Ahhhhhhhhhh

Goodbye, lake. You've had this effect on all of us.

Dispatch from up north

Bay View cottage, Adirondacks

(4 stings of three people in the first 15 minutes here. Ouch. We stay away from that side now.)

Conference call with a view

We're having a deliciously relaxing time in the woods of New York.

Rainy today, so we spent the day playing a 6-hour marathon of Monopoly.

If I ever run away from home, you might try looking here for me.

I'm loving this simple life of early bed times,

leisurely mornings,

and simple meals in a three-room cottage.

Why do I make life so complicated?

(I found a bar of internet coverage for a little window of time...we'll see if it loads!)

Last(ish) hurrah

We are leaving for a quiet week at a rustic cabin on one of the Adirondack lakes in upstate NY. After a frenzied week of tackling the tasks list, I'm looking forward to sitting on the dock, reading through a pile of magazines and catalogs and books, paddling in the canoe, maybe making some recipes for the family from farmstand offerings, and taking some photos. And writing. Oh, writing, I'm missing you. Hopefully I can revive my writing brain soon.

In the meantime, here are some things I've been enjoying reading + seeing + thinking about:

• Stephanie's entries about her summer in France and the ups and downs of fixing up the rental property she and her husband own there
• the Jolly Porter goes to England + Scotland (again)
• thoughts on turning envy into inspiration
• a terrific love story from a back issue of Gourmet (1978) about an evening at the Waldorf
• we all liked the movie Bandslam; pretty good for a teen musical. Surprisingly so, since the ads make it look like High School Musical 5. It is reminiscent of the John Cusack movies of the 80s, I thought.
• Just got Pat Conroy's new novel, South of Broad, just in time to take with me to the cabin. Can't wait.
• Also taking up a bit of my brain bandwidth: trying to make some decisions. Dear Mr. Frost, What happens when five roads diverge in a yellow wood? What then? Huh? I stink at decision making.

One Morning in Maine

We made it here in one piece. The forecasted rain has held off. Today reminded me of One Morning in Maine, where Sal (of Blueberries for... fame) spends a day traipsing after her father on the coast of Maine (spoiler alert: she loses a tooth). Have you read it? It's a favorite.

So far Maine is fulfilling my high hopes (which, honestly is not easy, when your {sometimes unrealistic} expectations come from glowing movies and enchanting children's books.)

A little slice of heaven, that's what they have right here in Maine.

(Not paid for by the Maine Travel Bureau, in case you're wondering.)

Marco...

POLO!

We were alerted by a friend about the polo matches in Newport. Who knew?! We've lived here...what?...a total of 11 years and had no idea. The US team plays a different country's team every Saturday, June-September. People line the field with picnic blankets and tables and make a whole event of it.

So of course we had to satisfy our curiosity and make the pilgrimage ourselves. It was great fun. The announcer was hilarious, the field & horses beautiful, the people-watching like a JCrew catalog come to life.

First the horses hold a huddle to work out strategy. Just kidding. I don't know what the horses discussed but they were taking everything very seriously. Lighten up, ponies!

The requisite we-did-too-take-you-places-when-you-were-growing-up photo:

At half time (after the 3rd "chukka") everyone goes out on the field and replaces the divots on the field. We pretended we totally knew what we were doing. Except when we accidentally replaced horse manure in a divot.

More divot dancing.

Then this cute young man spectator got out his bagpipe and played a few tunes. It was awesome. (See what I mean about the JCrew thing?)

Apparently people take their polo spectating very seriously. So seriously that they bring umbrella tables and chairs, full multi-course gourmet picnic fare, crystal glasses.

Don't mind us over here, eating our strawberries off of our paper plates and drinking Fresca from a can. We'll just buy ourselves some hotdogs from the stand.

Afterwards, everyone lines the perimeter with their hands extended and the players ride around the whole circle giving high 5s to all. It was awesome except when I was trying to lift Sam up so he could receive a high five and I almost fell onto the field under the galloping horses. Good times. We've decided that now we need to have a pollo match. As in chickens. (We thought it was funny but maybe you had to be there.)

We ended our night over on the Cliff Walk in Newport. One of my happy places with people I love. August has started just fine.