Syd and Goose

Road Trip

We took a very short trip home this weekend-lots of hiking in the snow, a glass of wine with some old friends, magazines and coffee at the bookstore, dinner with family and general laziness and craziness with the doggies. Monday, here we come.

Block Island Continued

One thing that I loved about Block Island is that there were dogs everywhere. Whenever I am away from home, I always seem to seek out other people's dogs- the dog in the picture was permanently camped out in front of the liquor store. Her name is Ruby Redbird and she barely could muster up enough energy to lift her head for the camera. In fact, she received so much attention from everyone walking by, when I sat down next to her and held out my hand, she sniffed it, turned her head away and was clearly NOT interested.
   
We experienced some bad weather due to the after effects of Hurricane Ernesto(which was really unfortunate for the wedding but beautiful none the less) so we spent much of the time exploring the island in the car. This is the Southeast Lighthouse which had to be physically moved away from the 150 foot eroded cliff that it sat upon. The structure is stunning to see in person, it looms overhead and was built with excellent detail.

            -looking up the stairs inside the lighthouse-
On Sunday, we spent an hour or so walking around the Block Island cemetery. This is usually not my thing but ended up being one of my favorite activities. There were headstones dating back to the 1600's which were incredible to see and also incredible that they could still be read! I was struck by the number of infants and children who lived such a short life- also by the great number of women who died in their 20's, presumably in childbirth. I wish that I could remember some of the first names on the headstones-they were so unusual and pretty. One that I do remember was Thankful.

Block Island

Ahh-it's good to be back! I'm just gonna ignore the mounds of laundry and sand scattered around here for a little bit and hope that it just goes away. We spent some time in Pennsylvania with family(went by too fast!) and then were off to Block Island, RI for a wedding. It is such a beautiful island which is surrounded by rocky beaches, bluffs and coves. Block Island was first an agricultural community but became a tourist spot in the late 1800's. Victorian architecture(the Surf Hotel, above) is very much a part of the island as is the numerous stone wall fences that seem to be around every turn.

This picture was taken right outside of our room-I have lived in landlocked areas my entire life and love to walk outside and be able to see water. Maybe someday we'll live on some kind of water-it's kind of a dream of mine. Good friends of ours live right on a busy stream and at night as you lie in bed all that you can hear is the flow of the water-the air is crisper and cleaner too. Pure peace.

We spent a day exploring the island and found the spot above called Grace's Cove. It was pretty isolated and we spent the day collecting stones.

Sorry for the brief and brain-scattered post-I'm running on a few hours sleep but have more pics to share tomorrow. I'll leave you with one of my favorite pictures taken on our way to the ferry just as the sun was setting

Hello From the Sticks

Sorry about the pictureless post today! We are visiting family and I have so many pictures that I wanted to post but have spent an unsuccesfull hour trying to download onto a different computer. So frustrating! Any tips?

Yesterday was spent dealing with wedding stuff- Dave was a trooper until the florist and I started talking flowers. I really love our florist-he is super nice, had so many creative ideas and really got the look that we are shooting for. We were talking about boutonnieres and he whipped out a few flowers from the fridge, took off some leaves and showed us a perfect example in 2 seconds flat. We met with the grumpy cake lady who was just as grumpy in person but showed us an amazing portfolio of her work. One of her cakes was over 5 feet tall-talk about nerve wracking! She had a version of the chocolate ganache cake with sugared fruit that I posted about here but the sugar looked kind of lumped on. So, we are thinking about a yellow cake with buttercream and coconut shavings as well as providing a few other dessert options in case anyone is allergic/doesn't like coconut. We got the tux taken care of and checked out rental tables and chairs. Whew!

It's been really rainy here which has been a nice change from the heat and humidity. Dave's mom lives in the middle of the woods and it has been so beautiful watching the mist rise through the trees after the storms. There has also been a lot of porch sittin' and beer drinkin'!

I'm going to continue to try to get some pics posted but if I can't, I'll post again on Monday. Have a happy and safe Labor Day!