Summer in the City

The country too.

Lame.  In my defense this old blog has been a bit neglected this summer, and I'm a little rusty when it comes to creating post titles.

We really were in the city this past weekend which I'll blab on about in a minute, but before the city there was the country.

England.

No we weren't there this weekend, but some friends we met while living across the pond trekked all the way to the Garden State for a visit. They're from Canada although he's originally from New Zealand, but we were all together in New Jersey for a fun few days.

Is anyone confused?

They arrived Thursday afternoon, and we managed to sit on the patio for a while after dinner, which was the only night we got to have a fire. I will refrain from commenting on the weather.

Friday was actually a good day to spend outdoors, because it was overcast and the rain and humidity didn't arrive until later in the day.

Oops, I mentioned the weather.

It was nice enough to have breakfast al fresco, which is my favorite way to dine. Afterwards we drove up to Highpoint and stood on top of the world.

Okay, we were only on top of New Jersey, but still the views are lovely.

We drove back to Tinytown for lunch and our friends got a glimpse of the sweet side of NJ wildlife-

If that were my tree I might not find this quite so sweet, but it wasn't so yes, it's sweet.

Saturday we spent the day in the city. It was raining when we left the house, but we forged ahead anyway, and the sun came out by the time we'd crossed the bridge. We were headed to the Met and normally you can just hop across the park, but Mariah Carey was having a concert that evening and there was no crossing the park.

Just ask these guys.

We had already attempted to go through, and did I mention the humidity?  I know I said I wouldn't, but walking around Central Park on a humid July day is not for sissies. We finally gave up and hailed a taxi.

Do people say 'hail a taxi' anymore?

We made it to the
 air conditioning
Metropolitan Museum of Art, and spent a few leisurely hours wandering the halls there. Absolutely one of my favorite museums in the world.

Afterwards we 'hailed' another taxi and headed all the way down 5th to Eataly. I've mentioned this spot on my blog before (here), but just know if you love all things Italian in the food and wine department you'll want to see it for yourself. It's a combination shop and dine experience, and we started in the cheese restaurant with a meat and cheese plate that was positively fantastico!

We eventually moved over to their seafood restaurant Il Pesce, and shared frutti di mer, fritto misto 'alla Ligure', and one ginormous, yet perfectly cooked flounder.

Course no trip to the Big Apple is complete without a stop in Times Square-

We went up to the lounge in the Marriott Marquis, and had a birds eye view of all the goings on down below. This view included a million and one different things, even a bride and her Marine groom.

As is always the case with weekends, this one went by way too fast. Once upon a time we sat at one another's kitchen tables in a village across the sea. We shared meals, sorted through stacks of pottery together, and compared notes on raising teenage daughters. We even put our car on the train and ended up in the picturesque seaside town of Le Touqet France one March weekend a lifetime ago.

The first year hubs and I were back in the states we made the drive north to their charming home on Prince Edward Island where we dined on mussels and lobster, and I stepped back into my childhood and the days of Anne of Green Gables.

So thankful for friends, that while the geographical distance may be great...

...the heart distance is always just a beat away.

Randomness and Italy...two of my favorite things

It's Week 11 over at Linda's so come play along and link your answers here. I love a meme that lets me blog about Italy.

1. What was the last song you listened to?

Barlow Girl- Need You to Love Me…such a pretty song.

2. Have you ever had “buyer’s remorse” over anything?

No…I’m not an impulse shopper.

3. What is something in your life that you are thankful for now that you didn’t think you would be at the time of the event? (Something that seemed ill-timed, inconvenient or hurtful which turned out to be a good thing)

Moving my sensitive 10^th grade daughter out of her all American highschool filled with friends since grade one to an International School in a foreign country. Honestly my husband and I stressed about that aspect of the move more than anything else. As it happens that was one of the biggest blessings of the entire experience.

4. Do you watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade every year? If so, do you have a favorite float or balloon?

I love the parade…one year we were in NYC the day before Thanksgiving (you can watch the balloons inflate) and Florence Henderson was the grand marshal. We were sitting in a little café and daughter2 said hey, there’s Mrs. Brady! Sure enough there was Florence Henderson coming in for breakfast.

5. Share a quote, scripture, poem or lyric which has been an inspiration to you lately.

“Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.” Corrie ten Boom

6. This is meant to be a fun question, and this is a G-rated blog, but please share a “guilty pleasure,” something that you enjoy that’s probably not the most edifying, time-worthy or healthy thing you could be indulging in. Did I mention--G rating?

Facebook?

7. What Thanksgiving food are you looking forward to?

I’m sorry, I can’t possibly answer this one. I love the entire meal, especially mashed potatoes because they are not a Jillian approved food so are a rarity in my house. I also love the corn pudding, stuffing, and angel pie…can you tell I’m looking forward to a carb fest?

8. What is your favorite book to read to children, or what was your favorite childhood book?

Another hard one…my favorite book of all time is Anne of Green Gables which I wrote about here. I also loved the book Crow Boy when I was a girl…a really heartwarming story with a wonderful message. I read literally thousands of books to my children so I’m not sure I can choose a single favorite. When they were toddlers some favorites were More More More, Moose in the Garden, and Are You My Mother? Some of my best memories though are reading to them in the middle years…all the Anne Books (we cried), Charlotte’s Web (we cried), Where the Red Fern Grows (we cried), A Dog Called Kitty (we cried). Basically we have a love affair with books in my house and we’re a blubbering mess of emotion…just ask my husband.

9. Do you collect anything? (Feel free to post a photo.)

Italian pottery…and it’s best if I go there and fetch it myself. Here is a sampling…

fig pitcher from the town of Nove just outside of Verona

my favorite bowl and serving utensils...also from Nove

I love the color and shape of this bowl. I also have a cake plate and candlesticks that are the same design

From the Southern part of Italy near Sorrento...lots of lemons on all of the pottery there. I may have more.

This table sits in my sunroom and came from a village called Ravello on the Amalfi Coast. We stood in this little spot and it is truly one of the loveliest little towns in all of Italy...the table is wrought iron with 6 separate tiles that fit together.

That's a sampling for you...too many pictures? I think not.

10. Gift bags or wrapping paper?

a mixture of both

11. Share an after-school memory from when you were younger. What was your routine like on an average day?

Hopping on my bicycle, riding to the Duck Pond, playing basketball in our neighbors driveway, riding to the train station to collect my dad from his evening commute, family dinners, arguing with my sister about cleaning up the dinner dishes, ping pong games with my brother after he made his post dinner milkshake, homework, talking for hours on a phone whose cord stretched practically next door, a television with only 3 channels plus PBS, sharing a room with my younger sister, my mom sitting on my bed listening to my worries when I felt anxious and couldn’t sleep…I remember a pretty happy childhood.

12. True story: Once, in a job interview, I was asked this question and told there would be no clarifying; I simply had to answer the question: “When you’re fishing, do you feel for the fish?” So what about you? When you're fishing, do you feel for the fish??

Whaaaat??? Were you interviewing for a job with the CIA? My answer is no.

There was Plenty of Scope for the Imagination

Growing up my younger sister and I walked back and forth to elementary school. We lived about seven blocks away so we also walked home for the hour long lunch break each day. My mother would read aloud to us while we sat and ate our lunch and we shared many wonderful books this way. We all have sweet memories of those days spent sitting at our kitchen table but my favorite by far was the year I met Anne of Green Gables. My mother read the entire series to us at lunchtime when I was in the 5th and 6th grade and I fell in love with Lucy Maud Montgomery's character Anne Shirley and especially with her words. The books are filled to overflowing with wonderful words and phrases. So guess what? Last week I was here-

Yes that is me standing at the signpost entrance to Green Gables on Prince Edward Island, Canada. Honestly, when we got out of the car I wanted to burst into tears. I felt like my 10 year old self standing there.

My husband and I went on vacation last week. I know some of you who read here are thinking, 'Do these people ever stay home?' It does seem like we've been on the road pretty much every weekend since we arrived back in the states and I guess it seems that way because it's true. However, I don't really consider riding 17 hours in a rental truck only to move furniture upon reaching our destination to be an 'actual vacation'. Nor do I consider moving from one country to another to be anything remotely like an 'actual vacation' so last week we took an honest to goodness vacation. As an aside here...I think you'll be relieved to know that I'm going to write two posts about our holiday because, like Anne Shirley, I too love words.

We drove from our home in NJ alllllll the way to Prince Edward Island Canada. It felt a little bit like driving to the end of the earth but it was so worth it. We spent three full days on PEI visiting friends from the UK. They relocated back to the island a couple of years ago and it was so much fun to see their home and catch up in person. Here is the very lovely view from the very lovely deck of their very lovely home.

We arrived around dinnertime and were greeted with this-

We knew right away we'd come to the right place for a holiday. We spent our first full day on the island seeing the sights around PEI with our friends kindly acting as tour guides. We visited some cute little villages including this one known as Rustico...so charming.

We walked on Brackley Beach which is absolutely beautiful. The wind was blowing in case that's not completely apparent but it was such a nice day.

Oh, and speaking of the weather? Di-vine! My husband spoke to people in his office once or twice and the weather at home was dreadful. Yes he was on vacation and he really did do a great job at keeping the Blackberry mostly turned off. The sea is the one place he can truly relax so this was an ideal vacation spot.

We stopped around lunchtime for what would be the first of many wonderful seafood meals. PEI is known for its seafood and in particular for the mussels and oysters grown there. If you eat mussels in the US chances are good that they were grown in PEI. Coincidentally my friend L is involved in the Aquaculture industry on the island and more about that in a minute. The white buoys=mussel fields.

After lunch we headed over to Green Gables. I can't believe I actually get to write that. Lucy Maud never lived in the house but did spend alot of time there and especially loved exploring what she called The Haunted Woods and Lovers Lane. The house itself belonged to cousins of her grandfather.

Our second night in PEI my friend and I went to see the musical version of the story and it was terrific. I've imagined the characters for so long now that I was a little bit worried about the casting but the show is so well done.

If I'd done nothing but visit Green Gables I would have left PEI a happy girl but our hosts had so many great things organized for us. On our last day in PEI they arranged for us to see inside a Mussel plant which was located just at the base of the bridge leading onto the island.

It's still a very hands on process and much less automated than I would have imagined. After the mussels came the oysters. What fun this was! We went out with a fisherman on a little dory and got to try our hand at tonging the oysters. This is way harder than it looks! (Especially with a leather backpack on).

The riding in the boat part is simple but the actual tonging part...it's tricky! These tongs are seven feet long and they are heavy.

Not only did we get to try tonging the oysters but our very nice fisherman cracked them open right there on the boat and we ate them straight out of the sea. And they were delicious! And I believe the technical term is 'shucked' not cracked.

Yes, my husband did get close enough for you to see every pore in my skin -sorry 'bout that.

We celebrated our last night on the island with...you guessed it...a seafood feast. We had fresh shucked oysters, steamed mussels, fresh scallops, and corn cooked on the grill.

I could go on and on and oops, I have. I'm going to write about the rest of our trip in another post because all of the above happened and it was only Tuesday night. When it comes to my blog I think Anne said it best, "I know I chatter on far too much ...but if you only knew how many things I want to say and don't."