WINE & HERB FEST

What a glorious weekend we had up in Ithaca and the Cayuga Wine Trail's Wine & Herb Fest!

My favorite barn is tilting just a little more than our last visit.

PJ and I at King Ferry.

We took a drive to Seneca Lake... always pretty
At one of the wineries, they had those cardboard cutouts of people. PJ thought he was being so funny. Get that smirk off of your face PJ and watch those hands!
Matt from Knapp Winery. He has stories about anything and everything but always manages to captivate an audience.
Cayuga Lake
The house we almost bought years ago is up for sale again. Now that they fixed it up, the price from when we saw it more than doubled! Oh well!
On the morning on Mother's Day, we took a walk DOWN Buttermilk Falls. It's too hard going UP the path being that we're getting old so we parked at the top and went 1/2 way down. There's tons of waterfalls on the way down...





This one is what we call our 'Secret Spot'. We used to hang out with our kids at this part. There's a smooth rock under the falls that you can sit on and slide into the 4' deep pool at the bottom of it. There was so much water this time that you couldn't see the rock!



The water and glaciers carved that out of the shale
The backyard of the Farmers Market. There's always music, picnicers etc. Fun place
Cayuga Ridge and Thirsty Owl Wineries
Six Mile Creeks vineyard beyond the deck that we always sit on and relax with a bottle of wine.

One of the woman from our town told me about a food truck on the Cornell campus that shows up at about 10:00 at night and has a HUGE following. The Hot Truck has been on the campus since the '60s! PJ remembers it! They actually invented the french bread pizza but never patented the idea. A Cornell Alumni that worked for Stouffers had them duplicate it and they got it patented. There's tons of Youtube videos from the students!

The Short Stop Deli owns the truck and it has the same menu as the Hot Truck. You don't have to wait until 10:00 to get your food so we decided to go there.

What can I say.... it was delicious and quite an experience!!!
On the way home we had a MAJOR problem with the car. The bolt that holds the brakes on, came off! We were so scared because it was so hard to stop. The grinding noise was enough to send you over the edge! All in all things worked out. We got to a Chevy dealer in Scranton and they fixed it. They didn't charge us and they wouldn't accept a tip. They were very nice people!!!

So we had a great trip except for our little/BIG glitch on the way home.

Gardening Gone Wild 'GENIUS LOCI' contest

February's theme for the Gardening Gone Wild Photo contest http://www.gardeninggonewild.com/?p=15788 is What is your 'GENIUS LOCI'?

I was a bit confused by that term but this, written by the judge, Andrea Jones, explains it better.

What is YOUR special place? Please try and capture it with your camera and show me…

It can be the view of your garden out of your bedroom window – or of your favorite garden visited while on vacation. Anywhere that you feel especially drawn to. Just try and capture the ‘spirit’ of the place. It does not have to be and early morning shot – it could be an urban garden heaving with visitors. But just one shot that you feel captures the‘GENIUS LOCI’ – the ‘special atmosphere of a place’.

Your favourite space may be an urban garden buzzing with people – then try and capture need that buzz. It might be a garden at night so thenphotograph it in the moonlight. If it’s a quiet peaceful private space then I want to hear the silence.

It’s your personal interpretation of one of your favourite oudoor spaces. Your special place photographed in such as way to show what you love most about it.

This was quite a tough theme. I thought of so many places that I just love, Jones beach, Mimm's Garden on the Cornell campus, Planting Fields Arboretum... but one place kept coming to my mind as my 'special place'. It is Sunset Park in Cayuga Heights. This park is owned by the Town of Cayuga Heights. It is a small overlook that was made in the middle of a neighborhood so that everyone can share in the beauty of the landscape that overlooks Cayuga Lake. It is most beautiful at sunset. PJ and I sit on the brick wall watching the sunset while we talk about our dreams for the future. It's a very calming place to just reflect on life. It will always be my 'Genius Loci'!

Holiday Shopping Spree

This past weekend, PJ and I went up to Ithaca for the Holiday Shopping Spree.... an event put on by the Cayuga Wine Trail. It starts on Friday and goes all the way to Sunday at 5:00. It's always a fun weekend. This time I won an extra ticket. We ended up sending it to Midge, a woman that lives in the round house behind our property up there. She was so excited and came along with us. Barry had to work.
This is our property...
Malva... she's now 95 years old and still the official 'GREETER" at King Ferry Winery. We love seeing Malva. She bowls twice a week and also has card night on Wednesdays. She has such a great outlook on life!
Cayuga Lake
This is a form of either Broccoli or Cauliflower (I forgot). They were at the Farmer's Market. STUNNING! You could make a beautiful centerpiece with them!

It flurried from the minute we got to Ithaca until we left!


We took a ride on Sunday morning to Seneca Lake. I love the view!
Grapes in their neat perfect rows
We took a side road back to Cayuga Lake. There was a lot more snow on this road for some reason than anywhere else!
Bails of Hay

PJ and Midge at Bellweather Hard Cider Winery. I always skip this one.

Spot where Midge's aunt has a summer home on Cayuga Lake
I love barns!
This is my favorite barn of all time. I take a picture of it on every trip to Ithaca so I have it in all seasons. One day it will completely fall over but I'll have my memories!
On the way home, PJ brought me to a wholesale Christmas Store in NJ. I wasn't impressed once I saw the prices of things. I'll stick to Michaels and AC Moore with my coupons!
We has such a nice relaxing weekend. The next event is in March... Mardi Gras!

We had such a fun, relaxing 4 day weekend camping in Ithaca. When we arrived, it was cloudy and drizzling a bit. We set up our tent and decided to head towards Seneca Lake. We always buy wine from Wagner Winery because their wine tastes good and it's the best deal within the 2 lakes! The sun broke through!

For dinner, we ate at Greek Peak Resort. It reminded us of the Wilderness Lodge in Disney.

Thank goodness we had a restaurant.com gift certificate. PJ ordered the Braised Venison Pot Pie ($18.95). They came back to say that the pastry for the top "wasn't working and would he mind a biscuit topping instead". He agreed but said that the pastry was what he wanted the most! Our food arrived. His looked like dog food and the biscuit was one biscuit on the side, not on top! He said it was pretty flavorless also.
I ordered the Portobello & Spinach stack with Goat Cheese and a Smoked Tomato and Red Pepper Coulis ($14.95). Well, it was pretty but also pretty small! It was about 2" tall and 2" wide! THAT was the dinner! It tasted ok but honestly, it should have been an appetizer not a dinner! If we were there and had to pay full price, I would have been really mad!

Now that the sun came out, we had to go to Sunset Park and check out the somewhat cloudy sunset over Cayuga Lake. It started to get really cold!It must have gone down to the upper 40's. We were FREEZING!
We decided to take a ride to see our property. It was really foggy!


I love how the weeds are different for every season. Now the golden flowers of the Golden Rod were all over! Pretty!

As we were taking pictures, a pickup truck stopped and the man asked if we were interested in the land. We said that we were the owners. We got to chatting. Him and his wife bought 2 lots on the other side of the hill that's at the top of ours. They are Barry and Midge. They invited us to come look at their house. It's nearing completion. It's a ROUNDHOUSE! I've never been in one before. I'm glad I got the chance. I'd never want one. It was really weird but interesting at the same time. The rooms are all small because of the curves. Standing on the deck was nice though. They have a beautiful view. Barry is a lawyer in PA yet they're from NJ.


They told us of their 2 neighbors, Kathleen on one side and a couple, the Duncan's, on the other side. He is also a lawyer and a photographer on the side. They have a driveway and a great big hole, the makings of a pond. With the fog, it was like looking at a landing site of a space ship!We really enjoyed chatting with them. We exchanged addresses and will keep in touch.
Later on we went to lunch at Viva Taqueria. We got our usuals... the Super Smothered Burritos, mine with Tomatillo Sauce and PJ's with Ranchero Sauce. YUM! We sat outside even though it was still pretty cold out.
For dinner, we grilled chicken, corn potatoes with onions and Portobello mushrooms. .. A meal fit for a King and Queen!
On Sunday we went to a festival at Six Mile Creek. We got a bottle of wine and sat and listened to a really bad duo that sang folk type music. This is the first time we were at the bottom of the big hill. We're always on the deck overlooking the vineyards and the wedding pavilion.
Back to Sunset Park!

It went down to 42 degrees! Holy cow that was a cold night! I think I shivered the whole night! When we got up there was frost on the field across from our site.We had a really fun time with lots of laughs. I have to remember PJ and his "what the heck is Huffice Cream? I've never heard of that". He was very confused until we got closer to the truck... it was Huff Ice Cream! Sounds stupid now but was very funny when it happened. It's just the Zukowski way like Ben Jamin, Rec Liner etc.