Sullivan County, USA

Ahhhhh, open spaces!

I miss them.  When I first moved to Brooklyn, one of the things I liked the best was that it was low-rise, which meant I could see the sky, which meant I felt that I had elbow room which meant I was relaxed and happy.  Over the past 10 years, grody developers have endeavored to turn Brooklyn into a version of Manhattan's far west side: tall glass "luxury" buildings.  This seldom means luxury but always means expensive and higher rise.  Blech.

Anyway, I was treated to a little trip out of town recently with T-Bone and Pierre.  They have a place upstate and we decamped there for a weekend of good food and mellowness.  On Saturday Terence (T-Bone) and I visited a local farm stand. 

The farm stand operates out of an old barn and opens at 10.  By 10:30 there was a line 10 people long waiting to check out - quite a scene.  Terence bought food for lunch and dinner. I bought hippie soap.

It's so beautiful that it's almost comical. 

While we were out running errands (so much faster in a car than hoofing it, as is my norm), Pierre was making curtains for one of the upstairs bedrooms. 

I was impressed by his productivity: two panels in the morning and two after lunch. Sewing gives a satisfaction that's hard to replicate with any other craft. It is fast and efficient and sometimes incredibly simple.  Cooking is wonderful, but the results and enjoyment, are temporary.  Knitting, even quickly, is much more time consuming, and so the gratification is delayed.  But with sewing, one can often start and finish a project in one day, and enjoy it for years to come.  How wonderful is that?


After lunch I took a 2 1/2 hour nap. Mon dieu!  I never sleep so long, but man oh man did it feel good.  Before dinner, I went for a little walk to wake up a bit, and wound up at my favorite little spot around there: Nearing Cemetery.

It's a tiny cemetery, overgrown and not well tended, on a gravel road the middle of the country.  At night it's really spooky (to me, at least) but in the daytime, it's lovely.

Nearing cemetery hasn't completely abandoned; see the American flag on the left?  Someone had placed it at a more recent grave, perhaps on July 4th?  Terence says there are still Nearings in the area.  Can you imagine anything more gothic and romantic that a family cemetery? So neat.

Tal, Brett, Colin and Peter came for dinner that night. They have homes in neighboring towns, and so often get together on weekends.  I've known most of them as long as I've known Terence: 15 years this month.

It was a beautiful evening, so dinner was al fresco. We ate a lot, drank a lot and laughed a lot.