Catskills

I have been so crap at writing recently. Blame work. My whole life for the past 2 weeks has been the office until ungodly hours. It's all because of an event we have in Aspen next week. You may have read my post here which was a site visit leading up to next week. Anyway, I just have to get through this week and then the anesthetist and I have a week in the very tony Nantucket! The fact that he is Jewish and a Democrat may have us kicked off the island, but if I dress him in chinos up to his armpits and a couple of Ralph Lauren polo shirts, he may just pass muster. Not sure he will ever succumb to that though!

In the meantime, here is the post I was going to write 2 weeks ago after a heavenly weekend in the Catskills. It is owned by friends of the anesthetist in a country lane outside of Phoenicia, a good 3.5 hours out of Manhattan.  They bought a rundown house on a beautiful but ill kempt 25 acres, and have slowly done up the house and garden. It is sublime. Swimming in a spring fed lake, hiking through forest, barbies on the lawn and views of a beautiful barn that the clever owner completely revamped.

The men made dinner one night. Gotta love the preparation they put into it. The presentation looks like a still life!

Catskills

We went to the Catskills on the weekend. It was time for me to channel my inner hippie. I'm not very good at that any more. Too many Park Hyatts with work. But the anesthestist is an old hippie at heart; herbal toothpaste, organic veggies and early morning sun salutations. So it was off to the bucolic county of Delaware, 4 hours north of Manhattan. Think rolling green hills, lots of cows, local markets and red barns. All the hallmarks of a stunning east coast pastoral setting in summer.

There we stayed in a cottage that looks like it should have been pulled down a decade ago but holds cherished memories for the anasthetist of his boys growing up there during school holidays,

we cooked up a storm using veggies straight from the farm's organic fields,

bought fresh, young local lamb at the famous Round Hill Barn,

went swimming in the water hole up the back of the property,

sat and listened to the roar of the waterfall as it gushed into the water hole

and drove through the neighbouring countryside dreaming of milking cows, collecting eggs and selling our own organic produce one day.

Fall Colors

Last weekend I went to the Catskills to catch the tail end of the fall foilage. "Leaf peeping" they call it here.

We were probably there a week too late, but there were still some gorgeous colors. There is nothing more beautiful than a clear blue sky, crisp air, the smell of damp earth and the autumn hues.