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A Day In The Sun
Days like last Saturday are the reward we get for making it through another New England winter.
Bright sun, but not too bright; cool breezes, a little on the chill side but all the better to keep us from getting uncomfortably sweaty; and a ride down to Bristol, Rhode Island, to see an outdoor art show. A friend of ours was showing some of her miniature watercolors - she has a remarkable gift - and so Teri and I packed Sebastian in the car, picked up my mother at the train station and drove down to Bristol.
Although we live in Rhode Island we're not actually all that familiar with it - which is particularly ironic, since it certainly must be the easiest state in the world to get to know (because it's the smallest, you see). We'd never been to Bristol, which is on a "finger" (basically an archipelago) which extends southwards into the Atlantic on the east side of Narragansett Bay.
The area was clearly a wealthy one, with beautiful architecture, exquisite little parks, and small but trendy gourmet cafes. We were pleased to see not one but two Newport Creameries; it's nice to know that they're still around.
The traffic got a bit thick as we got closer to Bristol, but Sebastian was in a good mood (not surprising, since he had Grandma sitting next to him) and it was a fine day for driving or even just sitting in traffic.
Finally we arrived. To Sebastian's delight there was a huge playground nearby, and Grandma was promptly dragooned as his sidekick (when Grandma or Aunt Lo-lo is around, Sebastian has little use for the rest of us).
We looked at art, had really good hot dogs and hamburgers from a little setup called "Leo's", drank some frozen lemonade (a Rhode Island tradition), watched the boy play like a little monkey (he went down the tallest spiral slide I have ever seen - it was at least fourteen feet high), and had a lot of fun. Perhaps the high point of the afternoon was a horse-drawn carriage ride around Bristol, while the costumed driver sang a song from the 1700's. A newspaper photographer wanted to get a picture of Sebastian patting the horse, but the boy steadfastly refused to cooperate; I guess the horse was just too big and scary! :D
And all the time I kept saying "What a lovely day!"
I need more days like that, and that means it's time to start thinking about day trips. Any suggestions would be really welcome. New Hampshire's White Mountains are on my list, as is the Marginal Way and Perkin's Cove. What else? Cape Cod, of course, and Provincetown. Kent Falls in CT is a possibility. Washington Irving's Sunnyside estate in Tarrytown, NY is a bit far but well worth the trip. Pound Ridge would be good, as would that big amusement park up in Maine...so many places.
Life's too short. I plan to get as much out of it as I can, starting right now.
Bright sun, but not too bright; cool breezes, a little on the chill side but all the better to keep us from getting uncomfortably sweaty; and a ride down to Bristol, Rhode Island, to see an outdoor art show. A friend of ours was showing some of her miniature watercolors - she has a remarkable gift - and so Teri and I packed Sebastian in the car, picked up my mother at the train station and drove down to Bristol.
Although we live in Rhode Island we're not actually all that familiar with it - which is particularly ironic, since it certainly must be the easiest state in the world to get to know (because it's the smallest, you see). We'd never been to Bristol, which is on a "finger" (basically an archipelago) which extends southwards into the Atlantic on the east side of Narragansett Bay.
The area was clearly a wealthy one, with beautiful architecture, exquisite little parks, and small but trendy gourmet cafes. We were pleased to see not one but two Newport Creameries; it's nice to know that they're still around.
The traffic got a bit thick as we got closer to Bristol, but Sebastian was in a good mood (not surprising, since he had Grandma sitting next to him) and it was a fine day for driving or even just sitting in traffic.
Finally we arrived. To Sebastian's delight there was a huge playground nearby, and Grandma was promptly dragooned as his sidekick (when Grandma or Aunt Lo-lo is around, Sebastian has little use for the rest of us).
We looked at art, had really good hot dogs and hamburgers from a little setup called "Leo's", drank some frozen lemonade (a Rhode Island tradition), watched the boy play like a little monkey (he went down the tallest spiral slide I have ever seen - it was at least fourteen feet high), and had a lot of fun. Perhaps the high point of the afternoon was a horse-drawn carriage ride around Bristol, while the costumed driver sang a song from the 1700's. A newspaper photographer wanted to get a picture of Sebastian patting the horse, but the boy steadfastly refused to cooperate; I guess the horse was just too big and scary! :D
And all the time I kept saying "What a lovely day!"
I need more days like that, and that means it's time to start thinking about day trips. Any suggestions would be really welcome. New Hampshire's White Mountains are on my list, as is the Marginal Way and Perkin's Cove. What else? Cape Cod, of course, and Provincetown. Kent Falls in CT is a possibility. Washington Irving's Sunnyside estate in Tarrytown, NY is a bit far but well worth the trip. Pound Ridge would be good, as would that big amusement park up in Maine...so many places.
Life's too short. I plan to get as much out of it as I can, starting right now.
no subject
I have no real good suggestions for family outings... with the way Kiralee schedules our lives we rarely have time for such things, and I'm not usually impressed by typical tourist kind of places (and I'm not good at knowing what will keep children amused... I'm better with older kids, say in the 10+ age group than with youngsters).
no subject
http://www.livejournal.com/users/bobquasit/29030.html
I checked out that picture, and dolomathes are definitely what we called "dolma" - my grandmother used to make them all the time. But there are a lot of dishes which are shared by Greeks, Armenians, Turks, and other cultures in the area under slightly different names.
If you'd like to find more Armenian recipes, http://www.cilicia.com/armo_cookbook.html is a good place to start.
There's one Armenian pastry that you won't find in any Watertown market: it's called paghach, or katah, although it's pronounced as if it begins with a "b" or "g" respectively. It's a regional or village sort of bread, and there are probably as many different recipes for it as there are villages in the Near East.
But basically it's a bread dough that has been painted with melted butter and then folded and rolled out. The rolled-out dough is then painted with melted butter and then folded and rolled out again. This process is repeated about 500 times (well, a LOT of times, anyway). The final dough is then made into a thin rectangular shape, and sometimes a filling is put inside which consists of flour and butter which have been mixed together and fried in a pan until they turn orange and crumbly - which sounds gross, but tastes incredibly good. It literally melts in your mouth.
The resulting bread is as buttery as the best croissant, and in fact the flavor is very similar, but is much denser and more intense. Unfortunately no one sells it; the only way I have to get it is to persuade my parents to make it for me. I have their recipe, but in order to learn it properly I'll have to have a day free to go up and cook a batch with them.
Man, I'm hungry!