz? We stopped by
Walmart, an out of town megastore, hoping
to find some beer to drink with our supper, and were astounded by the yards and yards of shelves of stuff. Kind of fulfilling a stereotype I have of american attitudes and affluence. Our fellow shoppers had gigantic trolleys full of gigantic quantities of gigantic size packets of food, and one might just have got the idea that this was not their first visit.
Mailbox! Just like in the films!!
Happy cows – the cushiest existence imagineable for dairy cows. Churchtown Dairy, Clackerton, NY State. Run on bioenergetic principles (whatever that means).
It felt simply peaceful in this barn, a beautifully dimensioned, circular building, as you see, which felt loved. Perhaps the cows, if asked, would express themselves in similarly appreciative words about their stay in this place as I have written above about our accommodation. It actually felt like a home - how lovely is that?
And, as you see at the top of the page, the cat that got the proverbial cream.
Like us, this weekend.