A Walk in the Country

Splendid! You have the photograper’s eye.

And the writer’s poetical command of the language.

I am guessing that you were in Rye. That house looks like one you can kind of glimpse from the Post Road. Am I right?

Lovely pics, by the way.

Lovely images!

Brilliant piece. The essence of a weekend walk transformed into words and pictures. Great to watch and read.

How utterly magical!

You dismantle my “old europe” prejudiced bastion stone by stone.

Ah, so that’s what Elizabeth Bennet’s walk from Longbourn to Netherfield might have been like…

Wish I’d been with you Cusack!

What a lovely landscape! Makes me miss New York. Very fine photos too.

Dear Andrew,

Quite beautiful. If it weren’t for all the escapees from Colony Hatch running around those parts (in their nightshirts no less!) Mr. P and I would very much enjoy being your neighbors.

Lorraine, are you from New York? Or better yet, Connecticut?

Mrs. P

Beautiful! I especially enjoyed the series of photos leading up to the house. (Good build-up.) Would you care to speculate on the date of construction of the house?

RP is correct, it is in the fine city of Rye; ScurvyOaks, the house built in 1838; and Mrs. P needs reminding that Colony Hatch is in England, not the fair county of Westchester! (The escapees are likely her relatives).

Absolutely no comment affirming or denying anything at all. Just an enormous ear to ear grin…

Mrs. P.,

I am originally from upstate New York, in the Finger Lakes Region, but also very near Central Leatherstocking.

Lorraine, That is a beautiful area. Mr. P has even wrote a poem about a walk he took while visiting with a college chum in Owego.It’s called Lambing in Upstate New York. Perhaps I can get him to post it. It was published long ago in Poetry Magazine but it probably has been heavily revised since then. I don’t want to make the same mistake I did with posting Quartet…

The things women do to their men :)

*sigh* That should read “written a poem”…

Mrs. P.,

Please encourage him to post the poem. I grew up about 15 minutes from Owego, which is a sweet little town. Has he visited since they built the new Court Street bridge? They replaced a green, industrial monstrosity with quaint lamps and iron side rails, much more pedestrian friendly. You can get an idea here from the photo on the upper right here: http://www.villageofowego.com/

Lorraine, if recalling correctly, he has not been there since about the mid-80′s. Never forget that in horse years we are considered ‘aged’. But unlike horses we still have all of our own teeth…

I will get him to post it. New York is a wonderful state. We love to drive east through Niagra — the old road and right across the old bridge– and then through upper state NY. Gloversville is an area that holds great fascination as it was such an economic hub in the late 1880′s because of the manufacturing of gloves for ladies. There are splendid samples of American architecture all around that area. (If I had been a more disciplined young lady I would have gone to architecture school – architects run in my family) The Finger Lakes is an area I’ve always wanted to explore as well as the St. Lawrence seaway. There’s just too much history as well as great natural beauty in those parts. And driving along the Hudson is one of my most very favorite drives.

Mrs. P.,
I’ve not visited the area surrounding Niagra much – I most certainly need to remedy that at some point! If you come into the Finger Lakes region you must, of course, stop by Ithaca. My family also enjoys visiting Skaneateles, another charming lake town. However, above all, I recommend the area of Cooperstown(in Leatherstocking)which boasts a fine countryside, several excellent museums and a very pleasant historic downtown.

I’ve heard Skaneateles is wonderful. Well, was wonderful until the Junior senator of NY decided to make that her vacation spot.

Have never been to the baseball hall of fame but have been to the football hall of fame in Canton Ohio and loved it! I even rubbed the nose of Dr. Doom (Dan Dierdof) He was the most depressing game caller in the history of Monday Night Football… Well, I haven’t spent too much time watching Monday Night Football in the last 7 years so prior to that Dr. Doom was the most depressing game caller.

Ithaca? IBM?

Indeed.

Sadly, I’ve yet to visit the Baseball Hall of Fame or the Glimmerglass Opera. I may, however, vouch for the delights of the American folk art display at the Fenimore Art Museum and for The Farmer’s Museum.

I believe IBM first opened shop in Endicott. Is it associated with Ithaca too? Ithaca is known, rather, as the seat of Cornell.

Mr. Cusack,

I was atop Five Points in the Catskills this weekend, near Kaaterskill Falls. A splendid view. From the summit I could see five states; Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, and of course New York.

I believe I saw you snapping away down there.

PS – I hail from Genesee County, myself.

Lorraine, I am a IBM offspring — (my father worked at headquarters near Andrew’s place of origin and his place of departure if he holds true). The towns you’ve been pegging off are ones known among the IBM offspring for residential and vacation spots of fellowe IBM-ers.

Ithaca is known for IBM. But also and perhaps more for Eastman Kodak and Xerox . It is also known for the Moosewood Cafe. Which I’m guessing the slow fooder-distributionist in you would be in sympathy with Moosewood technique-wise but not philosphy-wise. I have a Moosewood cookbook as Mr. P gave me one early on in our marriage because he was once a liberal in Ann Arbor and still very much enjoys his veggies. Particularly a good vegetable soup with fresh warm bread from the oven. Also his best friend from high school went to Cornell and they used to ramble about the Northern Michigan woods back then. They dined at Moosewood when Mr. P visited him at school.

Oh, and I’m a slow fooder too. I just prefer to call myself a housewife as slow food was once the way of life when housewifes were housewives.

And unlike slow fooder departer of Rome for Antioch, Rod Dreher, I do not think the meatballs at IKEA are anything to write home about. Thankfully no one in my family does either. They much prefer Marcella Hazan’s or even Nigella Lawson’s…

Clearly, I am in the dark about a great deal of IBM lore.

Why do all the nicest cafes belong to liberals? You are right. Slow food sounds awfully commercial. I prefer to call myself a Foodie, meaning I only make things from scratch with real ingredients, recognizably derived from some organic substance.

Mrs. P.,

I suddenly sense that we have strayed far off the beaten “path” laid out by Mr. Cusack.

Be that as it may, I should probably note that you may think, and rightly so, that Foodie serves as a poor improvement on Slow-fooder. Nevertheless, it possesses at least a certain flair the other clearly lacks.

Ah…many people have tried, most valiantly too, to label me as a Foodie. But Foodie, like it or not, means liberal.

Fear not Lorraine, Julia Child suffered most dreadfully from this problem as well and even worse as most thought she was a feminist. She was not. She was a woman who cooked. And cooked very well. If you do not have her original cookbook – Mastering the Art of French Cooking, I highly recommend it. She did it in her small kitchen in Paris with her best friend through life, Simca Beck. Try reading about these ladies as well as M.F.K. Fisher. Our Christine over at PP is about to embark to Dijon like M.F.K. did as the wife of a college professor and mother of 2 very small children. (Christine is in the same mould as these women and her reports from Dijon promise to be spectacular.) These ladies were old school. They had their struggles and failings, like George Eliot (and us all), but they always remained ladies.

Mr. Cusack and I have known each other for a long time. He suffers well with all the indignities I have subjected him to over the years. And there have been far too many to count on fingers and toes… Also he is a great reader and conversationalist so he has probably enjoyed reading our discussions.

By the way, I just read your comment over at PP. Lorriane, you and I have much, much in common. And answer will be coming in regards to Mr. Knghtley’s marriage proposal and Captain Wenthworth’s letter. I tipped my hand when I said Mr. Knightley’s proposal was the second most small ‘r’ romantic one in English literature.

I am so delighted to learn there are young ladies of sense still around who still ponder the undeniable charms of Jane’s men. It bodes well for their future happiness.

I’ve always wanted a Julia Child cookbook, mostly because her name is so elegant. One need only hear her name and one knows with certainty that she never dines without table linens. In other words, she understands the art of food. Now I find that womanly intuition confirmed.

Most of my favorite recipes come from either Jamie Oliver(he uses his hands instead of gadgets, substitutes “glug” and “glassful” for scientific measurements and is generally a hilarious Brit), The Joy of Cooking, a marvelous Italian Immigrant Cookbook or the William-Sonoma website(and my mother and grandmother of course).

My dears, you are more than welcome to wander these grounds as you please!

Hmmn…what do you think Lorraine? Is Mr. Cusack’s manner more like Colonel Brandon? Or perhaps, Mr. Darcy when he was at Pemeberly? (There’s a bit of Mr. Bingley too…)

‘Twas a gracious gesture, but beyond that I think I must defer to your judgment as an older acquaintance.

Lorraine, more observance is required to make a conclusive judgement. Should be most fun…

You have taken me on a spectacular journey that I otherwise would never of been on. A million thank yous.