He and Monique have a lovely house in Cuddebackville, which is a dot of a town between Middletown and Port Jervis. The house dates from 1870 and they have done wonderful things with it over the 19 years they've lived there. It's always a pleasure to visit and hang out there.
The country in the summer! When I got out of the car I inhaled and the fabulously fresh smell of summer, country air filled my lungs and lifted me up. The peacocks greeted us with the blare of their bizarre honking. The sky was filled with stars. And it was very peaceful.
One of the peacocks shows his stuff.
We turned in early and I slept until 9. My little cat was home alone but it was nice for a change to get away from the house, the campaign and Brooklyn.
Today we spend the day hanging out. I brought my notebook and Lon had 2 of his notebooks so the dining room table looked like a newsroom or some such thing. Comical. Eggs from the henhouse were our breakfast and then we took a walk down towards the Neverskink River that adjoins their property. We headed down a little dirt road that led away from their house and into a very remote area.
My notebook and Lonnie on the phone.
Me on the road behind Lonnie's house.
Their property originally had an old barn on it which also dated from the late 1800's. But nature finally took its toll and a storm blew it down some months ago. In between my last visit and this, they had a new garage built ... quite fancy compared to the old structure and Lonnie was very proud of it and couldn't wait for me to see it.
Their new garage. The old barn, which dated from 1870, got blown down this year.
Lonnie cracks a smile in his pool.
The day wore on and we finally got the get-up-and-go to try out Lonnie's new Mazda sports car. He wanted to show me something called the Bashakill which his friend Chris had taken him to a week ago. The Bashakill is 2000-plus acres of wetlands tucked, invisibly, beside Route 209, just west of Route 17. I say "invisible" because unless you knew how to get to it, you'd never know it was there. No signs, no directions. I've been up and down Route 209 dozens of times over the years and never saw it or heard of it. And yet, it's no more than a quarter of a mile or so off the road, running parallel to it. It's a hauntingly beautiful and vast open area of bog and marsh surrounded on the north by hills. It's also home to a great variety of wildlife and is a favorite place of birders who travel there to see bald eagles who make the area their nesting place.
We parked the car on the south side of the swamp in a little parking area and walked to the edge of the water. Lonnie spotted a sweet painted turtle, so-called because Nature has decorated it with beautiful markings that looked like an artist had labored over for many hours.
At the Bashakill -- a painted turtle.
Surveying the beauty of the Bashakill, just minutes from his house but invisible to those who don't know how to find it.
A canal "path" wends its way into the remote expanse of the Bashakill.
After the Bashakill we headed to a local supermarket to pick up stuff for dinner. Monique was coming up from the city to join us. She arrived around six and we threw some corn and pork chops on the grill. A nice salad and some good Austrialian wine rounded out the meal which we enjoyed on their screened porch under romantic candle light.
A lovely dinner on the porch.
I rested a while and then headed back home, reaching my house at about 12:30 am. Tomorrow, early, I have to drive up to Sprinfield, Massachusetts for a wedding celebration. Steffi's son (Steffi is Stacey's cousin), Aaron and his wife Amber were married recently in Colorado and the east coast gets to celebrate tomorrow.
A Bientot and good night.
No comments:
Post a Comment