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Engaging stories of love, joy, comfort and friendship with proven scrumptious, healthy recipes, we celebrate LOVE as the secret ingredient for wonderful food!

Herons, horses and a lamb, oh my!

September 6, 2013 by Mary Frances 20 Comments

We are finishing up a week of vacation here in the country, before I head to the LongHouse Food Revival this afternoon, which I am very excited about! While we worked most of the time, due to new accounts coming in (yay!), it is still nice to sleep a little later, stay up and watch old movies and go for long bike rides in the afternoon.

We also have this gorgeous heron who has appeared right up the street from our house. He appears on either side of the road near these two ponds. I have been so near to him and damn it, no matter how quietly I stop, open my fanny pack and take out the phone, I can’t access the camera fast enough, and he majestically flies off!Heron on a pond in upstate New York.

He or she is so beautiful. I want to share him with you. But this is the best I can do from a distance, so the quality of the photo is not good. But I am so happy he has come so near to us. Several years ago there was another heron who had babies in a nest way up atop a dead tree trunk in the neighboring town of Gallatin. That area is also on one of my bike routes. But they have been gone now for two or three years.Horses in upstate New York.

Check out the beautiful horses in our area, and that magnificent Hudson River Valley light. This is late in the day, around 6 pm. No wonder many artists came here to paint. It is already getting chilly here, so they have their blankets on.Baby lamb, 7 days old in upstate New York.

And then there’s Domino, the new baby lamb of our farmer friends, Ethel and Tom. This little guy is 7 days old!! He’s standing, walking, smelling, will let you pet him. Isn’t that amazing for 7 days old?

Life in the country. Ain’t it grand?!

AUGUST NEWSLETTER IS OUT TODAY!

I know it’s not August anymore, but sign up for the newsletter (in the upper right hand corner) if you don’t already receive it, because you won’t want to miss this exquisite meal. It’s perfect for the Indian Summer nights to come and complete with wonderful wine pairings for each course. Sent to you with LOVE – enjoy!

Filed Under: Travel Tagged With: baby lamb, country life, heron, horses, upstate NY

What constitutes a vacation?

July 14, 2012 by Mary Frances 9 Comments

Doing something different? Removing your mind from everyday things? Being with your children 24/7? Having the freedom to do what you want when you want – such as staying in bed, reading or sleeping on and off until 10, or napping at 4 or having a beer at lunch?

You know what makes it for you. For us, last week was a first of being at our little upstate home, with glorious weather all week except for rain one day, no kids, no conventions or meetings and just doing what we felt like, when we felt like, and having some close friends over for dinner on the 4th. It was really perfect. We had sunset cocktails, wonderful local food, tried new recipes, dinner out twice (a treat), and lovely walks after dinner. You know, you feel like you eat too much and you drink too much and you’re bound to gain weight but surprisingly, I didn’t. I did ride my bike from 8 to 21.5 miles almost every day so I guess that helped and worked to sweat the toxins out as well. It is so quiet there and I love having all the windows in the house open to feel the clean soft breezes. (Rare for me because in NYC, it just makes the apartment dirty.) It was a real, clear the head, simply lovely time. We saw two great movies – The Avengers (silly fun) and Moonrise Kingdom – a quirky, must see, coming of age movie with great music and fantastic graphic scenes of Rhode Island.

I hope you get to clear your head this summer as well.

Here are some visual highlights.

Driveway with bike in upstate New York. Road to heaven.

I always think this looks like the road to heaven or the road to nowhere. There actually is a large house way over to the right and this is their driveway.

Upstate New York waterfall.

Our neighborhood waterfall.

Corn field in upstate New York.

The corn is growing!

Yellow roadside flowers in upstate New York.

I love these little yellow roadside flowers.

Horse farm in upstate New York with tractor.

Local horse farm – see the tractor?

Breakfast outside with eggs, toast, and orange juice.

Breakfast outside – my favorite!

Filed Under: Breakfast, Travel Tagged With: bike rides, breakfast, Columbia County, corn, farm fresh eggs, horses, orange juice, roadside flowers, smoked salmon and scrambled eggs, toast, upstate NY, vacation, waterfalls, willow trees

Hudson Valley

June 11, 2012 by Mary Frances 2 Comments

Horses at a fence. Stallions at Silvernails sign.My bike ride yesterday was so lovely. I keep saying that the Hudson Valley is just so, so pretty. The light here is so spectacular. No wonder all the artists and painters congregated here.

I have several routes that I go on for my rides. This particular one is about 8 miles and takes in numerous horse farms. Spectacular pieces of property and interestingly enough, the horses and cows all came to their fences to say hello to me as I was riding by yesterday!

Here are just a few shots for your pleasure.

Corn just starting to grow in cornfield.

The corn is just starting to grow!

Filed Under: Travel Tagged With: bike rides, bike routes, horse farms, horses, Hudson Valley, Hudson Valley School of Art, Silvernails stallions

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