Days in the Taconics

Sunday, August 10, 2014.   Hummingbirds are territorial.  They fight over feeders hung from our friends’ front verandah.  They thrum, they swoop and they head off any strangers aiming for a sip of sugar water.  When they float in mid-air with their wings moving at hundreds of beats per minute they are gorgeous.   Among themselves they’re rather nasty.

But nothing has been nasty about this trip.  We had a find drive up through the mountains of central New Jersey after our stops in Wilmington, Delaware, for coffee and shopping, and our visit to Mikonos restaurant for Greek food for lunch in Ewing Township, New Jersey.  The traffic in New York was heavy with weekenders heading off to the Catskills but once north of there the roads turned pleasant and the hills and mountains were beautiful as we headed up the Hudson Valley.

We are visiting our friends Andy and David at their home in Craryville, about 15 miles east of the town of Hudson on the river.  The view of the Taconics is magnificent at this time of year, and even better this weekend with nary a cloud in the sky.   The gardens are ablaze with color and their dog, Cooper, guards the grounds and checks out all visitors.   

We spent part of yesterday, Saturday visiting the antique mecca, Hudson, walking up and down Warren Street.  We  some antique books.   We found many of the street’s shops to be very expensive, but used books are always cheap.  John found an old British history book, a Spanish cookbook, and a history of pre-Civil War English history (that’s the English civil war between roundheads and cavaliers, not the American one.)

Along they way we watched the start of the Black Arts Festival Parade, where John chatted with the Mayor of Hudson, Bill Hillenback, who urged the election of a Republican to the mayor’s office in Washington—a bit of a joke since we are working to elect a Democrat, Muriel Bowser! One of the parade floats was a model of the first ship built in Hudson, the Hudson, built in 1785, before steamboats came 
to the river in 1809-1810…and it became a whaling town.

The farmers market overflowed with magnificent vegetables and pies, which we avoided, knowing home-made blueberry pie would be on the menu last night.  We had lunch at the Park Cafe, a kosher sandwich shop—excellent baba ghanoosh and pita sandwiches, and coffee per normal at Nolita.

Our two nights here so far have been good food, good wine and superb conversation.  Last night Andy did a lovely ragout with rigatoni to go with David’s blueberry pie and a West Virgnina valençay goat cheese we brought from Washington’s H Street Market, and the night before rack of lamb, cooked perfectly.

Our days have been busy.  Two friends arrived yesterday afternoon from Boston for a visit. Turns out they have secondary careers as Titan Men in all-male movies.  Today we visit with friends on the other side of the Hudson.

Hudson is very gay!