Chestnuts Roasting

We have fun neighbors. Last night Ralph and Chris organized a cul de sac party for us. And, they roasted the chestnuts seen here. Total success. I don't know why roasting chestnuts have that burned smell they have in NYC, but these smelled and tasted delightful.

Earlier in the day, Pam and James, Russ and I hiked the La Chua Trail on Paynes Prairie. Among other things, we saw sand-hill cranes, wild horses, alligators, great blue-, little blue-, and black-crowned night herons, anhingas, ibises and glossy ibises, alligators, turtles, a sora rail, and marsh hawks.

sora rail nearest to you

Little Blue Heron

Anhinga

wild horses

On the Suwannee River

Yesterday was the Great Suwannee River Cleanup. We stayed on shore, welcomed back all the trash collectors, helped unload the boats, and weighed and recorded the stuff collected. More than 3,000 pounds was gathered in about 3 hours on the water, with about 85 volunteers (all with wet feet, some with wet clothes from falling are jumping in the river to rescue things like boats that tried to float off.) What did we find? Fuel tanks, 55 gallon barrels, chairs, lots of tires, huge pieces of styrofoam (average weight--80 pounds each, shoes, and more expectable, random junk. I posted lots of photos on the Friends of the Refuges site. Check it out!

Great Birthday

I had a great birthday celebration yesterday. We went to the Annual Holiday Interagency Luncheon at the Lower Suwannee & Cedar Keys National Wildlife Refuge. Many of Russ's former colleagues were there, as well as many of our new friends from the friends of the Refuges.

In the evening, we went to dinner at the Island Room for the Wednesday special. Not only was it a gorgeous, cool evening sitting by the window looking out over the Gulf, but we had oyster stew, roast duck with cooked to just the right firmness veggies, pumpkin cheesecake, and wine for less than $20 a piece! Now that is a special!

This morning we ate waffles cooked in my new WaringPro and read the paper on my new Kindle...well that's an exaggeration. We couldn't actually download over in Cedar Key so that was just an imagined treat for the next visit, after downloading back in the world of connectivity.

Sunset on the way to the restaurant

Celebrating with Jake

Thanksgiving 2010

Thanksgiving Day is a birthday bonanza in the family: MaryJo, Mike Gage, and Gramma Mae. Plus Karen and Vic's Anniversary. Lots to be thankful for, before we even start counting what has come our way this year.

We started our Thanksgiving Day with morning walk at gorgeous autumnal San Felsaco Hammock, near home. We took the 5.6 mile loop and enjoyed some Florida-style hills, some pine forest, and some natural grow woods. The weather was perfect; we did not even need long sleeves. The animals were hiding at the beginning. But as the trail warmed up some tree lizards came out to bask, then the woodpeckers appeared, and finally four armadillos, all of whom posed for photos.

Back home we completed the cooking that we'd started on Wednesday. It was a Bon Apetit marathon two-day meal preparation, resulting in our best, most juicy turkey ever; great stuffing made with a three pound mix of Anaheim, poblano, and jalapeno peppers, Monterey Jack cheese, and masa corn bread; maple syrup basted butternut squash; new potatoes roasted with onions and garlic; and blueberry-cranberry pie! Worth all the chopping and sauteeing, and almost all the dish-washing. 

Friday and Saturday we spent in Cedar Key. The Community Tree Lighting and sing-along were Friday at the beach and the Jingle Bell Hop on Saturday. The holidays are definitely here, island style.

 

 

 

Cedar Key Gearing Up for The Winter Season

The Artist Poses with Her Work

Cedar Key is always sleepy in some ways, and almost always hopping in others. At this time of year, many seasonal residents are returning and the social scene gears up.

The Cedar Key Arts Center began its 2010-2011 Season Saturday Night, November 20, with the opening of "Mosaic Magic" by Valerie Bretl. She is a local artist and often uses tiles made by another local artist, Amy Gernhardt, to create her works. Valerie has just had a piece chosen for an international juried show in Austin in a few months. Inspired by the beauty and intimacy of our natural surroundings, she has transformed the ancient art of mosaics with her own contemporary style that flows between the real and the surreal. The exhibit featured 20 new creations. Just because we are on an island in the Gulf, and miles from the nearest chain restaurant or shop not owned by local folks doesn't mean we are short of pretty nifty artists.

After the opening, we wandered over to the Black Dog Wine and Tables with friends to sit on the deck outdoors.  The water slapped against the shore and a nearly full moon lite up the Gulf. Pretty good way to spend a Saturday evening.

This website shows a couple of the art pieces:
http://cedarkeynews.com/All/4865.html

This one is the featured artist:
http://mosaicworksbyvbretl.com/index.html

And this one is the artist whose tiles are sometimes used in the mosaics:
http://www.cedarkeypottery.com/galleries.html

A Cedar Key Evening 11-20-2010

Fall Decorations in Cedar Key

It seems as if we just put up our fall decorations and it is already time to think about when we will be packing them away and getting out our Christmas finery. The term "finery" may be a bit overblown because our recent practice has been to retire some of our less favored ornaments and migrate them to Cedar Key. This seems to us to be a good match because we think cottages and funky decorating seem somehow to go together.

Cheese and Random Ferments!

Drum roll, Please!!!! Today we are rolling out a new blog...Cheese and Random Ferments. After The Summer of a Thousand Cheeses was published last June, we thought our cheese journey would be essentially complete. Wrong!

We keep meeting new cheesemakers, finding new cheesemongers, trying new cheeses, learning new ways that America's cheese revolution is contributing to, and building on, new food attitudes among Americans. Until it is time for a second edition of the book, or a new book, we are sharing these people, places, and discoveries on Cheese and Random Ferments.

What fun it has been to get started. We are eager to hear your reactions to the posts...and to the design (colors, text size, placement of links, tone of voice) of the blog.

As it turns out there are some stories fermenting in our lives that are not about cheese. Those are the "random ferments" referred to in the blog's title. We love them too, and so have given them their own sub-blog called Random Ferments. It is easy to link from any of our four blogs to the others. Comments are more than welcome, they are eagerly sought!

Seafood Festival 2010 in Cedar Key

Pam and James came for Seafood Festival and the weekend. Great fun. We went to the Neptune Bar for the live music Friday and sang along with "We Love This Bar," the favorite of the audience. We helped set up the tent for the Friends of the Refuges booth and volunteered there for a bit. We bought cool craft offerings from the vendors.We hiked the Dennis Creek Trail and took a Tidewater Tour to the Suwannee River. Best of all, we sat on the breezeway and enjoyed the beautiful evening weather and good company.

Celebrating with Aunt Pat

I had a wonderful visit with Aunt Pat for her 90th birthday celebration. She and I and Carol hung out in Dallas for a few days, then rode with Karen and Vic to Ellen's in Austin for a super party, featuring Trent's brisket (cooked outdoors for 12 hours), and a groaning board of other delightful foods, plus 16mm movies in the backyard after dark.

Aunt Pat, Ellen and Trent, and Karen and Vic's son Tony (in his party hat) are in the photo below. At he bottom is a photo of the a part of the back yard in its party attire.

Kayaking to Atsena Otie

Russ and I joined about 20 people for the Hidden Coast Paddling Week kayak trip to the island of Atsena Otie. It is a 2.7 mile paddle. We started on the beach in Cedar Key, paddled over choppy waters to the beach on the island and took a break to swim (me...too many mosquitoes inland for me) or hike (most of the other folks) and have a little picnic time. Then we paddled around the island and back through even choppier waters to Cedar Key. As you might imagine, we waited to take pictures until we were past the waves and safely near shore, in the flat water. 


Atsena Otie is the original site of the town of Cedar Key. When the town was washed away by a hurricane in the 1890s, it was rebuilt in its current location on an island closer to the mainland. The day was sunny and lovely...and wore us out! There have been other paddling events all this week on the Suwannee River and various creeks. Maybe next year we'll do more than one day.

Hoh River Trail in the Sunny Rain Forest

My definition of an awesome day might be: Sunny, 60s for hiking, blue sky, puffy clouds, snow capped mountains in the distance, not too steep hills along the trail. Bingo.

Today we drove to the Hoh Rain Forest, and it did not rain. Perfect weather. Fantastic trail. We hiked a bit more than 6 miles after having stopped at Kalaloch Lodge for wonderful brunch. The first photo is at Kalaloch, on a cliff over the beach/shore. The rest are along the trail at sunny Hoh Rain Forest.

Lake Quinault, the Temporate Rain Forest, and Ruby Beach

Wednesday was a travel day. We drove south past the clouded and invisible Mt St Helen's, west along the Columbia River Valley, and north to the Olympic Peninsula National Forest and Park. We passed through Hoquiam, and former lumbering town. We have never seen a more boarded up, desperate looking town. It was an amazing sight.

We are staying at the Lake Quinault Lodge. The lake is 10-15,000 years old, formed by a 1,000 foot high glacier. Thursday we hiked about 8 miles in the Temperate Rain forest...in the sunshine! Friday we hiked about 5 miles along a couple of stretches of the ocean shore line. Hard walking there, for sure, but beautiful!