Happy New Year from Bill and Dave’s
categories: Cocktail Hour / Getting Outside
6 comments
Rough skating in 2012?
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Happy New Year! Elysia and I were out till all hours dancing with twenty or thirty kids who are all suddenly huge and take up a lot more room on the dance floor than in years past. There were parents involved, too (Elysia says, Uh, Dad, there were parents going nuts on the dance floor!), and great costumes. We slept this morning till all hours, too! Juliet is in NYC to look after her dad and see the Dark Star New Year’s Eve show. 2012 sounds like the future to me, who wrote 1998 on a check a few weeks ago. After a breakfast of chocolate-chip pancakes, Elysia and I ventured out wrapped for cold weather, but found it mild. The stream was frozen last week, but a warm rain Wednesday washed straight off the frozen earth of mountain and valley—zero absorption–and broke the stream ice out, lovely plates and planes of ice to explore. It all refroze, last few days, but today a little overflow will leave clean pools to freeze, and we’re hoping for some ice skating before the next snow. Then again, we’re hoping for some serious snow. We should be skiing to the stream by now, and skiing on the stream, and just skiing in general! Some photos below, with a camera I dropped in a puddle, a little creaky and foggy, apologies, dead flash. Note the spot, fifth photo below, where the first Bad Advice Live was filmed last summer! Hard to imagine a gentle swim right now, but it will soon be that time again. And then this time, then that, then this, then that, unto always….
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That's a pumpkin, not Elysia's hat.
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Good skating by Tuesday?
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This is where Dave and I filmed the first live Bad Advice last summer!
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Lettuce in January? Unheard of, coldframe or no! And this is a stealth global climate change call-to-action post!
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Bill.
I loved seeing your pictures. You have not changed at all. Elysia is the MOST
GORGEOUS young lady ever and I bet she is smart as a whip.
Took all of my family ro the Yucatan for Christmas and the 9 of us had s superb time.
The ages ranged from 6 to 79.
Love to you, Juliet and Elysia.
Connie
Oh, she’s smarter than a whip! Last you saw her she was what, 9 months? Wonderful to find you here! Take me to the Yucatan next time! I heard the news of Tim from a little bird some time ago. Warm condolences.
We had a Polar Bear swim in Pine Lake yesterday at 1pm. Fifteen brave souls in bathing suits and costumes ran in and ran out of the lake to the delight and applause of about 30 on-lookers. The weather was a perfect mid-may-Maine down here, and the water almost refreshing,not shocking. Today, a different story, 30 degrees colder and a hard freeze over-night. But ice on the pond? Never! Happy New Year, everyone!!
Happy New year to you too. Frozen ponds are standard here, 25 miles south of Lake Erie, which is churning its Lake Effect snow, extending today way down here in farm country. The birds are just hanging around the feeder, entrenched. Six inches of white stuff later, it will warm again, so picturesque is the byword, not expecting the sweat of icy roads and impassable town streets. Think I’ll amble to the kitchen and poke around for chocolate chip pancakes, knowing full well there will only be toast.
pancakes for two: start with wet stuff–3/4 cup whole milk, 1 real egg, 1 teaspoon vanilla, 3 tablespoons good butter, melted. Whip that three minutes. Dry stuff: 3/4 cup flours, mostly white, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon baking powder (not soda!), 1 tablespoon sugar, mixed thoroughly. Add wet to dry, fold together gently, no whipping, till about half smooth. Let sit ten or fifteen minutes, or until kid comes downstairs. We like to put the chocolate chips on just after the batter is poured on the (hot, butter-wiped) griddle. Plug ’em in, then cover each with a little batter. Flip the pancakes. Flip ’em a few more times. Serve with maple syrup, of course. And blueberries, which, no fair, we’ve got frozen–I heat them to just thawed and a little warm and make a mound on top of pancakes. Sliced bananas, too, what the heck. And walnuts. It was New Year’s day. This morning back to one soft-boiled egg…
Frozen ponds should be standard here, too, this time of year! We’re three degrees north of you, believe it or not! Each degree of latitude 69 miles, give or take.