Wednesday, January 5, 2011

such a day

(photo by Mark Hardy)

I crammed all my city work into a single day (it's winter, I'm a gardener, it's not so hard) and hightailed it back out to PA. The rationalization is that I need dedicated writing time to work on the outline for my new book. Which I pretty much finished last night.

So this morning Mark and I went on a hike we'd been meaning to do for years: Stairway Lake, between Milford and the Delaware. The trail was almost immediately insanely gorgeous. And almost immediately I realized that while I'd brought my camera, I had left the battery in the battery charger at home. What an idiot!

Please forgive the pathetic cell phone pictures that follow.

shagbark hickory

streams to cross

I don't know yet, but I'll figure it out.

Watercress! Delicious watercress!

The prize: Stairway lake.


Young blueberry wood is red in winter.

Or maybe this was the prize: looking down to the Delaware. See it? No? You would if I'd had my camera battery.

rocks & lichen

Even the debris is somehow poetic.

It was a fantastic day. The hike was followed by Brunswick Stew a la Hardy, minimal outline tweaking, and wine making (beet and elderberry, separate batches). Sigh.

8 Comments:

At January 6, 2011 at 4:34 AM , Blogger Marie said...

Squirrel Stew????

You can't just toss that out and expect silence from this end...

 
At January 6, 2011 at 8:00 AM , Anonymous Rich Pomerantz said...

Nothing pathetic about these photos! Proving once again that it isn't the camera that makes photos good, it's the brain using it that matters!

 
At January 6, 2011 at 8:38 AM , Anonymous Zoe said...

Yeah, I'll second that last comment about the photos - they're lovely. Sounds like a fun day, and productive too! Can't wait to hear more about the book project, as details are made public :)

 
At January 6, 2011 at 8:49 AM , Blogger Ellen Zachos said...

Thanks Zoe & Rich. And Marie, while Brunswick stew was traditionally made with squirrel, it's become a staple of U.S. cafeteria cuisine everywhere and is nowadays usually made with dark meat chicken or pork. Not nearly as interesting. Leave it to you to know the real thing! That being said, I believe squirrel is in my future. I hear it's delicious.

 
At January 6, 2011 at 9:50 AM , Anonymous Mark said...

It was a terrific hike! Our Brunswick stew uses dark chicken and beef, but it could work with different meats of course. Sorry, it's a family recipe and I will will be killed if I divulge. It only works in a 50 gallon stewpot outdoors all day - not kidding. Superior cooks have tried reducing it and it doesn't work. Sure the stew was good, but the hike was marvelous and one I will take in different seasons. The company: equally marvelous, natch.

 
At January 6, 2011 at 2:36 PM , Anonymous Leda Meredith said...

Beautiful! And congrats on the new book outline!

 
At January 7, 2011 at 5:29 PM , Blogger Frank said...

Cheap cameras often give a dreamy look and this all looks like a dream.

PA having a low snow season?

 
At January 7, 2011 at 5:42 PM , Blogger Ellen Zachos said...

Hi Frank, it's been cold but not much snow. We got about 6-8 inches when NYC got hammered, and today we got another 3. Pretty. Drivable. Cold, though: 19. Well, maybe not by MN standards...

 

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