Lazy Sunday

                                                 My little Coleman Niagara camper

Even though we crashed at a reasonable time last night, we slept until six or so this morning. Duppy and I got up, looked around, had a smoke, went back to bed and we slept until eleven o'clock!!! I really do love my little camper! It has windows, screens and curtains all around, so I can adjust to weather accordingly. I guess it goes without saying the sleeping temperature last night was perfect! I have yet to deploy the door because everything has been so comfortable that I haven't needed, or wanted, the door. Vicki's seventeen acres are just beautiful, and features a very nice pond. Wolcott is a small village with a very nice Main Street - a quaint reminder of olde America and a simpler life than the one I left behind.

 Today Vicki harvested a basket of beautiful carrots that really wowed me! The sight of them compelled me to photograph them! When I buy carrots at the store, they just don't taste the way, the fullness, I remember carrots tasting like, and I'm looking forward to sampling Vicki's garden bounty. This morning as I was drinking my coffee she came in and plunked down four plums she had just picked from the tree - delicious!! Then she made maple syrup, brown sugar oatmeal. Yum. Can't remember the last time I had oatmeal for breakfast, but it's been too long. As I am typing this she brought in a couple leaves of lettuce that melted in my mouth! I'm feeling very spoiled by her hospitality and company.

Vicki has been wonderful fun to poke around with, and I'll try to get some pictures of our doings the past week posted here later today. My firewire for the camera got left behind at Dave's, so I'll have to make a disc of pics I've taken so I can post them here. Yesterday we went to Auburn, NY, to get Duppy an "Emergency" tag with Uncle Dave's phone number at Petco, as well as some Frontline Plus. We had a list of things to get and do, and ended up circling about four laps around Walmart until we finished the list because we didn't know where anything was located. I still don't have a boom box... can't find the one that's just right, but it doesn't matter right now. I did get Vicki her very first flashdrive!! I can't imagine life without a storage device!! Welcome to the twenty-first century! Dave and Donny have tried to help me become more computer saavy, but I'm still a computer dork.

A couple notes about Vicki's place - she has six parakeets, and I've really enjoyed their chatting and clucking. She opens the cage door, and they all fly around a while before parking themselves back in the large cage. When I lived in Germany I bought a parakeet for my wife because I was in the field so often, but I was the one that fell in love with him. His name was "Bussy," which means "little kiss" in German. He slept in his cage, but otherwise thought he was human. Vicki's little Bichon Friese is just adorable - even Duppy thinks so and, believe it or not, they share a small common space where their food is!! Duppy is usually kind of snarly about food, but not here. Vicki's hairdressing shop is next door to the house - imagine walking next door to work! We've had several discussions about feeling disenfranchised with work, and she's entertaining thoughts about pulling the plug. In the past few days I've watched her open tax bills that came in the mail, which made my heart sink for her. It's like the local, state and federal governments are trying to make her go bust. On top of that she has TWO sets of bills - one for the house and one for the shop! Ouch! Village, state and federal taxes times two. Mind-boggling for me to contemplate.

Another thing about Vicki is that she is an herbologist, and has been sharing her vast knowledge with me! She made me a tincture of ivy, herbal tea, and a cucumber/tomato herbal salad - all grown from her garden. On the covered back porch she has collections of various products from which she gathers seeds - a very impressive collection of herbs and vegetables in various states of readying preparation. Kale, scallion, collard greens, parsley are the jars that are labled, but there are several others that have stuff in them I don't even recognize. It's all very cool. In the end I guess it all goes back to "keeping it simple." Easy concept to grasp, but sometimes hard to do.

Tomorrow is Labor Day - the unofficial end of summer for everyone but me. I'm holding onto the idea of Endless Summer - following summer south. I was going to head west, but changed my mind as the idea of my trip evolved in discussions with Dave. After Christmas I'll wind my way out of Florida and head west gradually as I have stops to make on the way. Firedance and Doc, are ya paying attention? I may be down your way in October. Stay tuned!

The one thing on the list from yesterday we didn't get to was "Fishing at Mill Pond." We'll have to fix that today.