Author: Jaclyn

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ADK Adventure 2018 (and 12 Months of Trails for August!): Hiking Big Slide Mountain

With a whole week to spend in the Adirondacks, it wasn’t a question of will we hike a high peak? but how many high peaks will we summit?  Steve and I are slooooooowly working on the goal of summiting all forty-six high peaks (loosely defined as the Adirondack peaks over 4,000 feet above sea level – but they were measured over 100 years ago, and more accurate measurements have since revealed that there are a couple of peaks under 4,000 and at least one 4,000-footer that didn’t make it on the list).  When I say slowly, I mean slowly.  At the rate we’re going, it will take us approximately 90 years to finish the challenge.  But it’s all about the journey, right?  (I’m not kidding.  It is all about the journey.)

Anyway, when we actually sat down and looked at our schedule for the week, we realized that there was only one day that was going to work for a high peak – Thursday.  Monday and Friday we didn’t have all-day babysitters, Tuesday was Peanut’s birthday (and high peaks are a grownups-only affair), and Wednesday looked to be gloomy.  Thursday it was.  We looked over our list of possibilities and decided on Big Slide Mountain.  Relatively short, breathtakingly scenic, and lots of people say it’s their favorite – sounds good to me.

Actually, I was nervous.  Steve has been running consistently all summer, but my time has been consumed by work for months on end.  I wasn’t in as good shape as I was when climbing our first three high peaks (Cascade and Porter, and Giant) and I was just hoping I’d be able to summit.  Anyway – we woke up at the crack of dawn and got ready to hit the trail.  It was in the low 40*s, so I decided to wear yoga pants and a flannel.  Steve went for mesh shorts and a tech t-shirt.  We’d see which one of us was going to regret our life choices.  (Spoiler: it me.)

The first 0.7 miles of the hike was moderate climbing through the woods.  Despite the climb being just that – moderate – and despite knowing that the altitude gain was going to slow down once we gained the ridge line, I complained the entire time.  I was actually kind of relieved when we started hitting some of the technical spots.  It gave me a chance to slow down and catch my breath while I thought about how best to tackle each section.

Whenever I plan an Adirondack high peak hike, I go back to every ADK46r blog I know and read their trail reports, but I’m rarely able to discern from there what to expect.  I finally figured out why that is: when you’re thinking about how to approach a section of steep and probably slippery Adirondack granite, you’re not taking photos.  My phone was in my backpack for most of the hike – until the views started.

Big Slide can be tackled from two directions: over three smaller peaks known as “the Brothers” or via Johns Brook Valley.  A lot of hikers choose to do the hike as a loop – up over the Brothers, down via the Valley.  We decided to stick with the Brothers for both ascent and descent, for a few reasons – it meant less distance overall, the views would be better, and the trail would be familiar so we probably wouldn’t get lost.  And ohhhh, the views.  Once we hit the ridgeline, it was all panorama, all the time.

We spent a lot of time loitering at various overlooks, pouring over guidebooks with our fellow hikers and trying to work out whether we were on one of the Brothers and if so, which one.

(see the big hulking monster about two thirds to the right there? that’s Giant, which we climbed last year)

(a view of the Great Range)

Eventually, even these breathtaking views started to get old, and I began to whine again.  I was a real peach!  If you’re wondering how Steve puts up with me, don’t expect me to explain it to you.  It felt like an eternity before we hit the junction with the Johns Brook Valley trail and saw this sign:

Just 0.3 miles to the summit!  At this point I knew there was no way I was turning back without reaching the peak.  Unfortunately, I also knew (thanks, research!) that the toughest part of the climb lay ahead.  In just a little more than a quarter of a mile, we were going to gain 700 feet of altitude.  Ouch!  My quads hurt just thinking about it.  Also, a good chunk of the altitude gain came via this freak:

Yes, that is a section of rock so steep that they put a Helpful Ladder up for hikers.  So, this is a weird thing about me: while I love heights, and will happily perch on a mountaintop precipice, I am weirdly skittish about exposure.  Steve, meanwhile, hates heights but isn’t bothered by exposure in the slightest.  Together, we make one confident hiker and one basket case.  Anyway, this ladder gave me the willies.  But–

I did it!  Adirondack high peak number four in the books!

The views were pure gorgeousness.  Big Slide’s summit, like Giant’s, is partially wooded – but there was plenty to soak in from the summit ledge.  Steve and I took off our backpacks, plunked down on the granite, and enjoyed a summit snack – some high protein nut and seed mix, Babybel cheese, apricots and mangoes.  We eavesdropped as a local hiker gave some French Canadian visitors the lowdown on which high peaks we were looking at, snapped more pictures, and thought about how lucky we were to have a beautiful day and grandparent babysitters along to watch the kiddos.  And then it was time to head back downhill for dinner and, after, hugs from our babies.

(Giant again!  Can’t believe I stood on top of that bad boy last year.)

If you’re wondering how Big Slide got its name – that’s how.

It was a beautiful, if exhausting, day in the mountains!  We booked it down the trail and took our sweaty, dirt-covered selves straight to Big Slide Brewery to celebrate our achievement with local beers and carbs.  (Steve had a burger, if I remember right, and I had pasta with Impossible sausage.)  The brewery staff didn’t bat an eye when we staggered in.  I think they’re used to seeing people just off the mountain.  They asked where we’d been hiking and seemed genuinely tickled when we said we were celebrating Big Slide at Big Slide.

Another high peak handled!  It’s been a couple of months now, so I’m already forgetting how painful it was and starting to think about the next one – Phelps, maybe?  Or possibly Nye and mighty Street.  Next week – a hike with less altitude but more drama.  Check back!

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The Fall List 2018

After summer was such a bust, I am almost hesitant to make a fall list.  If my favorite season falls flat this year, I’m not sure I’ll be able to handle it.  (Yes, I realize that I am basic.)  But the fact is – we need a fun fall.  We need sunshine, fresh air, and the chance to unplug and reconnect as a family.  The last few months have been stressful in the extreme, and we could really use a break and some joy.  So I’m going to make this list largely as an act of faith that the universe has good things in the works for us.

  • Pick apples at Butler’s Orchard (and maybe some raspberries too?).
  • Hike Big Meadows at Shenandoah National Park – moving this one over from the summer list.
  • Roll up my sleeves and do some fall baking with Peanut.
  • Catch up on the 52 Hike Challenge before it gets really cold.
  • Read cozy mysteries – as many as possible.
  • Run the Wonder Woman virtual 5K (and maybe the Alexandria Turkey Trot).
  • Volunteer in Peanut’s classroom.
  • Get back into Barre3.
  • Pumpkin picking, of course!
  • Take the kids trick-or-treating (they already have their costumes!) at Mount Vernon and in the neighborhood again.

That’s ten things!  I think that list looks pretty approachable.  There is some outdoor stuff on there, so hopefully it stops raining one of these days.  But there’s plenty on there that I can do no matter the weather and with even just a little spare time.  I’d love to sneak off for a weekend away, too – maybe to Virginia Beach, or maybe to the mountains – but I’m intentionally not putting it on the list.  If it happens, great.  If not, I’ll live.

What’s on your fall list?

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It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? (October 1, 2018)

Monday, Monday, Monday – it’s here again.  This Monday starts a fresh new fiscal year for me – it’s been a long, exhausting and stressful road, but it’s done and now we’re on to a new year and back to zero on the billable hours clock.  Unlike many of my colleagues, I didn’t have to work through the weekend to meet my hours requirement – I hit it last week.  So I got to soak up the first gloriously sunny weekend we’ve had in what feels like eons.  On Saturday, we were planning a trip to the farmers’ market and then a hike at Mount Vernon, but we were so slow to get going that it ended up a one-or-the-other situation, and we decided on the hike.  And a nice one it was, if a bit muddy.  The rest of the day was spent hanging around the house.  I made a quick run to the natural foods store for some fresh produce and specialty ingredients that I can’t get through Amazon Fresh (which Steve is still using despite my constant complaints about it), and spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out on the back patio while Nugget dug in the sandbox and Peanut took pictures of my dying tomato plants with her pink camera.  We walked out to our favorite neighborhood pizza joint and hit the waterfront park in the evening, and other than the lack of ice cream (too full) it was perfect.  Sunday was, if possible, even more chill.  I did a little bit of work, but spent the rest of the day bumming around the house with the kids.  There was more sandbox time in the morning and random stories and playing all afternoon.  Somewhere in there I polished off two books, too, about which more below.  In general, it was just a nice, laid-back, do-nothing weekend.  I get down on those sometimes because I want to go out and have adventures, but sometimes I need to cave to the rest of the family and just be lazy.  So that’s what I did.  But I hope next weekend is as beautiful, because my fall agenda isn’t going to adventure itself.

Reading.  Last week was such a slow Monday through Friday on the reading front that I was beginning to wonder if I was in a slump and didn’t know it.  I was just more interested in podcasts than in books on my commute, and kept getting sucked into mindless scrolling after the kids went to bed.  So it took me the entire workweek to finish The Fortnight in September, even though it was an absolute joy to read.  I know!  What is the matter with me?  Whatever it is, I guess it’s fixed (fingers crossed) because I slammed two books in two days over the weekend – started Astrophysics for People in a Hurry on Friday night after finishing Fortnight, and finished it on Saturday evening.  I’m pleased to report that I understood two whole sentences in it!  Between Saturday night and Sunday afternoon, I read Class Mom, the October selection for my book club.  I’ll say more in my September reading recap, but – meh.  Finally, ended Sunday night curled up on the couch with The Reluctant Fundamentalist, which has been on my to-read list for years.  I’m just getting into it, but so far, so good.

Watching.  An actual, honest-to-goodness, MOVIE THEATER movie!  Steve and I lined up a babysitter for Friday evening – our beloved former nanny, Kelly – and went to see Crazy Rich Asians.  I’ve been dying to see the movie ever since I read the book, and it didn’t disappoint.  Steve had no idea what to expect, as he hadn’t read the book and was completely unfamiliar with the plot.  After the movie, he said he liked the shots of the Singapore skyline and all the fancy cars.  Hopefully he enjoyed more about the movie than that!  (I think he did.  Peik-Lin cracked him up.)  As for me, I loved every minute.  The cast was perfect and it was such a fun depiction of a book I really enjoyed.

Listening.  All week, all I have listened to is back episodes of Speak Up for Blue.  If you’re not listening, and you’re at all interested in environmental issues – and particularly ocean conservation – give it a try!  I really like the focus on sustainable living.  It’s easy to get down about all the damage human beings have done to the planet, but Speak Up for Blue is relentlessly positive and encouraging.

Making.  It’s homemade soup season!  On Sunday I whipped up a delicious squash and chard puree using veggies from the farmers’ market and the natural foods grocery, and it’s filling without being too heavy – perfect for the summer to fall transition.  I love having a big container full of homemade soup in the fridge to start the week.

Loving.  Last week I found a new-to-me blog, Going Zero Waste, and I can’t get enough of it.  It’s full of great ideas, practical tips and encouragement on how to live a greener, more sustainable life, with a special focus on reducing plastic consumption – something that I have been bugging Steve about for ages.  I’ve been clicking through the archives, working my way through lots of fantastic back content, and I love it.  As I said above, it’s easy to feel depressed and hopeless about the direction we’ve taken the planet, but I’m encouraged by listening to and reading the words of people like Kathryn and Andrew.  I’ve quietly tried to live as planet-friendly a life as I can for many years, and it’s been a lot of fun to have some new ideas to peruse.  (Also, I realized that although green and sustainable living is a passion of mine, I write very little about it.  Any interest here?)

Blogging.  Going to be a fun week!  On Wednesday I have my fall list coming to you, and let’s hope I have more success than I did with the summer list.  And on Friday, I’m recapping my August hike – parents’ day out in the Adirondacks!  Check in with me then.

Asking.  What are you reading?

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ADK Adventure 2018: Wild Center Wednesday

When we looked at the weather forecast for the week we would be spending in Lake Placid, it looked like it was going to be mostly beautiful.  I had a hard time buying this, because it has rained pretty much constantly all summer in D.C., and I pretty much stopped believing that sunshine happened.  But the weather reports for the ‘dacks all promised that most of the week would be gorgeous, with Wednesday the only gloomy day.  So we decided to spend Wednesday morning at an indoor activity we knew the kids would love: visiting the Wild Center in Tupper Lake.

The Wild Center is part outdoor experience (there is a treetop walk with a gigantic pretend bird’s nest the kids can climb in – we didn’t do that because by the time we had finished the indoor part, the rain had started in earnest and the kids were hangry), part children’s science and nature museum focusing on local environments, and part small aquarium highlighting local species.  We entered the museum in the aquarium-ish part, and the kids were enthralled by the fish and amphibians.  There were even some adorable ducks!

We made it through the fish tanks and into a room with a lot of fun play activities designed to teach kids about environmental conservation – so cool!  Peanut got really into playing a game about healthy river systems, and Nugget found some blue sand to slop everywhere.  But he was over the blue sand much sooner than Peanut was ready to move on from her river game, so Dad hung with her while Nugget and I ended up doubling back and hanging out with the fish some more (which is why you don’t see Peanut in any of these pictures).

Total fascination.  Anyway, we all reunited eventually and headed outside to try to explore the Wild Center grounds before the skies totally opened up.

I loved the beautiful wooden bridge over the wetlands.  You all know I can’t resist a marsh habitat!

They had a beautiful little nature trail through a pretty wildflower garden.  The kids loved running ahead and reporting back on the scenery a few yards down the trail.  I did not count this toward my 52 Hike Challenge, because it literally lasted ten minutes.  Had we made it to the Wild Walk, I probably would have counted that.  But we had barely started exploring the gardens before it began to rain in earnest, as I mentioned above, and the kids were grumpy and complaining about their stomachs.  So we went back to the car, had a snack, and headed back to Lake Placid to let Peanut log some quality time with her birthday presents.

The Wild Center was a perfect kiddo activity for a gloomy morning.  We were able to get some fresh air exploring the gardens, but there was plenty to see indoors.  I loved the focus on local flora, fauna, and indigenous/First Nations cultures, and I think the kids learned a lot.  We’ll be back for sure!

Next week: Steve and I tackle our fourth Adirondack high peak!

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The Summer List 2018: Final Recap

The end of another season is always bittersweet, isn’t it?  They just seem to fly by, faster and faster every year.  I usually struggle with the transition from summer to fall, because I love both seasons, so I never know what to feel.  Sad that summer is ending?  Check.  Excited about all the fall fun ahead?  Check.  I’m a basket case.  But this summer has been so weird – I’m kind of glad it’s on the way out.  We had terrible family sadness, lots of unexpected separations, and rain almost every weekend.  We tried, so hard, to have fun and enjoy the season, but it mostly just sucked.

  • Family vacation season!  Spend a week on Lake Placid – hiking, kayaking, and swimming from sun-up to sun-down.  Check!  We had a wonderful week away in late August with my parents.  We hiked almost every day, took the kayaks out for a romantic paddle, and splashed in Mirror Lake until we shivered.  We celebrated Peanut’s sixth birthday on vacation and just unplugged as much as possible and soaked in time together.

  • Related: climb another high peak (or two).  Check!  Thanks to my parents, who generously babysat the kids from sun-up (literally: we picked Nana up before it was even light out) to bedtime, Steve and I were able to spend a whole day in the mountains together, soaking up the silence and views and notching another high peak – Big Slide Mountain, this time.  Recap coming soon!

  • Read The Summer Book by Tove Jansson.  Check!  I read it on vacation, which seemed appropriate, and really enjoyed this lovely, ruminative book about a young girl and her grandmother and their long summer days spent together.
  • Fill up on sweet summer greens and juicy stone fruits from the farmers’ market.  We never made it to the farmers’ market.
  • Start running again!  Haha, this is funny!
  • Pick blueberries at Butler’s Orchard and bake something yummy with Peanut.  It would’ve had to stop raining.
  • Hike Big Meadows at Shenandoah National Park.  Again, would’ve had to stop raining.
  • I don’t know if this’ll happen, but I want it to, so I’m putting it on the list: spend a weekend with Rebecca on Virginia Beach.  Well, Rebecca had only one functioning bedroom and no HVAC all summer, so this didn’t happen.
  • Get my bike tires pumped up, figure out how to hitch up the kids’ trailer, and start taking some family bike rides on the Mount Vernon Trail.  I got my bike tuned in hopes of biking to work, and it has rained every day since.  Literally.  Every.  Day.
  • Kayak Fletcher’s Cove as much as possible, and check out the Ballpark Boathouse too.  I have faith and believe that Fletcher’s Cove and the Ballpark Boathouse both exist, but I haven’t seen them all year.

I can hardly believe it, but that’s the extent of it.  The wet weather this summer really hampered our fun – we never went to the farmers’ market or to the DC boathouses at all; we missed blueberry season; we never got the bikes out; and we didn’t have time for either Shenandoah or Virginia Beach.  The fall is shaping up to be just as wet as the summer, and if it doesn’t stop raining on the weekends soon, I am going to seriously lose my mind.

How was your summer?  I hope you checked more off your list than I did off mine!

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It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? (September 24, 2018)

Here we go again – Monday.  They just keep rolling around.  I’m not ready – am I ever?  This weekend was just busy.  On Saturday, we walked down to the farmers’ market to stock up on produce, because we had literally none in the house.  (I have Thoughts, capital T, about our current grocery situation.  It’s causing a lot of strife in the house at the moment.)  On the way to the farmers’ market, we were brought up short – imagine Scooby-Doo ruhhh? noises – when we realized that our favorite Buffalo-based artist, Sean Huntington, had a booth at the King Street Art Festival.  Of course we had to stop and have a good catch-up session with him.  We exclaimed over his new paintings, he exclaimed over how much the kids had grown, and we promised to swing by on our way back from the market (we did, and bought a print from him – a full-scale original painting wasn’t in the budget this time, although we do have several of his originals at home).  Seeing Sean was the highlight of the weekend, and just a completely delightful surprise.  The market was lovely too, and we came home stocked with all kinds of green goodness.  Also – it’s Asian pear season!  My favorite.  The rest of Saturday was a mix of fun and blah.  A short but fun hike and playground session at Jones Point – fun.  Several hours of work – blah.  A first birthday party for a friend’s little girl – fun.  More work after the kids went to bed – blah.  On Sunday, we woke up to gloomy skies and drizzling rain: perfect weather for getting things done around the house.  Steve’s and my bedroom had become one of the dumping zones for miscellaneous crap, and there were mountains of clean clothes to fold and put away.  I spent the morning tearing through the mess, and it’s much better now.  The rest of the day was spent puttering around.  Steve watched the Bills’ game; the kids bickered.  The usual.

Reading.  I have surprisingly little to report this week; it just hasn’t been a reading-heavy week for me.  I’m still working my way through The Fortnight in September, which is starting to seem like it’s going to take a fortnight to finish.  That’s not a reflection of the book at all – it’s a joy to read and I am having so much fun peeping in on the Stevens family and their late-summer seaside vacation.  I just have zero attention span for printed material, apparently.  I am close to being done, though, so I expect to wrap it up in the next few days, and I think the next book on my agenda is Astrophysics for People in a Hurry.  I’ve heard great things about it.

Watching.  So, it seems a complete series re-watch of Parks and Recreation is a thing that we are doing now.  I can’t lie, I’m not sad about it.  We’re into season 3 now, and Chris and Ben have arrived in town – yay! – and the show is really hitting its stride.  I think it might be officially my favorite show of all time.  It’s just so perfect in every respect.

Listening.  As much as I have not been reading much, I have been listening to ALL the things.  Podcasts, actually. All the podcasts.  Every day on my way in and out of work, and for hours on Sunday as I tornadoed through the bedroom cleaning.  Some of the usual suspects – Sorta Awesome, The Mom Hour – but I recently added a few new-to-me podcasts to my rotation.  Last thing I need, I know.  The podcatcher is already bursting at the seams.  But I subscribed to a few ocean conservation podcasts: A-Pod Cast for Killer Whales; Speak Up for Blue; and Marine Conservation Happy Hour.  I’m particularly loving Speak Up for Blue, which is an approachable podcast about marine conservation issues, mixing science topics with issue-oriented coverage and content about how to live a more sustainable life.  There are a few years of back episodes and I went through the entire archives, downloaded everything that I wanted to hear, and have been listening in fascination all week.  The production is super professional and the content is really timely and relevant.  I love it and I predict you’ll see me mentioning it many more times in this section.

Moving.  I’m trying, as always, but it’s tough – especially in this busy season!  I went to my old favorite 5:30 a.m. yoga class on Friday and it just… wasn’t the same.  The instructor seemed nice, but I didn’t love the class, and there were some things that just felt weird about it.  I am cooking up some plans to get back to barre and running, though, and I’m excited about that.

Blogging.  Sorry I flaked on you last week – I know I promised a post about my book club and I didn’t deliver.  It’ll have to wait a few weeks, because this week and next, I’m planning to go through my summer list and share my fall list, and there are still vacation recaps to post.  But do keep checking in with me!  I’ll get caught up eventually.

Loving.  I’ve been exclaiming over kid art for a few years now, but I’d forgotten about the transition from scribbles to actual recognizable figures.  Peanut’s art skills have been steadily expanding for awhile, but Nugget has been a scribbles guy.  But lately he’s started drawing cetaceans – because he knows I love them, and can we just take a moment over how sweet and adorable it is that he wants to draw me pictures of something I love and not just whatever is in his head? – and I’ve received pictures of whales and dolphins that, dare I say, actually look like whales and dolphins.  Maybe I wouldn’t think “oh, that’s clearly a Pacific bottlenose” if I saw the picture with no context, but knowing what it’s supposed to be, I can totally see it.  And I just love it.

Asking.  What are you reading this week?

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ADK Adventure 2018: Owls Head Mountain

Steve and I definitely each have our strengths when it comes to vacation planning.  He excels at logistics – knowing where we are going to be, how to get there, etc. – and so he’s usually the one who does things like booking plane flights and rental cars, planning driving routes, and all the other boring but necessary tasks.  I prefer (and think I’m good at) the part of planning that has to do with making sure everyone has a good time – picking good lodgings and especially planning fun adventures.  The Adirondacks was a test even for me, though, because there’s an embarrassment of riches when it comes to fun and adventures, but not all of those adventures are realistic for a family with small children.  So while we were planning to get out on an adults-only adventure or two, I also had to call upon all of my knowledge of the area and my fun-wrangling skills to find activities that were adventurous and/or scenic enough for the parents, but safe and easy enough for the kids.  As I searched, there were a few trails that came up over and over again, and one was Owls Head Mountain in Keene.

Owls Head is a lovely and charming little mountain, situated right off Route 73 – one of the main arteries in this part of the Adirondack Park – just a short drive outside of Lake Placid.  It’s a short and sweet hike – just over half a mile of moderate-grade, non-technical climbing to the summit, and the views from the peak are breathtaking.  It’s also technically on private land, and a couple of years ago the trail had gotten so popular that the property owners closed it to the public on weekends and holidays – after the hordes of hikers abused the landowners’ generosity by actually parking them into their own homes.  (If that’s not a case for limiting public use of natural resources, I don’t know what is.  What if one of the landowners had a medical emergency and wasn’t able to get to the hospital because they were completely blocked in?)

Fortunately, since we were in town for an extended stay, we had a week’s worth of days to choose from, and on Tuesday morning we headed down to Keene to check out the trail.  It was an absolute delight to hike, as you can see – enough of the Adirondack granite to make things interesting, but not so much that it was beyond Nugget’s abilities.

Little hiker on the trail!

The birthday princess hitched a ride on Daddy for the uphill portion of the hike.  Yes – this climb was our celebration of Peanut’s sixth birthday!

As we neared the summit, there was one steep/technical part of the trail.  Grandad helped Nugget navigate the terrain.  I have to say this for Nugget: he’s your typical rambunctious three-year-old boy, but he does seem to understand when it’s actually important for him to listen carefully and follow directions.  He did a great job climbing the steep terrain with his Grandad’s coaching.

There were a few false summits on the way up, which I never mind in the Adirondacks, because there’s no better opportunity to relax, take a deep breath and snap a few pictures of the gorgeous mountains all around.

Stunning views of the high peaks!

And then, before we knew it, we were at the summit!

Nana and Nugget relaxed and drank in the panoramic mountain views, while I dug through the pack for the trail snacks I’d brought along for the whole family to enjoy: little packets of olives, salt-and-pepper macadamias, delicious dried apricots, Babybel cheese, and brownie bites for the kids.  We all dug in and slurped on our water bottles while soaking in the scenery.

Family picture time!  Summit smiles:

After a good long rest and snack session on the summit, it was time to head down and get on with the rest of our day.  Nugget hopped into the backpack and Peanut put boots – errrr, sandals – on the trail.

Owls Head did not disappoint!  I can see why it’s a popular mountain, but I’m glad the owners are limiting access to the trail – we saw several other hiking groups, and one family rock climbing, and I can’t imagine what it would be like on a popular holiday weekend – probably so intrusive that there’d be no trail left.  Opening it during the week and closing it on weekends and holidays seems like a good compromise to (generously) allow people to continue enjoying the mountain without destroying the trail or seriously impeding the landowners’ movement.  Makes sense to me!  And as for the trail itself, it absolutely lived up to its billing as a perfect family hike.  There was enough climbing and terrain to keep it interesting, but it was approachable enough that my small children were easily able to manage it with attentive adult supervision, and it was short enough that we were able to get a late start and spend considerable time hanging out on the summit, and still be off the mountain in time for lunch.  Wins all around!

Next week: Wild Center Wednesday!

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It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? (September 17, 2018)

Does it have to be Monday?  I need one more weekend day, just for relaxing.  We were super busy this weekend – Saturday, especially, because we were throwing Peanut a sixth birthday party.  But I thought she turned six last month?  If you’re confused, so was Peanut; she thought she was turning seven, and you should have heard the caterwauling when I broke the news to her that: nope, still six.  We like to wait to throw her party until a couple of weeks into the school year, so that more people can make it – someone is always on vacation if we do the party in the summer.  This year, Peanut requested a “cheetah tea party,” so that’s what I delivered (although no one drank the African Autumn iced tea – the best laid plans).  We had originally planned to have a picnic down at one of our favorite waterfront playgrounds, but last week the area flooded due to non-Florence-related rainstorms.  (We had such a wet summer that the Potomac was straining at its banks, and I guess last week’s rain was the final straw.)  So the party moved to our house as the backup location, and it was kind of better, because at least that way I didn’t have to haul all of the food down to the waterfront.  We invited all of the girls in Peanut’s class, plus some non-school friends, and the kids had a great time wearing cheetah ears, watching The Lion King, and tearing apart Peanut and Nugget’s rooms.  After everyone left, Nugget was desperately in need of some running around time, so I took him (and my sore party-throwing feet) to a block party (the fire trucks were there) and then to the playground and to ride his bike around a basketball court for awhile.  On Sunday, we wanted a low-key family day, but we were still on the go – down to Mason Neck, one of our favorite local parks, for a hike and some playground and turtle-watching time.  We made it home in time for lunch, and then the kids and I hung out on the patio – the kids digging in the sandbox and playing with Peanut’s new stamp set (a birthday present) while I made some headway on weeding the patio – it was horribly overgrown – and periodically yelled at them to stop bickering.  Good times.  And now – another week.  I’m already wondering if next weekend is apple-picking weekend.  Maybe?

  

Reading.  I started off fairly intense this week, reading When They Call You a Terrorist: a Black Lives Matter Memoir, which was hard to read but so important.  After finishing that and returning it to the library, I finished up The Modern Guide to Witchcraft and then turned to a book I’d been saving, the meditative and charming The Fortnight in September.  I’m reading it slowly and savoring it – and, to be honest, I was super busy all weekend and didn’t have much spare time for reading – and loving it, as I knew I would.

Watching.  Jumping around here and there.  I only watch TV about every other day at most, and then only one episode at a time.  This week, I think I watched one or two episodes of Parks and Recreation (which can cheer me up when nothing else can) and one episode of The Crown – my favorite, “Hyde Park Corner.”  I told Steve, “I keep forgetting how sad this episode is.”  In my mind, it’s all just Liz and Phil go to Africa and see elephants!  Liz wears jammies and amazing sunglasses! and I somehow forget that this is the episode where King George VI dies.

Listening.  I’m down to two hours left to go in my audiobook of Nick Offerman’s Paddle Your Own Canoe.  I’m still enjoying it, but am kind of getting ready to move on to something else.  And he still hasn’t mentioned Parks and Recreation, except briefly and in passing.  Come on, Nick!  Inquiring minds want to know ALL about that show!

Making.  I made an indoor safari birthday party this weekend, and that sapped pretty much all of my creativity for the week.  But it was a hit!  We had animal print tablecloths, a lion head made out of hummus, cheetah ear headbands and more.  The kids all had a great time, which was the most important thing.

Blogging.  Dishing about starting a book club on Wednesday, and then another vacation recap post on Friday – we climbed a mountain for Peanut’s sixth birthday!  Check in with me then.

Loving.  Okay, this has been public information for ages, but I just found out and it BLEW MY MIND: did you know the actress who plays Caroline “There Is No Enjoyment Like Reading” Bingley in the classic 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice (Colin Firth, wet shirt) is DESCENDED FROM JANE AUSTEN?  (Sixth great-niece.)  And also from Mary Boleyn and the first Duke of Marlborough, but focus on the Austen.  HOW DID I NOT KNOW THIS FACTOID?!?!  I feel so out of the loop, but also kind of ridiculously (and irrelevantly) excited about this piece of trivia.  As I did whenever I have exciting bookish news to recount, I immediately emailed my fabulous Janeite friend Susan, and she was similarly all-caps SHOCKED and DELIGHTED and ASTONISHED.  So, why am I “loving” this?  Well, Firth of all, I just find this piece of information (which everyone except for Susan and me probably knew already) completely delightful.  Caroline Bingley is my favorite Austen baddie, and Anna Chancellor plays her to perfection, and I can’t love enough the connection she has to Dear Aunt Jane.  You know how sometimes you just learn a little fact that completely delights you?  This completely delights me.  And then there’s the fact that I have a friend who – I knew – would geek out about this too, and everyone needs That Friend Who They Geek Out With.  The best.

Asking.  What are you reading this week?

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ADK Adventure 2018: Brewster Peninsula and Mirror Lake

Finally, some vacation recaps!  It feels like it’s been forever, and it has been a year since our last trip of a week or more.  Last year, we flew twice – once to California for a wedding followed by a family reunion and vacation, and a month after that, to Florida for another wedding.  So my one criterion for this year’s vacation was this: no flying.  I picked four driveable locations – the Adirondacks; Maine; Smith Mountain Lake or Congaree National Park – and told Steve to choose.  He picked the Adirondacks, so we started gleefully planning a week of hiking in and around Lake Placid, New York.  We drove up to my parents’ place on a Saturday in late August, crashed overnight, then drove the rest of the way on Sunday morning – and on Monday, our first order of business was to hike.  For our first trail, we picked the Brewster Peninsula Nature Trail.  Steve signed us in at the trail register – an Adirondack must – and we were off.

First views of Lake Placid!  I grew up coming to this area all year ’round, but especially in the winter – for skiing, ice skating, and snow fun.  Our Adirondack summer fun was concentrated around the Sacandaga, although we did come to LP to kayak from time to time.  So it was a treat to get to immerse myself in the Lake Placid region for an entire week.

The sun was sparkling on the clear mountain lake.

Nugget and Peanut dove right into their favorite hiking activities.  Peanut immersed herself in tracking “the Blood,” a forest creature of her own invention (shhhh) and Nugget set up a camp kitchen.  We probably loitered by this stump for twenty minutes while he cooked up trail delicacies for the rest of the family – and the Blood.

Get your trail snacks!

I passed on the dirt pies in favor of a much more delicious trail snack – wild raspberries!  (Of course, you should never eat anything that you can’t identify.  But I grew up picking wild raspberries from the large thicket that grew around my grandparents’ camp on the Sacandaga, and I can easily tell them apart from less palatable trail produce.)  There were wild raspberries growing all over Lake Placid, and I plucked a few whenever I spotted them – which was often.

What a welcome to Lake Placid!  The Brewster Peninsula trail was fun and family friendly, but still an Adirondack trail – so there were plenty of roots and rocks to keep the terrain interesting.

And plenty of incredible views to soak in!  I kept pinching myself, because I couldn’t believe I was lucky enough to be looking forward to a whole week of this.

That afternoon, Nana and Grandad arrived to share in our Adirondack fun, and we all headed over to the municipal beach on Mirror Lake.  My memories of this beach are all wintery.  I’ve tobogganed down the hill and onto the frozen lake, and practiced my skating moves here on freezing February days – but I don’t think I’ve ever waded in on a warm August day.  Time to correct that!

The kids both enjoyed running and splashing in the crystal clear water.

In addition to being gorgeous and clear, the water was also quite bracing – refreshing, sure, and we did get used to it, but after a good dousing both kids were shivering.  Time for the action to move to the beach – good thing we were well stocked with sand toys.

Nugget enjoyed dumping buckets full of sandy water all over Grandad’s feet.  Meanwhile…

It’s not an official day at the beach until Peanut has a mermaid tail.  Thanks, Nana!

What a fun welcome to Lake Placid!  I’m already plotting a way to return to that bright mountain sunshine and sparkling water.  For now, more soon.

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The Classics Club Challenge: The Village

There comes a point in the life of a classic literature fan where – while you may not have completely worked your way through “the canon,” such as it is – you start looking for the different, the less-known, the forgotten.  I’ve always felt a strong connection to classics by women – your Jane Austen, your L.M. Montgomery, your Edith Wharton, your Bronte sisters, your Elizabeth Gaskell, etc. – so it was only a matter of time before I discovered Persephone Books, an independent publishing house based in London which has built a following through its dedication to printing long-neglected classics by mostly women writers, many of whom I’d never heard of before discovering these lovely dove grey volumes.  Any new convert to the Persephone way learns that there are two authors in particular who enjoy a spot atop the pyramid of Persephone’s stable of authors – Dorothy Whipple and Marghanita Laski.

I’ve read one Whipple – Greenbanks – and loved it, so I thought I’d better give Laski a go.  One thing about Laski is that no two of her books are alike.  They vary in subject, tone and style.  So I suspected that I might like some better than others, and decided to start with The Village, which seemed a likely success for me – and it was.

In the opening scene of The Village, victory has just been declared in the European phase of World War II.  The war, of course, was still raging in the Pacific, but for the residents of Priory Dean, V-E Day effectively meant the end to hostilities.  Refugees would be headed back to London – if they weren’t already – the threat of German bombs was over, and deployed local boys would soon be straggling home, if they had survived.  On the first night of peacetime, there’s no curfew, there are bonfires and dancing in the streets.  And as the celebrations whirl through the village, Wendy Trevor and Edith Wilson wend their way to their night’s watch.  There’s really no need for them to scout through the evening, since the war is over.  But both women are oddly reluctant to let their wartime duties go.  They come from different stations in life – Wendy belongs to impoverished gentry, and Edith to the working class, lacking in social graces but better funded than the Trevors and their like.  Edith used to “do for” the Trevor family, and she and Wendy both know that their friendship, forged in the crucible of wartime, is now going to have to end.  Edith will be sticking with her kind, and Wendy with hers.  But they both crave one last evening of companionship before returning to their respective stations in life.

Wendy said with a half-laugh, half-sob, ‘Listen, the dance music’s stopped.  Edith,’ she sad, mopping her eyes, twisting her handkerchief in her hands.  ‘I don’t know how to apologise.  I don’t know what came over me, making an exhibition of myself like that.’

‘There’s nothing to apologise for at all,’ said Edith.  ‘We’re all of us that tired and overwrought these days anyway, and if you can’t have a good cry here tonight I don’t know when you can.’  She added almost casually, her face half-turned away, ‘I lost a baby too, you know.  A little girl, mine was.  It was my first, too.’  She sat down beside Wendy, and again the two women sipped their tea, talking now in soft relaxed voices of the children when young, of their husbands, their parents, remembering the little things that had made up their lives, made them what they were.  Neither had ever talked like this to anyone before and never would again.

At last Wendy glanced up at the window and it was light.  On a single impulse they both got up and went to the door, looking out at the village in the early morning light, at the Norman church and Dr Gregory’s long Georgian house on the north side of the Green, the dark cedars that spread over the wall from Miss Evadne’s garden on the short side, at the ugly new shops flanking the village hall and closing the triangle around the Green.  The air was cool and sweet and no one was about.  It was the first day after the war.

Unbeknownst to Wendy and Edith, however, they’ll soon be thrown back together.  The Trevors – Major Gerald and Wendy – have two daughters, for whom they have scrimped and sacrificed to provide the best education.  Margaret, the eldest, is concluding school and the education seems to have been wasted on her.  She dreams of marriage and motherhood.  Unfortunately, the only son of the local gentry, Roger Gregory, is covered in acne and made even more unattractive by his unpleasant attitude.  After an embarrassing rejection at a local dance, however, Margaret finds herself back in the orbit of her childhood companion, Roy Wilson, with whom she used to play when his mother – Edith – cooked and cleaned for the Trevors.  Roy and Margaret drop back into their easy companionship and – I’m sure you see where this is going – are soon in love.

‘Oh, Roy,’ said Margaret, in an anguish of longing, and he demanded fiercely, ‘Margaret, you must marry me.  Say you’ll marry me.’

‘Oh, Roy,’ she repeated, and then he bent his head to hers and they kissed in bliss.

At last, he lifted his head and looked into her eyes.  ‘I love you,’ he said despairingly and Margaret sighed, ‘Oh, Roy, I love you too.  I love you,’ and he kissed her again, but this time they clung together for fear of loss and kissed in desperation.

When this kiss ended, their lips were trembling and their faces troubled.  ‘Oh, Margaret, I need you so much,’ whispered Roy.  ‘You’re what I’ve always wanted, we could be so happy–‘  He buried his face in her neck, the touch of his lips bringing to both a warm excited content.

Tentatively Margaret’s hands began to touch his neck, to stroke his hair.  ‘Let’s go on pretending,’ she said softly, ‘do let’s go on pretending.  Tell me about the rest of the house.’

He dragged himself upright and leant back against the tree, pulling her against him so that she leant on his shoulder, his arms around her and his other hand playing with her hands.  ‘There’d be a hall with a barometer,’ he said, ‘and I’d tap it to see if I was going to dig in the garden or go off to the pub.’

‘I’d come to the pub with you,’ said Margaret tenderly.

Roy and Margaret attempt to keep their romance secret, but in a small village, no gossip stays secret for long.  When the village gentry learn of Margaret’s affection for Roy and the young couple bravely declare their intention to marry, the Trevors are properly horrified by this unprecedented intermingling of classes.  Wendy, expecting her night’s watch companion to be as unsettled by the union as she is, appeals to Edith to help her minimize the damage.  To Wendy’s chagrin, Edith insists on being baffled as to what’s so shameful about marrying her upright, kind, gainfully-employed son.  And so the union between the daughter of impoverished gentry and the son of the upwardly mobile working class becomes the first test of a new social order.

There’s a lot in this book.  My one complaint was that the book’s central theme was sometimes a bit unsubtle.  It did feel, on occasion, as if Laski didn’t trust her readers enough to draw their own conclusions, and instead she felt the need to beat us over the head with her social theories.  The result was that the action was sometimes predictable.  But it was easy to overlook the occasional ham-handedness of the narrative because the village and its denizens were so alive.  There were a number of side plots that I haven’t addressed at all, and my favorite was the collective aneurysm of the gentry when a successful shopkeeper sells her business, buys a home in the “nice” section of town, and starts wearing tweeds:

To Miss Porteous’s immense surprise, Miss Moodie, when she came to the door, was seen to be wearing a tweed suit.  Miss Porteous had never through of it that way before, but tweed suits, in Priory Dean, were definitely gentry-wear.  In the past Miss Moodie had always been seen in the unnoticeable stockinette dress and cardigan of the respectable tradeswoman; she might, indeed, in these days even have worn a skirt and a hand-knitted jumper; but never, Miss Porteous obscurely felt, a tailored tweed jacket.  Why, now, with her smooth grey hair in the neat bun above this unassailable uniform, she looked just like anyone else, not even very unlike Miss Porteous herself, and it was the confusion she was feeling that led her, without thinking, to cross the threshold when Miss Moodie said, ‘Do please come in, there’s really a nip in the air today.  You’d hardly think it’s really June,’ and then to walk into the sitting-room when Miss Moodie turned the oxydised copper handle on the oak-grained door.

It’s the well-drawn village and the living, breathing characters that takes The Village from a heavy-handed tale of social upheaval to a classic.  I loved the peeks into the kitchens and drawing-rooms of another age, I was righteously angry when Roger Gregory (twice!) snubbed Margaret Trevor, and I cheered for Margaret in her new-found strength to defy her social circle and marry the man she loved – with the encouragement of an unlikely source, and I’m not going to tell you whom, because you really should read The Village.

This review is part of my Classics Club Challenge.